“I keep a diary for appointments then I have a Calendar for committee stuff with reminders and I set alarms that all synchronise.”
Aiden – Oceanography
Google Sync for Mobile YouTube video
“A problem of using a laptop in class can be the light given off by the laptop’s display. I found sitting at the back of the class stopped a lot of this unwanted attention, but this also had the disadvantage that you might not be able to see/hear what the lecturer was saying. Instead, I found a simple remedy which is free. 99% of laptops have the ability to dim the screen’s brightness, either by using the function keys (FN + F6 & F7 on some laptops) or from the graphics display properties available in control panel – under the display settings. Some laptops also offer dimming as part of the Power options in Windows.
Dim laptop screen
By dimming the screen you will reduce glare – reducing eyestrain, reduce unwanted attention and will also save your laptops batteries from being drained – advantages all round!”
Jim – Information Technology in Organisations
“I use Zoomtext a lot for reading and assignments when the screen reader is the most useful thing. I use the printer and scanner, although now I do not use the scanner so much as most of it is on line – I have large fonts and mouse pointer but usually read things with a screen reader as it saves my eyes.”
Amber – Nursing
YouTube Video link to ZoomText Tips and Tricks #10 – Using the SpeakIt Tool
You can personalise your mouse pointer in Zoomtext and there are several free downloads such as ‘Philip’s Large Coloured Cursors‘ that allow you use a colour and size of pointer that makes it easier to see and Dolphin Computer Access offer Windows High Visibility Mouse Pointers.
“I have discovered that the Kobo e-reader can open protected (DRM’d) epubs from libraries. They are synced by connecting the device to a PC with Adobe Digital Editions installed. But as far as I know it has no TTS.”
The Kobo wifi has adjustable fonts and views but these can depend on the book that has been downloaded.
Using the free Calibre ebook management service is another alternative when documents need to be converted to an accessible format
Neil – Psychology
“I would find that when I am reading poilicies which have so much text to read, I go to the summary and then use the find and just go to the specific bit. If you know you need a specific item such as ‘consent’ – then use Ctrl +F [Command +F], add the word to the search box and find it directly.”
Amber – nursing.
This week, I talked with Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, about the time he spends with random people studying how they search for stuff. One statistic blew my mind. 90 percent of people in their studies don’t know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page! I probably use that trick 20 times per day and yet the vast majority of people don’t use it at all. (Alexis Madrigal)
“…the library staff help and give me guidance – don’t sit in silence and suffer! Probably when you find something you just save it, then it takes so long to find it again. I made, on my memory stick, a reader library and I put all my texts in folders in alpahbetical order so I do not have to go through the whole search process again which is more eye strain. I just make up folders with certain headings and then you can go straight there – It is handy that each one has a date so that I can see ones from the previous year.” Microsoft File organization tips: 9 ideas for managing files and folders.
Amber – Nursing