2nd January 2001
Lori thinks I'm nuts, operating in a 1600x1200 pixel environment. My prescription is far from perfect, but at least I can see screen stuff without squinting. My grandmother suffers from macular degeneration; she wears glasses that put Coke bottles to shame. Knowing this, I would recommend that she and Grandpa use Windows 2000 Professional. Why? Out-of-the-box stability aside, Microsoft Narrator is a part of W2k's Accessibility tool suite. Quoting its splash screen, this utility "is intended to help people with low vision to setup their own computers, or use other people's computers." Dialog boxes, keystrokes, e-mail messages, and just about any string of on-screen text can be read aloud on-the-fly. When you're in a pickle, the Narrator is perfect -- although it's not something that one would want to use on a continual basis. Speech synthesis is still years away from being an essential part of the daily computing experience. You can say that again.