Magnification Software

For some students with low vision, using a larger monitor and adjusting the display using the built-in accessibility provides enough visual access to the computer screen. When that isn't enough, she may need magnification software. See our handout on Training tips for using Magnification programs.

Screen magnification programs (also referred to as screen enlargement utilities or large print programs) allow users to enlarge a portion of the screen. They turn the computer monitor into a viewport showing only a portion of an enlarged display. Users then use the mouse or keyboard to move this viewport to view different areas of the display.

Example of a viewport of a computer screen

This is page 1 from the Living Book entitled, "Arthur's Birthday." Notice the text at the top and the navigational icons (left and right yellow arrows) located in the corners at the bottom of the screen.
This is the viewable area available when using a magnification program set to 3X. By default, the viewport targets this area of the screen.

Specialized Features

Specialized features of some magnification programs include:

• Speech output
  The computer reads text displayed on the screen and echoes keyboard typing.
• Cursor & mouse pointer enhancements
  Alters the size , shape and/or color of the cursor or mouse pointer.
• Reverse display (white on black) on demand
  Changes the foreground and background colors for enhanced contrast.
• Hands-free scrolling of text in multiple directions
  Text moves from left to right and top to bottom to make reading entire documents easier.

Many magnification programs contain a special feature called "scrolling". Scrolling automatically moves the text from left to right and from top to bottom at a speed chosen by the student. This makes reading information displayed on the computer screen easier.

For programs that include an audio output feature, text may be highlighted as each word is spoken, similar to the talking word processors. The advantage is that the text from an encyclopedia, a web page or from another application program can be read directly from the source.

The student may also be able to choose where text is displayed as it is read. For example, in the ZoomText Xtra Level II program, students can select from the following display choices when reading:

ZoomText Xtra Level II DocReader control settings

Normal Mode displays the document in its original format. Scrolling occurs vertically and horizontally.

Prompter Mode wraps lines of text within the screen margins and scrolls vertically.

Ticker Mode displays text in a single continuous line that scrolls horizontally. The unmagnified image is displayed below the magnified line.

Examples

Each of the following products have demos available for download from the Internet:

Windows

Lunar (Dolphin Computer Access)
Large print only.

MAGic (Freedom Scientific)

SuperNova (Dolphin Computer Access)
With speech.

ZoomText (Ai Squared)
Includes both large print & speech output.

Mac

inLarge (ALVA Access Group)