janc (02/14/83)
Does anyone know if there is software around to make a microcomputer
function as a terminal for a visually impaired person? Such a program
would print letters 1 to 4 inches tall out of graphics pixels. There
would need to be some convenient way to control horizontal scrolling,
and the print size should be adjustable. It should be usable, at
least, as a terminal or a word processor.
There have long been machines which use a tv camera to display a
magnified image of a book, or the paper in a typewriter on a screen,
and these are apparently quite useful, though expensive ($ 2000) and
bulky. It seems like something similar could be done fairly easily
to allow people with low vision to work effectively in many data
processing and secretarial fields, but I haven't seen anything of
this sort.
-Jan D. Wolter
-University of Michigan