Solutions to Help you Use Your Macintosh Computers
Brett Nagatani, O.D. Bill Takeshita, O.D., F.A.A.O., F.C.O.V.D.
Macintosh computers are now very accessible for children and adults with low vision. Macintosh desktop and notebook computers that run on the Macintosh OSX operating system have many built-in features that help those with low vision perform tasks more easily without the need to purchase additional software.
Screen Magnification
The Mac computers have magnification features that allow partially sighted users to read print and access the Internet easily. Users can simply hold down the CTRL key (on the bottom left of the keyboard) and scroll the wheel of the mouse to alter the magnification. The clarity of the images on high magnification is quite sharp and the amount of magnification is more than sufficient for effective reading.
Contrast Enhancement
In addition to having quick access to change the magnification, Macintosh computers have easy access to change the brightness of the screen by simply pressing the function keys F1 to reduce the brightness and and F2 to increase the brightness of the screen.
Black Background with White Letters
Many people with low vision respond very well to a change in color of the background. Mac users can change the color of the background to a black background with white letters by holding down the APPLE Key, Option key, and the CTRL keys while pressing number 8. Although this sounds complicated, it is very easy to do by simply holding the three keys to the left of the space bar with the left hand and pressing number 8.
Screen Reading Software
The Macintosh computers also have a program called Voice Over, which functions as a screen reader to read the text aloud. We found it to be a very basic screen reader program that can be helpful to some people with low vision. However, the quality and power of the Voice Over program does not compared with screen reading programs for PC computers such as JAWS, Window Eyes, and Hal.
Recommended Tips
- Purchase a conventional PC Mouse used for personal computers. This is easier to use than the mouse provided by Apple Macintosh
- PC users may feel more comfortable attaching their conventional PC keyboard.
- For people with low vision who are looking for a computer to perform screen reading tasks, the PC computers using JAWS is recommended over the Macs.
Mac Shortcut Keys
- Hold CTRL and scroll the mouse wheel to change the magnification.
- F1 and F2 change the brightness.
- Hold Apple, Option, and CTRL while pressing 8 to change the color of the background. For PC keyboard, use ALT, Window, CTRL plus 98.
- Apple plus H hides the application window being used.
- Apple plus N opens menu to find new document.
- Apple Shift 4 takes a photo of the window.
- Fn Key Apple F5 turns on the Voice Over speech screen reader.
- CTRL Eject Enter turns off the computer.
- FINDER, APPLICATION, SYSTEM PREFERENCES and UNIVERSAL takes you to mouse settings to change the size of the pointer.
- CTRL APPLE EJECT restarts the computer
Other Software
- Coloristic-Magnifies area around the mouse pointer up to 16x $12.00
- Zoomlens-Magnifies up to 24x and displays the magnified image in a box near the border of the screen.
- InLARGE-Professional software magnification system $295.00
To download, go to Google and type the name of the program, download, e.g. InLarge, download
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 13:41:18 Back to top
