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Legacy and the visually impaired

Author: Reference Number: AA-00401 Views: 29469 Created: 2013-11-11 03:44 PM Last Updated: 2016-06-01 10:12 AM 100 Rating/ 1 Voters

We can't tell you what's best for you because each type of blindness has different needs.

First of all, if you're having problems with the computer in general, we can give you a few tips:

1. Play around with the screen resolution and Windows system fonts to find something that's comfortable. Also try various Windows color themes.

2. Windows Vista has a magnifying glass, Windows 7 has even better magnification options. In Windows 7, click on the Start button, go to All Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access.

3. Check with your local blind or low-vision society. Your ophthalmologist can refer you. They have some great resources and can recommend the accessibility computer programs best for you.

4. We have heard that Legacy works well with Dragon Naturally Speaking, but that is speech to text.  Windows has a feature called "Narrator" which reads text to you.

5. Browsers have a good selection of Accessibility options. In IE, click on Tools > Internet Options > General and click on the "Accessibility" button in the lower right corner. You can choose to ignore colors on web pages (good if the backgrounds are a problem for you) or  "Ignore font styles...." or "Ignore font sizes". Most webpages, but not all, will scroll if you hold down the ctrl key while rolling the mouse wheel and the browser have zoom settings. In FireFox, the settings are under Tools > Options > Advanced > General. In my mind, the least friendly browser for accessibility options is Chrome.

In Windows 7, right click on the background, select "Personalize" and in the lower left corner, click on "Ease of Access Center" It shows all the Accessibility settings in Windows and in the middle is a yellow bar with a link to "Get recommendations to make your computer easier to use".

Now - for Legacy.

1. Click on Options > Customize > Fonts and select a font size that works well for you. Make sure that the min font size under "Stretch Fonts" is set to the number you selected for your font size.

2. While you're in the Customize window, click on Colors and find what color schemes work for you. Different types of blindness have different requirements. For some, white on black is best, others (like me with glaucoma) need good contrast, some have problems with backgrounds that are too white.

3. In all Notes windows, you can click on Zoom to adjust the font sizes in the Notes window.

4. All windows in Legacy can be resized by simply moving the mouse pointer to a corner until it turns to a double arrow and then left click and drag. Most of them have the buttons in the upper right corner so you can make them full screen.

5. When previewing a report, there is are zoom buttons in the preview window on the right to zoom that specific report and along the top of the window
 are Zoom options, which are remembered the next time you preview a report.

6. The current version of Legacy will have some different options.

   (1) In the upper right corner is a "Design" button where you can set Styles (for the overall "look" and Fonts (which affect the font size on the ribbon)
   (2) If you right click along the ribbon names (looks like the menu bar) you can select the "Minimize the Ribbon" option, which will make the Legacy views larger.  In Options > Customize > General Settings, you can select "Start with ribbon minimized" as default.
   (3) In Options > Customize, again you can change the fonts and colors used.

As for learning Legacy, we have a couple of different ways to learn the program, realizing that there are different learning styles.

1. The Legacy for Beginners training video is on our website at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com > Training > View Training Videos. It's the first one in the list. It opens up in a fairly large screen in your browser. The video can be stopped at any time to give you a chance to try what Geoff is showing.

2. Open Legacy and go to Help > Show Help Index and in the pane on the right, click on "Tutorial Lessons". The Ctrl-Scroll wheel trick works in the Help topics.