Customise Windows for disabled users

Q My wife would like to use her computer for emailing friends. She is disabled, though, and finds it hard to use a computer with standard Windows settings.

Ideally we would like to increase the font size and change the display colours. As I have partial colour blindness as few colours as possible would be ideal. We have a laptop with Windows Vista.

Ronald J Hay

A Both Windows XP and Vista have lots of different ways to make the computer easier to use and have different colour font schemes ready to use.

It is possible to customise these to suit individuals. We have seen people set the background for windows and Office documents to yellow to help with dyslexia, for example.

Not all programs will use the Windows settings but Office should. In Windows Vista, click on the Start button, type 'ease' and press Enter when 'Ease of Use Center' is highlighted at the top of the Start Menu.

A verbal introduction to the Ease of Use Center will play. Click on ‘Make the computer easier to see’ and then on ‘Choose a high contrast color scheme’ at the top of the window that appears. The setting High Contrast White might match your requirements as it is just black and white.

Click on the Advanced button if you want to change any of the colours or increase the font size. You can either click on different window elements in the preview window to change their settings, or select them from the Item dropdown menu. Click on OK when you are happy with the changes.

Click on Apply in the Appearance Settings to make the change without closing the window. It may also be helpful to disable Aero Glass, the effect that makes Window title bars transparent. To do this, click on the Start button and start typing Personalization.

Press Enter when this option appears at the top of the Start menu. Click on Window Color and Appearance at the top of the Personalization window. If you have Vista Basic the Appearance Settings window will appear, otherwise click in the box labelled Enable transparency so that the tick disappears.

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