This chapter is dedicated to those who have vision problems, because the computer is not the exclusive use of those who are well, without any medical problem or handicap related to the eyes. I am referring in particular to those who do not have a correct perception of colors ( color blindness) or simply because they see little of us .
Unfortunately, many websites are illegible, use wrong contrasts on colors and are often written in small fonts and a lot of effort must be made to interpret them.
READ ALSO: Put a PC in safety to those who ask for help and assistance
To the rescue, comes a series of programs as simple as useful collected on a site called Assistive Software (no longer exists) which aims to offer several assisted navigation programs, to better look at the internet and improve the use of the PC in general.
Turning to the assistance programs to read better on the computer screen (even if the programs no longer exist, their functions are still present in Windows 10, which can be activated from the Settings> Accessibility menu), the most important are:
1) T-Bar, allows you to highlight a part of the internet page on the browser with a color.
In this motion it is possible to color a portion of the screen differently so as to create the right contrast for an understandable and effortless reading.
Among the options you can choose the level of transparency and the color.
2) Kwik Loupe is similar to the Windows Magnifier function and allows you to enlarge parts of the screen as if you had a magnifying glass.
3) RapidSet allows you to change the background and font colors quickly, without having to go to the desktop settings.
4) Mouseketeer puts a window to press the mouse keys, without using the mouse.
5) Vu-Bar is used to follow the lines written on a blog or website, one after the other, without missing phrases (I think it is useful for dyslexia)
6) Sonar is used to easily locate the cursor arrow for those who have problems finding it and, unlike the same Windows function, the arrow remains always highlighted.
In addition there are also several larger and brightly colored sliders.
7) Washer is perhaps the most important program because it transforms web pages into black and white by eliminating those annoying contrasts that are sometimes seen.
A similar application is Readability, which is a bookmarklet that transforms an internet page into a black and white written sheet, without any image or graphics.
8) SpeakEasy is a small text to speech that allows the computer to read the text that is copied to the clipboard (when copying).
9) DarkScreen darkens portions of the screen so that the other side is highlighted.
10) KeyState brings up a message in the center of the screen if Caps Lock or Num Lock is active.
Using a computer connected to the Internet and taking advantage of all the functions and resources that it makes available for free may not be easy for those who have not worked in the past with modern computers and the modern communication network offered by the web. These people, perhaps retired, who try to get closer to the internet, most likely see the computer as a monster rather than a tool to have fun and communicate.
A non-profit association called Eldy meets the needs of older people or in any case with difficulties in understanding and using internet services and provides free software called " Eldy - The Easy PC ".
Eldy for Windows Mac and Linux can be downloaded from Eldy.org .
A valuable software for a pure voluntary and free project.
Eldy presents itself as a community of people who want to discover the opportunities of technology and communication on the internet in a simplified way.
Eldy therefore becomes a social network where one can share one's thoughts, interests and share photographs on the network.
The graphical interface provides the user with an e-mail that is configured with a powerful automatic system, a chat, online weather, a document viewer and a tool for editing photos and an internet browser.
Eldy's television offers the Rai 1 Rai 2 and Rai 3 channels thanks to the integration with Yalp.
Very useful and important is the presence of an emergency button that activates the intervention of the volunteers in case the older user should have an illness.
Finally, Eldy is integrated with Skype to make video calls over the Internet and to make calls to landlines or cell phones.
