Amy Salmon , Hadley School for the Blind Korey Singleton, GMU Assistive Technology Initiative

A Tale of Two Operating Systems: A demonstration of the accessibility tools within Windows 7 and Snow Leopard (Mac OS X) that affect individuals with

vision impairments

Amy Salmon, Hadley School for the BlindKorey Singleton, GMU Assistive Technology Initiative

AER Virginia Conference March 3rd-5th, 2010

Presentation Agenda

Introductions – Amy & KoreyPurpose of today’s presentation

• What we hope you will gain?• What you will not get?

Windows 7 Accessibility ToolsMac OS X Accessibility Tools

Question & Answer

Windows 7 AccessibilityHas made some significant accessibility

improvements:

Magnifier now includes a lens mode and full-screen mode. On-Screen Keyboard can be resized to make it easier to see

and includes text prediction. Includes more ways to interact with PC by taking advantage of

new strides in speech recognition and touch technology.

Today, as it relates to Windows 7, we will focus specifically on Magnifier, Narrator, and other ways to make text on the screen larger or smaller.

‘Ease of Access’ Center• Provides a centralized location

in Control Panel where you can adjust accessibility settings and programs

Can be accessed in one of three ways:

• Going through Start Menu/Control Panel

• By pressing Windows Key + U• When first logging onto

Windows

Windows 7 Accessibility cont...

Designed for individuals with low vision

Improvements 3 different magnification modes

• Docked, Lens mode, Full-screen

Improved magnification quality, up to 16 times

Cursor tracking – by mouse, keyboard, or text-editing


Increasing font or icon sizes in Windows without changing optimal resolution

Access this feature by going to Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization link, and then choosing Display. This gives you the ability to permanently increase screen size to 125% or 150%.

Can also access the ‘Set custom text size (DPI)’ link in left navigation pane for a different setting. (Warning: This setting can affect how programs are displayed to user)


Zooming in or out of a document, presentation, or worksheet in MS Office 2007

Sliding bar in bottom right corner of status bar View tab, Zoom group – choose a preset Zoom setting or use custom (up to

400%) With mouse, hold down control key and use scroll wheel

Saving the Zoom setting in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel

In Word, open document or template, choose Zoom setting, add and delete a single space, and then save the document

In PowerPoint or Excel, open document or template, choose Zoom setting, and then save the document


Provides user with basic navigation (menus, dialog boxes, typing) in Windows OS

Improvements New “Narrator Key” , which is the

Insert key Improved text reading functionality


Zoom (screen magnification)Activated by:

• Keyboard shortcuts• Universal Access button on the

screen• Trackpad gesture• The scroll ball (or wheel) on a

mouse. • Note: Quartz rendering engine in

Mac OS X, makes it so that text, graphics, and motion video can be magnified without affecting system performance.

Mac OS X Accessibility

Other Notable features in Zoom: Full-screen magnifier Magnifies up to 40x. Three options for how the cursor tracking

• Moves continuously as you move the cursor• Moves only when the cursor reaches the edge of the screen• Moves so that the cursor remains in the middle of the screen — great

for those with a narrow field of vision.

Possible to set a minimum and maximum magnification value for instant zooming to a particular magnification and to prevent the magnification from going too high or low, leaving the system unreadable.

Image smoothingHigh contrast/Grayscale settings

Mac OS X Accessibility cont...

Adjusting Finder views Four ways to adjust views: icon, list, column, Cover Flow Cover Flow provides large previews of folder contents.

‘View Options’ within Finder view• Can change icon sizes, background settings, text sizes, etc.• This is independent of Universal Access settings

Dock Magnification The ‘Dock’ offers a convenient way to access commonly used applications, files,

and folders. As you drag items into the Dock, it automatically resizes to accommodate new items. Though the icons can be quite small if you add a great many items, Mac OS X lets you set the default size of Dock icons so they're easier to see and provides Dock Magnification, which automatically enlarges the icon you’re pointing to.


Advanced, full-featured screen reader for Mac OS X

Snow Leopard (Mac OS X v10.6) includes VoiceOver 3

In addition to screen-reading functionality built into over full-feature screen readers, VoiceOver added made improvements in VoiceOver 3 Gesture support** Braille display mirroring** Improved web support (table support, web shots,

reading of full webpages, etc) Improved verbosity (3 levels) – completely

customizable, added spoken hints


VoiceOver offers many help and support tools to get started accessing web pages, email, calendar, word processing, etc right out of the box.


Other nice features: Built-in support for over 40 Refreshable Braille Displays (Bluetooth and

USB)

Braille Panel – onscreen tool provides assistance for sighted users working alongside braille users.

Braille display mirroring - enables you to connect up to 32 USB braille displays (or one Bluetooth display and up to 31 USB braille displays) simultaneously to a single Mac. Great tool for teaching/learning.

Portable preferences – take your preferences with you on a USB drive

Gestures – Control your computer with VoiceOver using simple gestures like tap and flick on a multi-touch trackpad.

Customizable keyboard shortcuts through “Commanders” interface• TrackPad Commander• Keyboard Commander • NumPad Commander

Scripting capability using AppleScript and Automator Integration (similar to running macros)


Questions??

Questions

Accessibility in Microsoft Products - Windows 7Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts Apple Accessibility – Vision webpageMac OS X keyboard shortcutsVoiceOver In Depth

References/Sources

Documents

Amy Salmon , Hadley School for the Blind Korey Singleton, GMU Assistive Technology Initiative