[Athen] free screen magnification

[Dan Comden]

Chris, I'll respectfully disagree.

In my opinion the magnification in Windows is bare minimum for many low
vision users. For those who need more than about 2x magnification, the
features in third party apps such as ZoomText and MAGic are indispensable.
Custom pointers and cursors and the ability to freeze areas of the screen
are just a few of the features unavailable Windows Magnifier in bundled
magnification that allow someone with low vision to be more efficient and
productive. And the TTS tools are very superior to NVDA for sighted
reading. Yes, there's a nice highlighting add-on for NVDA (
http://addons.nvda-project.org/addons/focusHighlight.en.html) but Win
Magnifier does not track the NVDA reading cursor with keyboard operation.

For Mac magnification, I do agree with you. For now, the MacOS
magnification is pretty good until we get some quality external apps that
contain functionality comparable to the third-party options available for
Windows.

-*- Dan

On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 8:16 AM, Chris Johnson <express_able at yahoo.com>
wrote:


> Both operating systems offer competent full-screen magnification.

> For Windows, activate with Windows key and plus or minus keys.  Be sure to

> use full-screen magnification in the options.  Adjust the ClearType feature

> as well.

> On Macs, zoom has to be turned on in Accessibility but works great too.

> A former reseller for some of the expensive stuff, I rarely recommend it

> anymore, unless their vision demands a certain clarity not possible on

> Windows.  However low vision is not a black or white diagnosis, and trying

> a variety of options is the best bet.

>

> Need speech? add NVDA free.

>

> Chris Johnson

>

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