Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Suggestions for low vision problems while working on a computer

<< < (3/5) > >>

TaoPhoenix:
Looking for suggestion for a new flat screen monitor for a friend with macular degeneration.  She needs the everything to be as big as it can be PLUS a black background with white lettering works the best for her.  She also would like to have a mouse pointer that is BIG and black in color. 

I am thinking that someone here has dealt with this problem before and could give me a few hints.  Maybe a bigger screen isn't better or an LED screen would be the answer.  Or would a better video card help?

I originally posted on the forum here with a similar question

thanks,
dave
-techidave (February 02, 2013, 03:21 PM)
--- End quote ---

Going back to the original problem, I'll toss in these ideas.
Let's say she needs things "BIG". Great. Big. So yes, you're gonna lose some ability to cram a lot of stuff per screen view if it's Big. So a bigger monitor sounds like a plus unless it feels overwhelming etc.

So then just "make it all big".
Before they moved it all in Win 7 etc, it used to be:
RightClickDesktop/Properties/Appearance/Advanced/
Then you get a list of desktop elements to Make Big. So you enter new values in the boxes. I didn't do an itemized list but most of your suggested items are in there and cute little utilities should do the rest. Fonts, Icons, the whole bit.

So I def. vote the "bigger screen" because if you are making things bigger, they chew up more space and as long as she doesn't get nervous at the size, she needs to get some of that 'over view' back. And in THAT department I'd recommend a private/____ class with someone who can just spend quality time going over that if she can't see, and needs stuff Bigger, then she'll have to scroll down MUCH MORE etc. That's the kind of thing no one thinks of in these discussions. I'm not all that sharp myself but I have 90 items on my computer desktop. I'm a visual thinker in some ways. If she really needs huge everything, she will just need to learn how to super-folderize everything.

Stoic Joker:
IIRC Macular Degeneration leaves one with an ever decreasing field of vision, so don't get too large a screen. I'd stop in the 21" range.

I thing Deo had a good idea with the TV angle as most of the LED TVs these days do have VGA ports and work well at low res.

Have you tried using a colored font (like Orange or a Medium blue) for the Email that shows up acceptably on both black and white backgrounds?

Could also give these folks a call (they're friends of mine) as they've been specializing in low vision equipment for the last 20 years.

techidave:
based upon your suggestions, here is what I am going to do.  I have a 19" tv/monitor LCD that we are going to try with an existing laptop that she has. (VGA).  I also have a 32" LCD flat panel that also has a VGA port in it.

Then we shall see how she does with each of them for a few days.  That will tell us which one she can see with.  I could also come up with a 19" LCD computer monitor just for comparison sakes.

techidave:
I tried out the 32" TV yesterday and it was wonderful.  I think that she will like it alot.  I plan on setting it up for her later on today.

Is it common for the tv to not fill the whole screen?  the laptop is 10.1" which is widescreen and so is the 32" tv.  I looked at settings on both but didn't find anything that helped fill the whole screen.

or maybe my perception is distorted?  :D

Ath:
Is it common for the tv to not fill the whole screen?
-techidave (February 11, 2013, 05:13 AM)
--- End quote ---
Have you set the external monitor (the tv) as secondary (extend desktop onto it) and to it's native resolution? most likely 1920x1080, or possibly 1367x768, as I don't expect the 10.1" laptop to use those resolutions, so it shows the laptop-resolution (1280x800?) mapped 1:1 on screen.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page