“I use an Electronic Dictionary for foreign languages such as Russian. It is a Franklin handheld dictionary and it is easier to use than a paper based dictionary also less scary than my Latin dictionary!”
Becky – Medieval Renaissance Culture.
“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
Laptop keys with brightness settings available as function keys
“Because with my dyslexia, bright colours give me a headache. I dull it [the screen] down so that I can sit at a computer for a lot longer… I get headaches when I drive at night, as well. I like typing on blue but when I print it out it remains normal like black text on white. The dullness prevents me getting headaches and I can concentrate for longer.”
Andrew – nursing
“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)
“I like the double screens and I like ATS (Assistive Technology Service room) as it is quiet – the two screens help because you are able to look at two things at the same time rather than flick back and forth having to flip between things. I do not have a good short term memory so to look at things and compare is good otherwise I forget things. I cannot remember what I have just read, so I have the text up on one screen and then make notes on another.”
Sarah – Philosophy and Economics