Windows Low Vision: Adjustments at Login

Have you ever wondered what kind of low vision options are already on my computer? How do I get to them from the login screen? Hi, my name is Vikki Vaughan and today we'll answer those questions. In this video, we talk about options that let us personalize the visual settings on our computer while we're logging in.

Windows computers have built-in options for users with disabilities, including many low vision settings. Called "Ease of Access," we can choose these options to suit our individual needs. Now, there are many ways we can open these low vision options after we booted up our computer, but some of us need personalized settings while we're logging in. Thankfully, Ease of Access provides the most commonly used options at the login screen. Let's start off by finding the Ease of Access icon on our login screen. Then we'll talk about which options are available to help us log in.

When we first turn on our computer, in the bottom right corner we find an image that resembles a dotted circle or clock. This is the Ease of Access icon. We select this icon to see a basic access menu which has several options to help users with various disabilities. Now that we've opened our Ease of Access menu, let's have a look at the options we find here.

Our first control is narrator, the screen reader that comes with Windows computers. Narrator reads aloud what's on our screen. It provides audio descriptions for elements like text and buttons. While we navigate through the Ease of Access window, narrator announces each option and provides a brief summary of its purpose.

The next option is the magnifier. This option lets us make the contents of our screen larger. We can vary both the size of the magnification and the viewing window to suit our personal preference.

The onscreen keyboard is an option designed for users who have difficulty using a physical keyboard. It's particularly useful with a touch screen, but it can also be used to type with a mouse or joystick.

Another low vision option is high contrast. This option lets us customize the contrast of our screen to enhance visibility. This feature helps those of us who find the screen too bright or difficult to see. When viewing the screen causes eye strain and visual fatigue, high contrast settings may help.

The two final options are designed for users with fine motor disabilities. Sticky keys is a feature for users who have holding down two or more keys at a time when a shortcut requires a key combination such as control plus P, sticky keys let's us press one key at a time instead of pressing them simultaneously.

Filter keys tells the keyboard to ignore brief or repeated keystrokes to make typing easier for users with hand tremors or other fine motor issues. To turn on an option, we simply either select it or click on the toggle control. Once we've chosen the appropriate options, we can independently log in using our new settings.

Let's say we need to zoom in and find the edit field where we type in our password. By clicking on the magnifier toggle switch, we can quickly enlarge the entire screen to find our edit field.

Today, we found the Windows Ease of Access icon on our login screen. We also talked about various settings that help us log in.

I'm Vikki Vaughan, and I thank you for joining me. This is one in a series of workshops called Customizing Windows for Low Vision.