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I had a community member call in the other night asking me about accessibility features inside of OS X. He specifically wondered about things that may help those of us who have impaired vision and need some extra help to maneuver around our computers with ease.

There are several options built in to OS X that can help you be able to see and manage your experience if you have problems with your eyesight. I know that as my eyes become even weaker over the years, I’m likely to use some of these features myself. I have the ability to zoom in quite a ways, which will come in handy once I can no longer see small objects and text.

You can choose how it zooms in specifically. You can smooth images as you zoom, and have the cursor stay at the center. There are a lot of small things that make the entire experience even better. You also have the ability to change the contrast. Instead of having black on white… you can use white on black. This helps some people who have troubles seeing different types of backgrounds. You can also revert to greyscale, which can help those who are color blind.

These same types of system preferences are available in the iPad, as well. This caller was from the UK, and was disappointed to learn that he couldn’t order one for himself at the time of this recording. However, he was happy to learn that they were coming in the near future.

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Visually Impaired Software is Built Into Mac OS X

This is C.S. McClendon’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:

We live in an ever changing world; a world that is becoming increasingly entangled in the web, and for the majority of the populous that is not such a bad development. In fact I would be willing to say that there is something good on the web for everyone so long as you know where and how to find it. For those people with certain visual disabilities however, the internet can be a very difficult place to navigate.

I have decided to put together this list of the top five things you as a web designer can do to make your site easier on those of your visitors who might otherwise have a difficult time. Please take the time to read this article and you might just find that with a few simple steps you can open your site up to whole new lanes of traffic.

1. Contrary to popular belief, size is important. Now I’m not talking about the amount of content you include in your site; rather text size and the like. For instance, with a few clicks of your mouse or extra key strokes you can make the text size of your website larger; therefore much more easily read by the elderly and otherwise visually impaired. I recommend that you don’t stop there with only the text elements of your site; with the right program and a little digital manipulation you can also enlarge such things as pictures and diagrams.
2. Roam the wide open spaces. Now I know this goes against convention, but you might want to give more than just a passing thought to double spacing your pages. You remember those – pages like your professors used to insist on for your research papers and such in high school and college? Take it from someone with more than a little experience in this particular area – a little space goes a long way toward making a crowded page a lot easier to read.

Think contrary in contrast. Remember art class in school where you got to play with the color wheel? See if you can find one still hiding in a drawer somewhere – if not you can use the one at http://www.northlite.net/ps/images/color_wheel.gif. Now that you have a working color wheel, take a close look at it. See how those colors closest together tend to blend into one another? Now, if we were talking about painting your house that might be a good thing – but when your trying to make your web page easier to read for those in need, you will want to steer yourself closer to the opposite ends of the wheel. Remember the old adage; good fences make good neighbors.

3. In the world of style, options are kings. Modern browsers such as Firefox or Internet Explorer use a nifty feature called style sheets. They also allow the enterprising designer to create multiple style sheets for a single page. These style sheets can be used to change the color scheme, the text size, and even the layout of the pages; giving the visitor the opportunity to choose the options that work best for them. The more options you as the designer provide, the more likely there is to be one that suits the visually challenged user.
4. KISS. Keep it simple… sir (after all there is no reason to be impolite). The bells and whistles of modern technology may indeed make for a more visually stimulating site, but this creates a problem for those with visual difficulties, effectively making your site difficult to navigate. Coding your site for copyright protection may keep the disreputable from stealing your content and making it their own, but it will also make it impossible for most screen readers and other text-to-speech programs to work in favor of your viewers, as a good many of such programs rely on the ability to copy and paste the text that needs to be read.

If you are feeling ambitious, there is certainly a lot you can do to code your site so it can be accessible to those who are visually impaired. You can create the ability for it to read itself to your viewer, provide vocal cues for every link, event, or menu. There are several software options such as MASH (Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper) that will help you do such things – but the things I mention here are some of the simplest and often quickest options that will make your site as easy as possible for the visually impaired viewer – who could stumble into or come looking for the content that you have to offer.

