John's guide to making Windows easier for Visually challenged

Windows is a terrific operating system with a lot of great software written for it. However it is a graphic based operating system, as such it can be difficult for people with visual impairments. There are a number of things that can be done to make Windows easier to use for people with visual challenges. The most obvious one is to buy a larger monitor. This can be VERY expensive and may not be necessary depending on the challenges the person faces.

The programs mentioned below can be found in any of the following shareware archives:
Shareware
Jumbo
Winsite

The remainder of the suggestions are best done in the order suggested. What I found when I went through this, was that I often had to go back undo an item and then make a change and then redo another. I will suggest what I think is the best order:

Setting up Windows for Multiple users

While the changes listed here will dramatically help the usability of Windows for the visually impaired, they can be a hindrance to other people. As such a program that would allow various desktop settings for each user will come in handy. If the system is a single user system then this is obviously not necessary. I suggest this is your first step, that way all your current settings are saved for you before you make the changes to the settings.

There is an excellent program for Windows 3.1 called Win Multiple Configuration. WMC is written by JRE Enterprises and they can be contacted on CompuServe via mail to ID 71162,2311 or contacted on America On-line via mail to ID LeeL641756. WMC can be registered on CompuServe (GO SWREG, title Win Multiple Configurations, registration id 662).

You'll need to tinker with this program, however it really is good.

In Windows 95 this is built in and can be activated by selecting Control panel, Passwords, User profiles, and then enabling Users can customize. When you first start Windows it will ask for a User id and then ask if you want to save the settings for this ID. There is one limitation that I have discovered with Win95 multiple user ids. Microsoft assumed that all users would use the same resolution. To get around this there is a package on the Microsoft site called Powertoys. This is a free download. Part of this package is a program called quickres. You can invoke Quickres in the startup folder using a command like C:\WIN95\QUICKRES.EXE 640x480x8. This will fix this limitation.

Change the Windows Resolution

This is the easiest change to make and can make a profound difference. You can change the resolution on Windows 3.1 by finding Windows Setup in the main folder. You can also simply run setup in either windows or DOS and select the resolution. I suggest you start with the smallest possible, likely 640x480 and then you can increase it later. I had the fonts disappear when I changed the resolution. These can be easily restore by going into main, control panel, fonts and then select all the fonts in the Windows System directory and then re-add them.

In Windows 95 this can be changed by selecting Control panel, Display and then Settings. See above for setting the default resolution for each user.

Changing the mouse pointer size

This one should have been one of the easiest, however it was the most difficult and hardest to find. The easiest way to do this in Windows 3.1 is using a program called CHNGCRSR. This program can edit the cursor and change the size. The author can be reached: Cornfield Computing 410 Hilltop Rd Champaign, Il 61821-7328 fax 217-352-2027

Windows 95 does easily allow you to change the pointer easily, however out of the box, a large set of cursors is not provided. You can use the cursor files provided in the above mentioned packages. To change the pointer select Control panel, Mouse, Pointers and then select the cursor files you want to enable. There are cursor libraries available at
Windows 95.

Changing the Windows Colors

Changing the colors used can help to make screens easier to use. To change these select main, control panel, colors. The app to change the colors is a little goofy, so you will have to play.

Changing the colors can make certain screens difficult to read especially as you are making mistakes on color selection, so I recommend you do this second last.

Windows 95 allows you to change the default font size and colors used. To change these select Control panel, Display, and Appearance tab. You can change the size of most message boxes and menues.

Changing the Windows default font

This is a setting in the \windows\system.ini file. The setting is fonts.fon=

The font I believe is of a special type. It is file type .fon. A program called sysfon will take care of this for you. The author can be reached at pkarrer@bernina.ethz.ch. This program will allow you to take any font, select a size, convert it to a .fon file and then update the system.ini file. It really is excellent.

Changing the fonts, especially the size can make the screen difficult to fit all of the menu on the screen so you will want to do this last.

This however will not change all windows. I'm afraid I can't tell you how to get the rest of them. I haven't figured that out yet.

Windows 95 allows changing through a set of fonts as mentioned in the item directly above.

Be sure to checkout CNIB.

Hope you found this helpful ...

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