Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!rochester!cornell!svax!moore
From: moore@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Doug Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Help for the nearly blind
Message-ID: <1960@svax.cs.cornell.edu>
Date: 28 Jan 88 18:12:44 GMT
Reply-To: moore@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Doug Moore)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
Lines: 24


I finally brought my parents into the computer age.  My dad has taken to it
fine, but my mom can't see well enough to use it.  I'm looking for suggestions
on how to make the Mac useful for her too.

I know of two software possibilities.  I have a copy of the "Magnify" DA by
Scott Gillespie of Reed College, which provides a fixed size, movable window
which displays a 3x (I think) magnification of a circular area.  You click in
the window, the cursor becomes a circle, and as you drag the circle around, the part of the screen covered by the circle is magnified.  Its shortcomings are its
awkward shape and inflexibility, but it's the best I have right now.

I also have a copy of the "Stepping out" demo.  I don't know if the complete
version has the flexibility I want or not.  The demo only allows the screen to
be divided into left and right halves, with 4x magnification on the right half.
At the very least, an option to allow division into top and bottom halves
instead would make text editing easier, I think.

Has anyone come up with a good solution for this problem?  I like a DA solution,
because the ability to move quickly from blind user's mode to normal mode is
important.  If you have suggestions, please mail them to me.  If I get any
interesting responses, I will summarize to the net in a couple of weeks.

Doug Moore
moore@svax.cs.cornell.edu