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Guide for Individuals with Vision Impairments

Microsoft products include powerful accessibility features that make it easier to see your computer if you have low vision or colorblindness. Or, if you are blind, Windows 7 allows you to work effectively without a display—receiving information through sound or touch.

This guide describes accessibility features built into Windows 7 and Office 2010 that are available at your option to address vision impairments and preferences. You can also learn about the types of assistive technology products available to further assist you.

In this section:

Make Windows 7 easier to see
Make Microsoft Office programs easier to see
Make Office documents, presentations, and spreadsheets more accessible
See webpages more clearly with Internet Explorer
Find assistive technology for vision impairments

More Information

Make Windows 7 easier to see

Adjust accessibility settings from the Ease of Access Center

The Ease of Access Center is a convenient, central location where you can set up all of the accessibility settings and programs available in Windows, and "get recommendations" for suggested settings to fit your individual vision needs and preferences.

Make the computer easier to see

All of the Windows accessibility options most helpful for people with vision impairments are grouped in this section, and one designed for people who are blind and who, Use the computer without a display. You can learn how to choose a High Contrast theme, turn on Narrator and Magnifier, change the size of text and icons, set the thickness of the blinking cursor, turn off unnecessary animations, remove background images, and more.

Make items on screen appear bigger with Magnifier

Magnifier enlarges portions of the screen making it easier to view text and images and see the whole screen more easily. You have the choice of viewing with Magnifier using the full screen, or just a portion, and you can move Magnifier where you want it on your desktop—whatever fits your needs. You can magnify up to 16 times the original size and choose to track what you magnify by movement of your mouse, the keyboard, or text editing.

Use High Contrast to improve visibility

High Contrast is a popular feature used to heighten the color contrast of some text and images on your computer screen, making those items more distinct and easier to identify.

Choose screen resolution to enlarge items

Screen resolution refers to the clarity of the text and images displayed on your screen. In many cases, you can adjust screen resolution to improve visibility on your screen. At higher resolutions items appear sharper, but smaller so more items can fit on the screen. At lower resolutions fewer items fit on the screen, but they appear larger. The resolution you can use depends on the resolutions your monitor supports.

Hear text read aloud with Narrator

Windows comes with a basic screen reader called Narrator that reads aloud on-screen text and describes some events such as an error message appearing on screen. This feature is useful for people with vision impairments that need quick access to a borrowed computer, for example.

Adjust the size of text and icons

You can make the text and other items on your screen, such as icons, easier to see by making them larger—without changing the screen resolution of your monitor or laptop. This allows you to increase or decrease the size of text and other items on your screen while keeping your monitor or laptop set to its optimal resolution.

Use speech recognition to operate windows and programs

Speech Recognition in Windows 7 allows you to command your PC with your voice including the capability to dictate into almost any application. You can dictate documents and email and surf the Web—all by using verbal commands rather than the keyboard and mouse. An easy setup process and an interactive tutorial will familiarize you with the speech commands and train your computer to better understand you.

Screenshot of speech recognition microphone bar

Make Microsoft Office programs easier to see

A number of accessibility options in Microsoft Office products make it easier for people with vision impairments to interact with their computers while creating Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and more.

Use Full Screen Reading view

Screenshot of Reading view button Full Screen Reading view is optimized for reading a document on the computer screen. In Full Screen Reading view, you also have the option of seeing the document as it would appear on a printed page.

Use the Speak text-to-speech feature

Text-to-speech (TTS) is the ability of your computer to play back written text as spoken words. Depending upon your configuration and installed TTS engines, you can hear most text that appears on your screen in Word 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and OneNote 2010.

Hear text read aloud with Mini Translator

With the Microsoft Office 2010 Mini Translator, you can point to a word or selected phrase with your mouse and the translation displays in a small window. The Mini Translator also includes a Play button so you can hear an audio pronunciation of the word or phrase, and a Copy button so you can paste the translation into another document.

Make Office documents, presentations, and spreadsheets more accessible

A number of accessibility options in Microsoft Office products help you as the content author make your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations easier for people with vision impairments to interact with.

Accessibility Checker

Word 2010, Excel 2010, and PowerPoint 2010 include an Accessibility Checker that helps users create more accessible content. By identifying areas that might be challenging for users with disabilities to view or use, and providing a task pane to review those areas, users can fix potential problems with their content before finalizing.

Office Web Apps support assistive technology and speech recognition software

Office Web Apps provide support for assistive technologies such as screen readers and speech recognition software. Find more information on accessibility features and issues with Office Web Apps.

Internet Explorer accessibility features available in Web Apps

Because Office Web Apps run in the browser, you can use your web browser's features that improve the readability of pages. Find out about vision related accessibility features in Internet Explorer.

Move around webpages with the keyboard

If you have low vision it's sometimes difficult to see links on webpages, and if you're blind you'll use the keyboard rather than the mouse or display to work with your computer. You can move around webpages quickly using the keyboard in Web Apps.

Screen magnifiers work like a magnifying glass. They enlarge a portion of the screen as the user moves the focus—increasing legibility for some users. Some screen enlargers (software or hardware) allow a user to zoom in and out on a particular area of the screen. Learn about Magnifier in Windows 7, Windows Vista, and the built-in zoom and magnify features in Microsoft mouse and keyboard products.
Screen readers are software programs that present graphics and text as speech. A screen reader is used to verbalize, or "speak," everything on the screen including names and descriptions of control buttons, menus, text, and punctuation.
Braille printers (or embossers) transfer computer generated text into embossed Braille output. Braille translation programs convert text scanned in or generated via standard word processing programs into Braille, which can be printed into raised Braille.
Braille displays provide tactile output of information represented on the computer screen. The user reads the Braille letters with his or her fingers, and then, after a line is read, refreshes the display to read the next line.
Braille notetakers enable a person who is blind to capture notes and then transfer them to a PC. Braille notetakers take advantage of refreshable Braille technology. In some cases, Braille notetakers replace or supplement a standard keyboard.
Book readers. Some people use a PC configuration for book reading assistance, or a dedicated reading device. A person who is blind would need to have printed material scanned and read aloud through a text-to-speech software program on the PC. Books are available in digital formats through organizations such as Bookshare (www.benetech.org) and Learning Ally (formerly Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic) (www.learningally.org). The most common digital format is called DAISY. There is an add-in for Microsoft Word to convert documents to DAISY format.