Windows 7 has made using your computer much easier – But it’s still not that easy for someone who’s visually impaired to get Windows 7’s on-screen magnifier working. – In fact, they’ll have to be able to see and discern the small round Windows logo (Start) button. in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen by default, click it using a standard mouse pointer, type the word “magnifier” into the search-bar, see the small writing saying “Turn Magnifier on or off, click it, and be taken to the Ease of Access Center.

At the Ease of Access Center the computer eventually starts to talk to you, and highlights four links as an electronic voice reads them out.

“To get to the help-centre for the visually-impaired; you need to find a tiny doorway which is on a corner. Press the door with a sewing needle and it will open. Type your destination into the keypad and you’ll  be taken to somewhere where you’ll be given further directions verbally…”  Would be the guidebook’s directions to any lone partially-sighted person if this were a real-life situation – if there were a guidebook

I’m sure that you’d agree that this isn’t much help to someone elderly with failing vision. – Which will probably be why very few people actually use the magnifier feature of Windows 7.

- However; if you have a partially-sighted and/or elderly friend or relative who needs fast access to the magnifier feature in Windows 7, then it would be a good idea to create a desktop icon for them to use to take them straight there.

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Here’s how to create the icon on the desktop. The procedure isn’t exactly rocket science: -

Right-click an empty area of the Windows 7 desktop and hover your cursor over “New”. In the list that appears, select “Shortcut” by clicking on it.

In the text-input line below where it says “Type the location of the item:” Enter “Magnify”. (Without the inverted commas.)

Press return on your keyboard.

In the following text-input bar, below the words “Type a name for this shortcut”, ignore the highlighted “Magnify.exe” and type “Magnifier”. (Without the inverted commas.) : -

Press return on your keyboard

You’ll now see that you have a brand new icon on your desktop with a picture, the contents of which include a screen with a magnifying glass in front of it, marked “Magnifier.

All the visually-impaired person has to do now is to click that icon and the magnifier will instantly appear, as if by magic.

The hard-to-find and elusive magnifier feature is now instantly available to the partially-sighted person with just a click.

A bit of Windows 7 hassle averted on Beyond: Hardware + Software + Practical Electronics. – Thinking ahead for the disabled.

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