“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.
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 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
“I use ClaroRead to read out my essays so they make sense I don’t use the Claro filter as I have glasses for colour – I have a blue filter. I don’t use my printer very much as it is too expensive – I tend to print double sided but prefer larger fonts.”
YouTube link to the ClaroRead for PC Overview Video
Sarah – Philosophy and Economics.
“If certain things aren’t designed in a way which is friendly towards my screen reader, if I struggle to navigate pages of notes or what have you, then I find I just give up. …It very rarely happens, but there have been times, like for the last year we had presentations we had to do for French. Otherwise we used to have to produce a sheet that went with the presentation, like a document, and I used to have to get that e-mailed to me. Now if there were tables in that, you had to set them out in a very standard way, you couldn’t have a non-standard table, one of those funny shaped things, you’d have to have just a plain table. If you’d pulled it off a website, well fine, but then edit it, because otherwise I can’t read it.” David – Politics and French
WebAim provide very good examples alongside their articel on Creating Accessible Tables
“Here is a table which was created for visual effect:
The visual user will read: “Basement Toilets Must Flush UP!”
The screen reader will hear (or feel via Braille): “Basement UP! Toilets Flush Must”