My Journey with Windows Accessibility

Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 15th

Did you know that the third Thursday of May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)?

Since 2012, we’ve celebrated this date to raise awareness of digital accessibility. That includes web accessibility, mobile device accessibility, and even television accessibility.

I’m celebrating by offering a 30% discount on some of my accessibility-themed books and games. Read through to the end for details.

My Journey with Windows Accessibility

Rather than just rehash the history and talking points about GAAD (which you can read on the official website, linked above), let me tell you a bit about my own journey with digital accessibility. For this article, I’m focusing on Windows accessibility, but this is only going to scratch the surface.

Let me know if you’ve used any of these tools, even if you don’t have a disability yourself. The great thing about making access tools available to everyone is that most people can take advantage of them as necessary, even if they only need them temporarily.

Going way back

The first time I remember modifying my computer for accessibility, I was still using Windows 98 SE. My eye sight was getting worse at that time (around 20/100 corrected) and it was difficult for me to read black text on a light background.

I didn’t have language to know what was happening at that time. What I needed was high contrast text, but to me that meant just picking a High Contrast color scheme in Windows.

Unfortunately, the High Contrast (Black) Windows color scheme came with a bunch of challenges of its own. It inverted most of the colors of most Windows elements, but left some ugly white orders around everything and highlighted buttons in a way that wasn’t very visually appealing.

Instead of using High Contrast, I built my own dark mode of sorts using Windows’ built-in theming tools. I used a black background, white text, and purple highlights for a bit of color. Not every Windows program supported my color scheme, but it made a huge difference for the programs that were supported.

This mattered to me, because I was photosensitive. That means bright lights hurt my eyes and made it difficult to function, which is why the inverted color scheme was so important to me.

I used this color scheme for many years. Eventually, I also applied it to my Internet Explorer settings.

Internet Explorer (IE) had an option to override a web site’s style sheets (color schemes) and replace them with your own choices. I turned my background black, my text white, and my links light blue. That made for a more comfortable viewing experience.

Unfortunately, this set-up had side effects of its own. Overriding these style sheets also meant overriding certain page elements, such as graphics and buttons. When a link was embedded in a button, or when a website required the styles to function properly, I had problems with them.

I got pretty good at turning these settings on and off as necessary.

At the time, I didn’t know any of this to be “accessibility.” It was just what I needed to do to make my computer function for me, using the tools I had at my disposal.

ZoomText

By around 2005 with Windows XP, I was having a difficult time getting Windows’ built-in features to be good enough for me.

Windows Magnifier was in its infancy. When you launched it, the program created a window on your screen that was enlarged, but left part of the screen normal size. You could resize the magnifier window, but only to about half the screen.

That meant you could use only about half the screen if you depended on the magnifier, and that half of your screen was zoomed in. So you really could only see a fraction of what you needed at any time.

Frankly, I never found much use for this tool. It was more hassle than it was worth.

For a couple years, I got by with my self-made dark mode and enlarged interface options. I reduced my screen resolution (which increases the relative size of objects on the page) and placed my nose as close to the screen as I could get in order to see what I was up to.

It was exhausting, it hurt my neck, and it strained my eyes.

Then I started attending classes at the Oregon Commission for the Blind. They showed me an awesome, and expensive, piece of software called ZoomText. It was a full screen magnifier for Windows that included other nifty features, such as high contrast mode, focus highlighters, and a built-in screen reader. I was only able to gain access to the software because the state paid for it as part of my vocational training. Otherwise, its steep price tag would have been way too much for me.

With ZoomText, the whole internet opened up to me in ways I was struggling to experience it before. I could toggle my own high contrast schemes within the software and, with the stroke of a hotkey, switch back to traditional color modes when I needed to look at a picture or when a program just didn’t work properly otherwise.

Better yet, I was able to give my eyes a break at times by letting the screen reader do the talking for me. When I read articles, forum posts, or even just paragraphs of text, I could let the program do the heavy lifting.

It wasn’t without its drawbacks though. At the time, ZoomText didn’t support the Chrome browser, which was a new and shiny toy at the time. I was stuck using Internet Explorer or Firefox if I wanted the reader functionality.

