windows 7 visual aids??

Hi everyone,

Well I had an accident of sorts and well to spell it out I had some chemical/s exposure to my eyes. bright lights and reading is very hard, luckily I know where all the keys are so I can type pretty well without looking.

I don't know whats going to happen to my eyes but if they don't get worse and at least stay the same I need to find a way to keep using my laptop. the following is a list of problems that I need to solve. I am a Tech and graphic artist so using a computer is my living and my only skills. Just never had to set up a PC for visually impaired person.

1. screen is to bright, even at the laptops lowest setting. I have tried a few dark themes and love the one from Mr. Grim (hope I said his name right) but ran into some color issues with firefox and some websites using that theme even though it would be good to use. So I need to find a dark theme or a way to change settings to make things darker but easy to read at the same time. I use a dark theme on this site and the colors are OK minus the white areas like this message box the smily area hurts my eyes.



2. I use windows live mail and would like to change the colors so nothing is white but I have not figured it out and can't look at the screen to long to find out how. If someone could find the settings and post how to get at them so my wife can help me change the colors that would be great.

3. Anything else that might help me.

I have to enlarge/zoom this forum about 5 times normal (no side scrolling) to be able to read it and see buttons etc. Well its 5am and I can't sleep cause me eyes are burning and no not from using the laptop, I don't want to wake the wife for my eye drops. Anyway any suggestions etc would be really great and the easier its explained the better as my wife might be the one helping me make the changes so I can use the laptop like I did before. Thanks in advance for any help, hints etc that people can give and pray I don't need them for long. Oh and I have tried google and other searches but most sites have bright backgrounds which makes it hard to read.

No suggestions but I just wanted to say I hope your eyes improve and I'm very sorry to hear of your situation

Try out the Windows Ease of Access Center under All Programs>Accessories>Ease of Access. There are a number of great tools there that can help you.

I would definitely suggest Magnifier, Narrator and Speech Recognition.

The first choice under Ease of Access, "Use Computer without a display", is a great Wizard for visually challenged individuals to set up their computers so that it will read out and describe actions and events.

All the best with your eyes. I am sure you will recover quickly, and then you can give us all a description of your hands-on experience with Windows 7's Ease of Access tools.

My best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery.

NPP

I have never heard of any tweaks for Windows Live Mail other than the simple change of colors, but that doesn't affect the white background of the messages and the list to the left...

As for Firefox, you can always use the NASA Night Launch theme, very dark and works pretty well...

Hope you get well soon.

will look into ease of access, not sure I want my computer reading my mail etc though

night launch is great on my eyes and the buttons are still large enough to see thanks.

outside of dark themes or using one of the built in high contrast themes you could consider getting a filter for your monitor. either an anti glare one or a tinted one that would be as if you were looking at the monitor through sunglasses. you can find them at most sites computer hardware sites i believe tigerdirect and probably newegg both carry them. on a side note hope everything gets better, i know what it's like to have an injury that effects not just your work but everyday life.

Thanks everyone for your concern. its been 48 hours and the pain from light is pretty bad so I will be going back to an ER soon. finding an eye doc that can help me my wife found out is a major pain in itself, most can't see my until next week when they return to this area. Good new my eye drops came in today!

The screen filter thing sounds like a great idea. Currently using Mr. Grims dark theme I found in these forums. it makes my e-mail page dark but some text doesn't change color but thats a minor issue once i figure out how to overide that.

I have thought about contacting a lawyer but not sure, I have already lost 2 paying jobs to fix computers and I can't afford to lose any more. my biggest question is what was in the cleaning spray (contact the place it happened at might not be so easy as the personnel had issues with me being a smoker)

Well I had a little vision loss, granted I was able to see at 20/10 in both eyes now I am down to 20/15 which most people would say don't complain but its noticeable. Other then that I don't have any other issues but I still use all the dark themes etc. Thanks for the support guys an gals.

Good to hear your eyes have improved. I hope they continue to get better xx