Forum: Author Hangout

I hope you know if they're html stories you can simply set you browser to show at a very high percentage to blow everything up. Also, if you set you OS to use large font display it helps, as does setting your monitor to a slightly lower resolution than what's the best for the screen size.

Reducing the color display to b/w will also help, as it's often difficult to discern color variations. You should also consult (wordytom) your social service agency (or whatever they're called in your area), as they often have tools and training to adapt on your new visual status. Everything from magnifiers and readers to computer software to read whatever is ON the screen. The software is expensive, but most government agencies will cover it if your vision is bad enough.

Heck, many of the blind I know are much more adapt with computers than the vast majority of sighted people. Unfortunately, most who go blind in their later years have a difficult time adjusting and simply never learn how to compensate for their lack of vision. :(

Reducing the color display to b/w will also help, as it's often difficult to discern color variations

Depending on what the actual cause of the eyesight lose is that may be the worst thing to do because it may result in contrast glare distortion. Black on a light blue or pale screen reduces the contrast glare. While I know a lot of what it's like living with a blind person (my mother was legally blind before I was born and totally blind before I left primary school) I learned a lot about working with the sighting impaired in the late 1980s due to my work with the state gov't health authority resulting in a lot of interaction with them then. One thing was we never printed notices for the sighting impaired on white paper, they were always black ink on pastel paper so they were easier for them to read.

Black on a pastel colour or light grey is usually easier to read for people with eyesight issues.

If it is possible can someone please tell wordytom how to change the background to text on his PC from white to an appropriate colour?

How you do that varies with the operating system, but it's essentially a personalisation of the display setting for the window colours or a personalisation setting for the program being used. You can set the system to show all programs with a particular set of colours and some software allows you to do that for their program. I've one set of colours for the system and another for Libre Office.

Dragon Speaking Naturally works fairly well for speech to text, I don't know if it does text to speech.

No, Dragon doesn't, but many browsers add-ons do. Apple has always been better at test-to-speech than PCs, but in his case, he'll probably need the more elaborate software which will read the multiple notices which pop up on a screen, often obscuring what's underneath.

Unfortunately, Dragon and other voice recognition programs are notoriously poor at homonyms and homophones, as well as converting figures. You often loose a significant amount of time proofing the conversions, assuming you can read it! Hopefully, editors can catch many of those.

Dragon and other voice recognition programs are notoriously poor at homonyms and homophones, as well as converting figures.

Much of the speech to text issues you mention can be dealt with in the software training stage. I once worked with a fellow who had to train an early copy of Dragon Dictate for his use in writing reports at work - he had an issue with his arm that meant he couldn't type for several months so we got him the software.

Text to speech normally doesn't have an issue with the homonyms etc, but you do have to worry about 'alt' text for images etc.

I'm going to start a new thread to ask people to mention text to speech and speech to text software because I know we have a few authors and many readers who use them.

I checked their web site. It does, for audio proof reading of your dictation, but it's not a screen reader.

No, screen readers do a lot more. That's mostly for editing, as many authors catch typos when they hear the text read aloud. You'll also find that many author sites, like Grammarly, have 'spoken word' features.

I've used voice recognition software in the past. I work in IT, and I broke my arm a few years back. Kind of hard to type efficiently with one hand.

That's almost the same reason I was using the same program. I had carpal tunnel surgery, first on one hand, then on the other less than a year later. Dragon worked okay, but I didn't have the patience to make all the corrections needed. For me, getting my thoughts to the screen via words didn't work nearly as well as it does through my fingers.

(I had taught myself to type using basically my right hand only on a manual, with just using my left hand to do the shift and spacebar when I was about 7. Had a heck of a time in high school retraining myself to touch type.)

That's almost the same reason I was using the same program. I had carpal tunnel surgery, first on one hand, then on the other less than a year later. Dragon worked okay, but I didn't have the patience to make all the corrections needed. For me, getting my thoughts to the screen via words didn't work nearly as well as it does through my fingers.

That was my main point, not that the software isn't useful, but that it takes significant time in retraining and managing. It was intended merely as a 'heads up' about what he might face, rather than a blatant 'do not use' notice.

That's almost the opposite reason. :)

I broke my right humorous just below the shoulder joint.

There's nothing funny about breaking your humorous...

Yeah, but neither one of us could utilize the keyboard properly due to injury / surgery, was my point. When your hand is wrapped up so that only your fingertips are visible, and your arm is mostly in a sling, it's also pretty hard to do things. Such as wiping your own butt after going to the bathroom. Learning how to do that with the left hand was ... messy.

Those are not actually very common in this country, not in standard houses, anyway.

I'm not really sure why they never caught on here. My second ex-wife made sure that when we built our house that our master bathroom had one. A spray type, not a fountain.

I have some experience working as an editor for an author who needed voice-activated software. There are things an editor can do which are very simple for them but will make your tasks much easier.

Excellent suggestions, Ross, and probably the best advice offered yet.

I agree that you should prepare for eventually losing what little eyesight you have remaining. If it never happens, then you lose nothing, but if it does, you won't be left fumbling in the dark and despairing (which often happens when people lose their eyesight at an advanced age—they often NEVER recover—depending on others to take care of them).

If you have access to social services for visual impairments, they'll likely also have access to local or national access groups, so you can converse online with others in similar straits, so you can get firsthand knowledge about which techniques work and which don't (and also, which Social Service personal are worth a damn, and which AREN'T)!