Eventually, ZoomText introduced a feature that let you read text that you had copied to the Windows clipboard. That meant I could copy a paragraph of text and use a few key strokes to have it read aloud to me. This even worked in Google Chrome.

Suddenly, I was able to workaround ZoomText’s limitations with Chrome. Or, at least, to an extent. It still wouldn’t read buttons, links, or other user interface elements. But for reading large blocks of text, it was fine.

I probably wore out a keyboard with all the constant shortcut key presses I was using, but it was worth it to me to use Google’s shiny new browser.

I used ZoomText for many, many years. From the time I first got a copy in 2005 until the time I started working at Kentucky Public Pensions Authority in 2019, I was a devout user.

During that time, I went through a lot of ups and downs with the tool. It gave me the power I needed to do my job at Wells Fargo, it empowered me to learn Adobe InDesign to create book and PDF designs, and it let me browse the web with whichever browser I chose, even if I had to choose to browse with the occasional limitation.

As ZoomText added more functionality though, it became more difficult to use some of the features I relied on everyday.

Remember how I said I could read text on the clipboard with just a hotkey?

Eventually, they moved that option into a second-level menu. So instead of simply copying text and pressing some keys to read it, I had to copy text, then press some keys, then press some more keys. It was tedious.

Over this period of time, I also switched from using 200% magnification to 400% magnification. That meant it was more and more difficult for me to rely on sight to navigate web pages, because everything was getting harder to find and harder to read without speech. Ultimately, I ditched Chrome again in favor of Microsoft Edge, which was fully functional with ZoomText.

Windows Magnifier, Reborn

When I started my job at KPPA, I had the opportunity to use ZoomText. But because it took some time for the IT department to approve and install the software for me, I started testing the new and improved Windows Magnifier instead.

With Windows 10, Magnifier became a surprisingly robust tool. It was capable of full screen magnification and inverted colors. For the most part, those two things were good enough for my visual needs. You can launch Magnifier in Windows by pressing the shortcut WINDOWS + Plus (the Plus key).

I coupled Magnifier with the new and improved Windows Narrator. In the past, Narrator was so puny that it wasn’t even worth experimenting with. But Narrator in Windows 10 was a fully capable screen reader, and it worked surprisingly well alongside Magnifier. You can launch Narrator in Windows by pressing the shortcut CTRL + WINDOWS + ENTER.

Using the two together, I could point my mouse at any text and have it read aloud. Then I could use Narrator’s hotkeys to navigate and access tools that were sometimes difficult to find visually.

On the other hand, when a website wasn’t fully keyboard accessible, I was able to get by with just the magnifier.

I quickly became proficient enough with these tools that I didn’t even need ZoomText. I told my employer to save their money on the license fees, because I was proficient with Windows’ built-in tools and, for the first time, they seemed capable enough on their own.

Narrator still had its quirks though. As I used it more and more, I found that it behaves erratically sometimes. For the purpose of my job, with the tools that I used everyday, it wasn’t a big deal.

But at home, where I had also decided to make the switch away from ZoomText, it was a different story.

Narrator sometimes switches between two different modes automatically, depending on what it thinks you need at the time. This can be helpful sometimes, but for the most part it wants to switch whenever you don’t want it to. I think you can disable this functionality, but it’s something to note if you’re ever going to try using it.

Also, when using Narrator to test for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance, it gives you a subpar experience compared to some of its competitors. Certain web accessibility tools behave differently under Narrator than they do under JAWS or NVDA. It’s usually not a big deal, but it’s just cumbersome enough that it makes Narrator difficult to recommend as a daily driver.

Enter NVDA

NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) is another free screen reader for Windows. It functions similar to Windows narrator and uses a lot of the same keyboard shortcuts, but it’s far more robust and stable.

I started pairing NVDA with Windows Magnifier at home around 2020. I found the combination of the tools to be more reliable than Narrator + Magnifier, and it worked better with the new Chromium version of Microsoft Edge than ZoomText did. Also, the combination didn’t require any licensing fees, which helped make my decision to switch fully away from ZoomText.

After using NVDA at home for a while, I eventually switched to it at work as well. It was easy to switch, since NVDA and Narrator use similar hotkeys.

