Users who have difficulty seeing
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Users who have difficulty seeing constitute a very wide spectrum of people with age-related sight deterioration through to specific eye conditions. The type of technologies that support these users are equally varied, ranging from simple tweaks to existing software settings (for example, changing background colours, font size or line spacing) through to more specific software applications, such as screen magnifiers, text to speech and screen readers.
As well as software, there are a number of hardware tools that can support users. These include magnifiers, optical character recognition scanners, optical identification and radio frequency identification chips, tactile displays and refreshable Braille.
JISC Techdis resources include:
- Guidance for users on simple ways of adapting existing software;
- Guidance for tutors on understanding and responding to educational implications of visual difficulties;
- Guidance for users on exemptions for copyright and the provision of alternative formats;
- Signposts to free and Open Source software tools;
- Policy implications of effective reasonable adjustments.
