Are you having difficulty viewing your computer screen at work?

Visual impairment doesn’t mean endless struggling to do small things on your computer, and which may also impact your independence.

Whilst a professional workplace assessment should not be dismissed, you may find you can make life easier for yourself without the use of assistive technology, even if you need some support to help you initially.

A Window on the world

In Windows, you may find it difficult to see items on your screen, preventing you using your device to its optimum effect. This can be alleviated by a simple adjustment of your PC settings, which can make both text and images on the screen appear larger. You can also improve the contrast between items and there is an option to hear on-screen text being read aloud.

There is an Ease of Access Centre on your computer where you can adjust many of the settings on the Make the Computer Easier to See page. This can be found by going straight to your Start button and Control Panel.

Contrasting colours

There are many options in the Ease of Access Centre such as Choosing a High Contrast theme for text and images and a turn on, or off, option.

Unnecessary fading effects can be turned off when you close down your device, together with any unimportant background images.

Speak up

You can turn on the Narrator to run whenever you open your device and log in, as well as the Audio Description which enables you to understand what is happening in videos.

Sizing up

By changing the size of text and icons, you can make them larger and much easier to read. The Magnifier is a handy tool which can be set to run whenever you log on. It will enlarge the part of the screen where you point your mouse, which is useful for viewing objects that are difficult to see.

Display and don’t pay

Window borders can be adjusted in both colour and transparency, together with customising how things appear on your desktop, and making dialogue boxes and programmes thicker and easier to see.

To get the best display on your monitor, it may mean a simple visit to Appearance and Personalisation, and then to Adjust Screen Resolution in your Control Panel.

I can’t see my email

If you find your default font size on your emails in Outlook is too small, the size can be increased to make your messages easier to read. For this, you can go to View in your menu bar and roll your mouse pointer over Zoom. Text size can be increased too from Medium to Larger or Largest to make the print appear bigger.

Changing the Office colour theme

If you find the colour scheme in Office is too bright or that you need more contrast, this can be changed by going to your Account Settings. Here you can click on File, go to Office Account and just choose a theme from the list, ranging from white to dark grey.

White will give you a clean, brighter look in the window title bar, the Navigation Panel, and the header for Outlook email messages. Light Grey will give you a medium contrast, and Dark Grey will provide a higher contrast.

Changing Office

If you have Office programmes on other devices with the same account, the theme you pick will also operate on those, too, but you can alter this to limit to the computer you are using.

All of these above solutions will act as interim fixes, however a vision workplace DSE assessment is key to ensure you receive the correct support and technology for you to continue doing your job.

For more information on our workplace adjustments assessments visit. https://visualisetrainingandconsultancy.com/consultancy/