What are other operating system features available to users with disabilities?

By visiting Universal Access in Mac OS X and Ease of Access Center In Windows 7, students can find many ways to increase their computing environment’s accessibility. These features include screen magnification, high-contrast settings, and lens-mode, a feature which magnifies the area of the screen around the mouse pointer.

StickyKeys allows shortcut keys to be pressed sequentially rather than all at once, which can be beneficial to students with cerebral palsy, or missing digits. Rather than registering a keystroke immediately, Slow Keys waits a moment to ensure the intended action, helping students who may have hand tremors, muscle weakness, or issues with fine or gross motor control. MouseKeys allows those students who cannot control a mouse to use the keyboard’s numeric keypad.

Assistance is also provided for students with hearing issues or visual impairments. Visual signals such as flashing banners replace alert sounds which users might not hear. Students with visual impairments can use voiced feedback which reads what is on the screen.

We will next take a look at input devices that can supplement the built-in features mentioned above.

Resources:

Dell, A. G., Newton, D. A., & Petroff, J. G. (2012). Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities (2nd ed., pp. 163-174). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.