7. Screen magnifier, zoom

Zoom tool (software)

Many software applications have the faciltiy to allow you to zoom in closer on the work being displayed on the screen.

Typically, you can choose to zoom in at different magnifications from 100% to around 500%.

This can be useful for people with poor eyesight. There are also specific commercial applications that are designed to help with visual impairment.

Tablet computers also allow you to magnify part of the screen with a certain gesture of the fingers (the specific gesture needed varies on the tablet computer brand).

Screen magnifier (hardware)

(c) Topaz Magnifier, courtesy of Sight and Sound technology

Another option that can be used to help people with visual impairment is a hardware screen magnifier. The one shown above can magnify the video feed from a standard display and can also magnify paper documents placed below the video camera input.

Sheet Music display

(c) Sheet music magnifier courtesy of SightRead Ltd

This device and software application can display music notation in a size that is useful for partially signted musicians. The background / foreground colours can be selected for maximum contrast.