My 83-year-old mother is prevented from realistic use of the internet because she cannot read the print on almost every web page. Is there any way of reconfiguring Explorer or Windows? John Britton
There are several approaches, and you will need to experiment to find the best solution. Start by making her Windows text larger. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties, open the tab marked Settings, and click the Advanced button at the bottom. This will give you access to the DPI (dots per inch) setting, which is usually 96. You can select Large size (120DPI) or Custom setting. Alternatively, go to the tab marked Appearance, which lets you change only the font size. The options are Normal, Large and Extra Large.
Windows also has several accessibility features, which you can set using the Accessibility Wizard. (Look in the Accessories folder under the Start menu.) The tools include Magnifier, to enlarge parts of the screen, and Narrator, which converts text to speech. You can run these quickly by hitting Windows Key-U. Microsoft has a guide called Windows XP Accessibility Resources at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsxp/. Apple has a similar guide at http://www.apple.com/accessibility/.
You can also set your mother's browser to use a larger text size. In theory, this is simply a matter of going to View and choosing Text Size in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. However, IE has an error in its text size handling, and some sites fail to allow for this.
Both IE and Firefox have further settings if you go to the Tools menu and select Options or Internet Options. In IE, click the Accessibility button. In Firefox, click on General and go to Fonts & Colors. This lets you set a minimum font size, and choose your own fonts. Also, Firefox and Opera can easily zoom web pages to make them more readable, even if the web designer has fixed the font size. This is beyond IE, though you can install a Zoom Page Favelet that helps.
Microsoft has a page called Internet Explorer 6 Accessibility Resources at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/ie6/. However, on the whole, I think Firefox and Opera are now much more accessible.
Finally, there are lots of Windows screen readers and "talking browsers" that will read text aloud. These include Window-Eyes, Jaws, Thunder, and Natural Reader. Opera has this feature built in. Given the number of malware and "social engineering" attacks on IE users, a change of browser makes sense, so I recommend getting your mother to try Opera.
Backchat: David Goldstein adds: "Vision Australia, the UK equivalent is RNIB, has a publication called Computer Adjustments in Microsoft Windows to assist people who are vision impaired in accessing their computer. It's available from its website at http://visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=894."
Crossword compiler Keith Parker has found a UK source for Zoomcaps key labels: IC-Online Ltd (www.ic-online.co.uk). He says: "I phoned them on 01226 762513 and received their comprehensive catalogue in the next morning's post. It contained everything for the visually restricted: keyboard stickers, laptop stickers, keyboard gloves, large print keyboards, computer accessories and much else for me and for people with even greater problems than mine."
Jonathan White responds: "Unfortunately the ZoomCaps stickers are designed for the US keyboard layout, so there are issues with the position of the @ and # signs, together with the omission of the £ sign. Kid Glove (www.kidglove.co.uk) produces keyboard stickers in the UK keyboard layout in various contrasts at £10 a sheet. However, wherever possible, I would always recommend learning touch-typing skills over the 'hunt and peck' method."
