accessibility issue--color contrast

[Erik]

The new Word 2007 is gorgeous, and I'm sure every 25yo loves it.
Unfortunately, my eyesight is dimming with time, and both low contrast
pairing and font size are becoming big issues.

For instance, right on this DG page, the posts listings is in 7-pt type!!!
I can't read them! Nothing else on the page is that tiny. If I reset zooms,
then everything else becomes humongous and blurry....

But my real problem is contrast. I can read black on white. I can read
white on a very dark background. I CANNOT read medium blue on pastel blue
background, NO MATTER HOW GORGEOUS and PEACEFUL and RESTFUL it looks. If I
wanted art, I'd buy it. I need a word processor. And a word processor with
a ribbon or a menu or a status bar I can't read is useless.

Is there any way to change the colors, so I can choose something with high
enough contrast I can read it?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, for one thing, you can change the text size in your browser, which
should affect the display in the discussion group. As for color schemes,
Word 2007 offers three:

Office Button | Word Options | Popular: Color scheme > Blue, Silver, Black

Either Silver or Black may offer more contrast for you (though they're both
pretty trendy, too).

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Erik,

Reducing the display resolution of your monitor will generally increase the size of the text, icons & their text throughout Windows
and on the Office app Ribbons and in your browser. If you don't want to consider that approach then you can tweak some things
separately.

The discussion group page text size, if you're using the Microsoft web access settings are changeable in your browser (View=>Text
Size in I.E.). If you're an infrequent poster then you may want to use a different access point such as http://groups.google.com or
use Outlook Express (news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.word.docmanagement for this group) and you can set the viewing
font and size there. Even the 'magnifier' in Windows or one of the more capable 3rd party ones, can be helpful for the occassional
'small text' page features.

The text display size in Word 2007 can be changed using the Zoom control on the lower right of the screen or on the View tab in the
ribbon.

For Office 2007 there are 3 color schemes included. They are under
Office Button=>Word Options=>Popular
that affect the Ribbon and the background of the work surface. They aren't customizable, but the Silver/grey choice does not use a
gradient background on the work area. You may also want to experiment a bit there with the setting for Clear Type (which may not
change until Word is restarted) to see if which setting gives you the least 'fuzziness'. You may also want to check the Clear type
setting in Windows Display properties as well to see if that helps with fuzziness.

The Windows control panel Display settings for 'Appearance' can be used to change the background 'page' color displayed in Word
(also throughout Windows) to a different/muted one.

Beyond that, using the Display settings from the Control Panel's Accessibility settings can make some changes in the interface
appearance for Office 2007 to 'washout' the color gradients used in the Ribbon and in the document editing appearance.


==============
The new Word 2007 is gorgeous, and I'm sure every 25yo loves it.
Unfortunately, my eyesight is dimming with time, and both low contrast
pairing and font size are becoming big issues.

For instance, right on this DG page, the posts listings is in 7-pt type!!!
I can't read them! Nothing else on the page is that tiny. If I reset zooms,
then everything else becomes humongous and blurry....

But my real problem is contrast. I can read black on white. I can read
white on a very dark background. I CANNOT read medium blue on pastel blue
background, NO MATTER HOW GORGEOUS and PEACEFUL and RESTFUL it looks. If I
wanted art, I'd buy it. I need a word processor. And a word processor with
a ribbon or a menu or a status bar I can't read is useless.

Is there any way to change the colors, so I can choose something with high
enough contrast I can read it?>>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*