For a time, I did try to use JAWS (Job Access With Speech), which nowadays is owned by the same company as ZoomText. JAWS has been around for 40 years now, and it’s the industry standard for a lot of blind people.

But JAWS feels overly complicated to me, and its hotkeys are different than NVDA in in several ways. It’s more robust than NVDA, but its features also come with a steep price. One I’m just not willing to pay when I have access to a fully capable, free alternative.

So instead of continuing to dabble with JAWS, I doubled down on using NVDA. Which turned out to be a good thing.

By mid 2022, I had left KPAA and was working as a writer for Hive learning. I found that I didn’t need to use Magnifier and my mouse to access any of the tools I used on a daily basis.

In fact, I found that I rarely even turned on my wireless mouse anymore. I remember reaching for my mouse one afternoon, after having already worked for several hours, only to find that it was still turned off. I had gone half the day without using my mouse, which means I had gone half the day without using Windows Magnifier.

That’s when I realized I wasn’t a sighted computer user anymore. I had almost no need for the mouse anymore,except for the occasional website that simply wasn’t keyboard accessible.

Now days, I often don’t even turn on my computer’s monitor. Sometimes, I’ll ask my wife or son to look at something on the computer for me, and they’ll remind me I have to turn on my monitor before they can do that. It’d be embarrassing if we weren’t all just used to me making a fool of myself anyway.

Still using high contrast

I have almost no functional vision nowadays. Even if I wanted to use a screen magnifier, it wouldn’t do me much good.

Yet I still use Windows High Contrast settings. Why?

Because I’m still photosensitive. When I do have my screen turned on, the bright white backgrounds of most websites and apps is still difficult for me to look at, even if I can’t tell what’s on screen.

I use High Contrast mode in Windows to make things appear darker and less stressful.

If you’re using Windows 11, you can enable High Contrast mode by pressing ALT + SHIFT + Print Screen. If you find that it helps you read websites when Dark Mode just won’t do, then it’s a simple way to make your experience more comfortable for you.

What do you use?

That’s a high-level overview of my digital accessibility journey with Windows, specifically. We’d be here all day if I were to describe every tool, feature, and configuration I’ve tried over the years.

But now I’m curious to know what your journey is like.

Have you used any of your computer’s built-in tools to make reading or navigating easier?

Do you use accessibility features on your smartphone? (That’s a whole different discussion for me.)

Have you ever explored the accessibility options of the devices you use?

Are there access issues that have been bothering you, but you simply don’t know what’s available to help? (Feel free to ask, and I’d be happy to point you in the right direction if I can.)

What else is on your mind for this Global Accessibility Awareness Day? Let us know in the comments.

Then, remember to subscribe for more on how to achieve Growth for ALL.

Special GAAD Discount

I’m not just an accessibility, learning, and leadership advocate. I’m also a huge nerd who loves to design and play tabletop games.

From May 15^th through May 22^nd, you can get a 30% discount on some of my accessibility-theme products.

· Accessible Gaming Quarterly is a zine about accessibility, disabilities, and universal design in the tabletop games industry. It’s a series of essays, tips, tricks, inclusive art, creative ideas, and Q&As written by disabled authors and illustrated by disabled artists. All 13 issues are available at 30% off.

· Accessible Guide to RPG Layout is for publishers, print designers, and anyone who creates tabletop games. It features step-by-step instructions on how to create accessible PDFs using Adobe InDesign. Although it’s specific to the leading layout software on the market, many of its tips are universally applicable to other layout software as well.

· Survival of the Able is a game about every day disabled people in Medieval Europe who are faced with surviving amidst a zombie plague. With no modern technology available to help you navigate an inaccessible world, a cultural apathy toward people like you, and zombies who want to eat your face, it’s not going to be easy.

· Survival of the Able comes in multiple font formats (graphic, dyslexia-friendly, and easy-to-read). The digital version also comes with a Vision Layers-enabled PDF, which allows you to toggle on and off accessibility features such as color, greyscale, zero graphics, and alternative fonts. Each PDF also includes alt text to describe illustrations, as well as a gallery of images and alt text for you to enjoy.

You can get your discount on all these products at the following site: Accessible Games at DriveThruRPG.