Adjusting Your PC Set-Up To Cope With Sudden Sight Loss

Barence writes "PC Pro's Davey Winder has written a first-hand account of how he overhauled his PC workstation to cope with a sudden deterioration of his eyesight. Winder contracted wet macular degeneration, a progressive disease that strikes very quickly, and turns items in the field of vision into a grey smudge. He explains how he continued his work as a journalist by changing his word processor, swapping his desktop monitor for a touchscreen, and by replacing his keyboard with an Accuratus Monster keyboard (or Big Freaky Yellow Keyboard, as he's renamed it). He also explains why he had to swap his favourite Chrome browser for Internet Explorer, and how a £3.99 iPhone app saved him from spending hundreds of pounds on a dedicated hardware reader."

Re:My biggest surprise

[Hatta]

Except for separating content from presentation [wikipedia.org]. That would be particularly important for this guy, as he could make things as big and ugly as he needs to for his poor eyesight, and still produce an attractive final document.

Re:My biggest surprise

[CastrTroy]

I'm not sure what kind of journalist he is (has his own blog, writes for some major paper, etc.) but I would think for the most part, using MS word wouldn't be the best choice for a journalist anyway. The article is most likely going to be edited and reformatted anyway when printed, so there's no point in do any formatting at all, especially not by the journalist.

High Contrast Modes

[Anonymous Coward]

I had an a macro-aneurysm in my left eye which left a smudge caused by congealed blood which the ophalmologist told me might be permanent.

I tried various high-contrast settings in Windows (for work) and Ubuntu at home. I was astonished at how bad most of these modes really are when you need them. There always seems to be an application which insists on having dark text even when the system window colour is dark. Visual Studio is pretty poor in HC, quite a few of the dialogues were unreadable no matter what setting I tweaked. You don't appreciate usability until you really need it, and at some point most of us will.

Re:My biggest surprise

[Luckyo]

By far the best and borderline mandatory. In addition to features, the most important thing to a freelancer is compatibility. If openoffice et al botches formatting a bit and the editor you're sending your article for review finds an unreadable mess, you can stand to lose several times worth of office's price in lost income.

Which is simply not worth the risk.