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Nearly everybody finds Windows Vista to be challenging, but some people face special physical challenges, as well. To assist them, the Ease of Access area in the Control Panel makes Windows easier to use for a wide variety of people with physical limitations.
Follow these steps to modify Vista's settings:
1. Choose Control Panel from the Start menu, choose Ease of Access, and choose Ease of Access Center.
The Change Ease of Access Settings window appears. Vista's ethereal voice kicks in, explaining how to change Vista's programs.
2. Choose Get Recommendations to Make Your Computer Easier to Use.
Look for the task called Get Recommendations to Make Your Computer Easier to Use. That makes Vista give you a quick interview so that it can gauge what adjustments you may need. When it's through, Vista automatically makes its changes, and you're done.
If you're not happy with Vista's changes, move to Step 3.
3. Make your changes manually.
The Ease of Access Center window offers these toggle switches to make the keyboard, sound, display, and mouse easier to control:
• Start Magnifier: Designed for the visually impaired, this option magnifies the mouse pointer's exact location.
• Start Narrator: Vista's awful built-in narrator reads on-screen text for people who can't view it clearly.
• Start On-Screen Keyboard: This setting places a clickable keyboard along the screen's bottom, letting you type by pointing and clicking.
• Set up High Contrast: This setting eliminates most screen colors, but helps vision-impaired people view the screen and cursor more clearly.
Choose any of these options to turn on the feature immediately. Close the feature's window if the feature makes matters worse.
If you're still not happy, proceed to Step 4.
4. Choose a specific setting in the Explore All Available Settings area.
Here's where Vista gets down to the nitty gritty, letting you optimize Vista specifically for the following scenarios:
• Blindness or impaired vision
• Using an alternative input device rather than a mouse or keyboard
• Adjusting the keyboard and mouse sensitivity to compensate for limited movements
• Turning on visual alerts instead of Vista's sound notifications
• Making it easier to focus on reading and typing tasks
 | Some centers that assist physically challenged people may offer software or assistance for helping you make these changes. |
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