Yes, I wrote this article and offered this advice with those like myself in mind; but hopefully in doing so I will have helped more than a few of you – on both sides of the page.

Five Tips in Making a Visually Accessible Website

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We all know that NOT all jeans are made alike. They come in many styles, shapes and sizes… just like people do. Here is a simple guide to the four major styles of jeans, and who they look best on.

Skinny Jeans: Contrary to popular opinion, anyone can wear skinny jeans! Girls who are very thin or have a boyish figure can get away with wearing skinny jeans with just about everything. Women who are trying to conceal their hips can wear one of the many long, flowing tops that are being sold in stores lately. But if you have “larger” hips, you don’t necessarily have to conceal them, many men like a feminine, curvy hip. Wearing these jeans is really more about a woman’s confidence than her body type. An advantage of this style is that it makes your legs look super long, especially when worn with heels.

Trouser jeans: These jeans are extremely flattering on just about everyone. The pleat on the front of the pants helps your legs look longer, again, to maximize this effect they should be worn with heels. These jeans are also great for a casual work environment because they are a little dressier than your average jean. The pleat also slims your hips. They look really great with a fitted suit jacket, but can be worn with just about anything. They look best in a very dark color.

Wide leg jeans: These look best on women with very slender or boyish figures, but again, just about anyone can get away with them, as they are baggy they are also great for concealing any “problem” areas. However you will definitely want to wear these with a very fitted top, any thing too loose is going to look ridiculous and make a woman look bigger than she really is. Women should probably buy these one size bigger than they usually wear so that they sit lower on the hips and look more relaxed. This is a very casual style, probably won’t fit in to a work environment.

Flare leg jeans: These are great for women with larger hips as they balance them out. Actually flare legs are flattering for just about anyone though. Shorter girls should aim for a smaller flare or “boot cut” as a very large flare will make you look shorter. The boot cut provides a straighter line which is elongating. Large flares should be a little longer than your usual jeans, they look best when they drape over your shoe rather than ending at the shoe. They can be worn with almost anything.

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Onex Trey is one of my video subscribers – and he has a question that I figured you might be able to help answer, especially if you have more experience with it than I do:

My name is Onex. Fresh out of Uni and travelling, exploring my options and getting to know my family roots. I’m writing from China. After Uni in Australia, I now live in Beijing and have been living in China for about 3 months now. I have never been to Seattle, and the one and only time I have been in Vegas was when I was 5 on a family vacation (so I was told, I don’t remember that trip).

Anyhow, I’ve subscribed to your YouTube channel and when I can, I watch the Ustream channel and chat. Sometimes the time differnce means I miss out on the live streams and have to settle with watching the recorded podcasts.

I have been using PCs for a while and currently run a WinXp, but because my degree surrounds Multimedia advertising, I have been advised by my Uni friends to invest in a Mac. Hopefully I will be able to enter into the Mac arena over the new year. From what I have heard from the Apple dealers in China, for consumer use (in China) Macs aren’t too common… yet. Although iPhones and iPods are very popular with a lot of westerners coming from abroad to mass purchase.

The question I would like to ask you Chris, frequently on your video podcasts I notice that you have a “zoom-in” function that you use with the Vista machine, (if I’m not mistaken that’s the machine with the 2 thirty inch monitors). As I am currently living with my grandparents, sometimes the text on webpages or when they are reading ebooks or just the desktop needs to be a bit larger.

I know for websites Firefox has text size increase and ebooks you can zoom-in, and winxp has a built-in magnifying glass (although not at all convenient to manage). I have also explored ZoomText from www.aisquared.com, Enable Mart’s BigShot Magnifier and Lightning, but after the trial period you have to purchase a full version online, and buying stuff online in China … well to my knowledge it’s not that trusty yet.

So, I was wondering, that zoom function that you use on your Vistas machine, what software is that? I’ve seen you use it and it looks very convenient, is that only available on Vista? Would you be able to recommend some other screen magnification software (preferably freeware)?

So, what kind of screen reader options are out there?

Screen Reader Software for the Visually Impaired