Technology Adaptations for Low Vision: Simple Guide
Hi, my name is Dinos. I often recommend workplace adaptions for visually impaired people through the Access to Work scheme. Below you’ll find some of the most common and effective tools I recommend for people who have some usable vision or are severely sight impaired. Please note, many of these are for desk-based jobs.
Hardware Adaptations
Monitor Arm
Provides the user with better posture and comfort by giving options for easily adjusting the screen’s height, depth, and angle to prevent neck/back strain and reduce glare/eye strain.
High-Visibility Keyboard
Easy key recognition features large print and high-contrast colours (e.g., black on yellow) to make keys easier to see, reducing eye strain during long computer use.
Digital Handheld Magnifier (Visual)
Portable spot reader that offers high-level zoom and colour modes for easier reading of documents and emails through a monitor or laptop screen. They are also useful for quick tasks like reading price tags, labels, or menus when out of the office.
Digital Magnifier (with Speech)
Reduces reading fatigue by adding text-to-speech (TTS) with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to the magnifier, allowing the user to listen to long documents instead of struggling to read them visually.
Meta Smart Glasses
Offers hands-free visual Artificial Intelligence (AI) by using voice commands and built-in AI to instantly read signs, labels, or describe surroundings in real-time, all without holding a phone.
Software Adaptations
Screen Magnification
Enables you to enlarge screen content to zoom in on the entire screen or a small “lens” area to make text and graphics much larger. Includes dynamic viewing that follows your mouse/cursor.
Screen Readers
Easily convert on-screen text to speech or Braille. These are especially beneficial for users with severe vision loss or blindness. These read all screen elements aloud in a synthesised voice and can output to a refreshable Braille display. Examples of screen readers include NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access), JAWS (Job Access With Speech), VoiceOver (for Apple devices).
Visual Enhancements
Allow you to customise appearance into High-Contrast Mode (black background, bright text) or Colour Inversion (white to black) to reduce glare and maximize contrast. It also includes adjusting the size/colour of the mouse cursor.
Meta Smart Glasses
Offers hands-free visual Artificial Intelligence (AI) by using voice commands and built-in AI to instantly read signs, labels, or describe surroundings in real-time, all without holding a phone.
Text & Display Adjustments
Change the text size. Text Scaling increases the size of all operating system text (menus, icons, titles) without magnifying the whole screen. There are also options for bold text and simplifying reading layouts, like Immersive Reader.
We hope you have found this resourceful useful! Please follow the links below to learn more about Access to Work, or to get in touch with our friendly Employment Services (based in Birmingham and Leeds).