Monitors for People with Poor Eyesight?

tuxbeej writes "Just recently I've been told that I may be developing keratoconus, a non-inflammatory eye condition in which the normally round dome-shaped cornea progressively thins causing a cone-like bulge to develop (thanks, NKCF!). As a result, my eyesight will get worse and it's getting harder to see on a 15" monitor. Being 22 years old and studying MIS, I've been hoping to keep my eyesight for a long, long time. Anyway, I was in the market for a new monitor and I was curious to know if anyone has done shopping for a monitor intended for someone with bad eyesight? Are there any recommended sizes, features, brands? It seems like a generic question, but I'm curious to know if certain technologies have any advantages over another or if there is a site out there that handles info like this." We had an older article about CRT's vs. LCD's.

Xmag

[beta21]

I thought this was what Xmag and magnifier was for.

Keep monitor farther away

[sunhou]

I find that my eyes are less fatigued if I can be farther away from the monitor. That's hard to do in most office situations, and in my small apartment. Ideally I'd like to have a table behind my main desk, to hold the monitor, about 4 feet away from me (and just use a slightly bigger font so I can still read everything).

One thing I did was to get a short-depth monitor. I have a Viewsonic PS790, it's a 19" monitor but the front-to-back size is about that of a 15" monitor, so I can push it farther back on the table. Unfortunately they're not making them any more. Anyone know of a similar monitor still being made? (Eventually I'll go with an LCD, which I'll be able to push way back.)

increasing the font

[oliphaunt]

I use excel and word at work (don't come after me with the anti-m$ stick, i just downloaded OpenOffice and I'm switching over) and when I've been staring at the screen all day, I end up viewing documents at 150%, then 200% as my eyes get increasingly tired. Sure, it's kind of a pain to judge the format of a page when you can only see 1/8th of it at a time, but it's much easier on the eyes.

This page [grc.com] provides a demo of a font designed to be easy to read on TFT screens. I haven't used it extensively, but the demo seems to be a pretty clear improvement over arial 12-point.

Look for hardware magnifiers

[Inode Jones]

I'm not sure what visual defects are associated with keratoconus, but if you need magnification, look into hardware devices that do this.

Back in 1990-91, I had a co-worker who had no central vision whatsoever. He had a special setup: a special card that magnified the image on his monitor. The output of a CGA card (remember this is 1990) went into the magnifier card, and the output of the magnifier card went to the monitor. The system included a document camera, which could display a magnified image of whatever document was placed under it, on the monitor.

He used two mice on the computer - one for the normal use of a mouse, and another mouse to control the magnification and panning of the hardware card. (Configuring the IRQs for the two mice, serial port, parallel printer, and two video cards was a bitch. Even more so to get Windows 3.0 to run in CGA!)

Today, of course, this system would need to be modernized - a minimum of 1024x768 is required for business, and any magnifier card would need to cope with the increased video bandwidth.

I can't remember what the system was called. Being over 10 years old, it's likely no longer in production in a usable form anyway. However, similar systems may exist. I would do a web search for speciality computer equipment for the visually impaired.

Re:old adage...

[thogard]

Bigger is better to a point.
I find that with a large color monitor (or LCD) and my glasses I get a very anoying spherical aberrations which cause the colors to appear as if they weren't converging on the edges of the screen. I used to deal with this problem with a very large Blit like terminal [bell-labs.com] (letter sized, black/green, high res, designed by Pike & crew). Now I have a 1024x768 15" LCD.

I've found the best thing to keep my eyes sharp is long drives in the country where I can focus a long way away or flying around in small planes.

High Contrast

[Firehawke]

I don't use the Windows version, but I have a custom one that's easier on my eyes. (for me, white flickers like crazy on monitors, even at good refresh rates.) I generally use white on black or grey on black, with darker blue for gui elements.

It really has made using Windows a lot easier on my eyes over the past 6-7 years.

Assistive Technology (AT)

[jpsc]

Hi tuxbeej,

Fundamentally you should probably be looking into Assistive Technology (AT) -- a screen magnifier or a large font theme or a high-contrast theme, just to name a few possible solutions. A larger monitor might be used in conjunction with a screen magnifier or a theme. Just buying a different or larger monitor and getting "one of the big LCD projector dealies?" may not be an option at your work or home, is certainly not portable, and may actually not help that much or at all.

Do you use Linux or Windows or Mac OS?
If you use Linux, you should check out the Linux Accessibility Resource Site (LARS) at http://trace.wisc.edu/linux/ If you use Windows you might want to search google for the terms ZoomText, JAWS, or just Windows Accessibility. I'm sure you'll find something useful. If you use Mac OS X, try searching for OS X Accessibility, there's a web page at apple.com about what it can do; more accessibility solutions also exist for OS 9. Please e-mail me ([e-mail]) if you have further questions and I'd love to talk to you more about solutions that exist for your particular platform.

I feel I have to comment on the way in which Slashdot continues to cover the topic of accessibility. I mean no disrespect to your question, it is indeed a very good one. The way in which the question was framed, however demonstrates a general lack of familiarity with accessibility on the part of Slashdot editors. The editors continuously reject stories (I and I'm sure other of my colleagues have submitted) about substantive accessibility news and assistive technology software for Linux, Unix, and OS X and instead pick stories that turn the complex issues of accessibility, disabled computer users, low-vision access, etc. into an invitation reccomend monitors.

This is really missing the point about what Assistive Technology is and can do. I would LOVE to talk to the Slashdot editors (or anyone else) about these issues and be thrilled to see an "Accessibility" topic added to Slashdot.

Editors, if you're reading, e-mail me, I'll be glad to call you or correspond on IRC or e-mail. This is a very important issue that deserves to be framed the right way. Among other things, under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, software used in the US federal government, INCLUDING Linux, must be accessible (see http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.ht m for more information). Making GNOME, KDE, X, and Linux accessible is a HUGE effort that involves dozens of full-time engineers at Sun, in Germany, China, and Ireland, yet Slashdot has never done justice to the topic.

Again, Slashdot editors PLEASE contact me. Tuxbeej, feel free to do the same.

Best,

--JP Schnapper-Casteras

Organizer of the 1st and 2nd Linux Accessibility Conferences

Creator of the Linux Accessibility Resource Site
Founder of the KDE Accessibility Project
Maintainer of the Free Desktop Accessibility Working Group
Founder and co-admin of Project Ocularis

http://trace.wisc.edu/linux/
http://ocularis.sf .net
http://accessibility.kde.org
http://www.spe echinfo.org/fddawg

Re:Digital Ink

[Steev]

I have used computers (with CRT displays) for at least 4 hours a day (more like 8+ hours/day now that I actually work in the industry) since I was 14. I'm 25 now, and I still have BETTER than average vision.

I'm always sorry to hear about people losing their vision, but I really don't think it's because of staring into monitors. I've only used a computer with an LCD screen when I was given a laptop by work for a week-long business trip, so I really don't think CRTs are doing the damage.

Re:Why not one of the big LCD projector dealies?

[packeteer]

get a matrox [matrox.com] card it is SOOOOO worth it...

get a dual moniter one too... i know you wanted a new moniter but a new vid card is good too... anyway matrox cards are by far the clearest sharpest cards out there...

it will reduce eye strain AND their dual moniter cards have the option for low visibility functions such as a magnifier for the second moniter and the first one is the actual screen... anyway i would advice dual lcd's on a matrox G550 dual dvi [matrox.com]