Accessibility Features

on Your Computer

Kay Hall, Cocoa Beach, Florida

A while back, a fellow CWFIer suggested I write an article on accessibility issues, meaning how computers can facilitate use by people who are disabled. This was a great idea, and I immediately started a file on the topic. As sometimes happens, though, this topic gravitated to the back burner in favor of those taking less new research.

Those of you who followed my family’s story know what is coming next. Computer accessibility took on new urgency as my college age son underwent cancer treatment and has been temporarily left with some frustrating disabilities—such as loss of feeling in his fingers. My earlier research came in handy as we prepared to configure Caleb’s MacBook to improve ease of use for him. All this to say that if you don’t think this article applies to you, file it away, in case you need it later. You might also find, as I have, that some of these features may be of use to you now, even if you are not disabled.

“Universal access,” or “assistive technology,” features are designed to help those with impaired senses or limited dexterity. For example, what many of us think of as a “gee whiz” feature, like voice recognition, is invaluable to someone who is unable to control a computer through a traditional keyboard. The good news is that these capabilities are no longer limited to the domain of expensive dedicated hardware or add-on software. In fact, they are probably loaded onto the home computer you already have. I had prior exposure to accessibility “features” solely by accident. I inadvertently activated some of them from time to time on both Macs and PCs and, not knowing what I had done, thought my computer was malfunctioning.

If you have trouble seeing what’s on your screen, you can either adjust the image to make it easier to read, or have the computer read the screen aloud to you. To magnify the image, use Magnifier under Start > All Programs > Accessories > Accessibility on your PC or the Zoom feature on your Mac (control-scroll). You can also change the contrast of the image using the Display control panel on a PC or under the Apple > System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing preference tab on a Mac. Macs also give you an option for a white on black, or grayscale screen. Under the Mouse & Trackpad tab of a Mac’s Universal Access preferences you can also increase the size of your cursor to make it easier to find and follow.

To have your computer read to you (text-to-speech), choose Narrator under Accessories > Accessibility on a PC or enable VoiceOver in the Universal Access > Seeing preferences on a newer Mac. VoiceOver is an alternative OS X interface for the blind or low-sighted with a high level of customizability including more natural sounding voices. On either platform you can set your computer to read menu items and give you alerts audibly, or have the contents of a file read to you. Many writers who are not disabled find that hearing a document read aloud is a useful step in proofreading. On a PC, this is done with Narrator by clicking control-shift-spacebar. On the Mac, you set your own key command to read any text using the Universal Access > Speech pane under System Preferences. Then simply highlight some text and press the key combination you selected to toggle spoken reading of the selection on and off.

It’s no surprise that “power users” often tap keyboard shortcuts instead of reaching for the mouse. Almost anyone can get a productivity boost from navigating primarily by keyboard. This is especially useful on laptops. It allows users to bypass the dreaded trackpad. Shortcuts vary from application to application, so refer to your software’s documentation and begin by memorizing a few of the keyboard commands for features you use most often.
If you find yourself unable to use a mouse at all, you can turn on Mouse Keys on either platform to convert the designated numeric keypad keys into cursor positioners. On newer Macs, check the “Enable Full Keyboard Access” under the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse for maximum mouse-free access.

Like keyboard shortcuts in reverse, “virtual keyboards” like those built into PCs (called On-Screen Keyboard under Accessories) and Macs (called Keyboard Viewer under the flag menu), or Click-to-type
(free download from http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/) allow you to “type” text using only mouse clicks. This is helpful if you have limited use of your hands or maybe even when you have a broken key or two on your keyboard. 

Sticky Keys is useful for one handed, or one finger, typing as it lets you input the strokes of a key combination, such as for capital letters, one at a time. Alternately, Filter Keys (called Slow Keys on a Mac) help those with various dexterity issues by ignoring accidental or repeated keystrokes.

You can operate a Mac by voice commands by turning on Speakable Items in Speech preferences. To do this on a Vista-based PC, choose Windows Speech Recognition from the Accessibility > Accessories menu. When it comes to taking dictation, some speech-to-text capability is provided in Vista. Choose Windows Speech Recognition and follow the prompts. Training the system to accurately transcribe your dictation may take up to an hour, but I’m told it is well worth it. No such function is currently available on a Mac without third party software.

If hearing impairment is an issue for you, or if you are simply in a too noisy environment, both Macs and PCs can be set to give visual clues whenever a sound is played, such as for system warnings. Under the Sound control panel, select Sound Sentry in Windows, or System Alert under Universal Access > Hearing on a Mac. On Windows, ShowSounds, also under the Sound control panel can display closed captions for applications that have them built in.