MostlyBlindGamer

I’ve been using full screen magnification on computers since Windows 7 came out. I could have been doing it earlier on macOS, but there you go.

The problem

Since then, I’ve had my settings locked in: using the mouse or trackpad to pan, not allowing the zoom window to follow keyboard focus, because the snapping makes me dizzy.

I was rewarded for my efforts with a generally comfortable desktop computer experience, and chronic wrist pain that stopped me from really learning the guitar or playing serious FPS games. Mind you, the closest I’ve gotten to a diagnosis for this is “oh, that does make sense, maybe that’s why.”

I’ve been trying to get used to using keyboard focus following, but it just hasn’t worked for me. Until today, that is.

The solution?

Did you know on macOS you can adjust the speed at which the zoomed in screen follows focus? And that you can have it only move when the cursor reaches the side of the screen? I sure didn’t!

I already have a collection of ergonomic mechanical keyboards, but I already have to complement them with a trackpad. I’ve considered throwing even more money at this problem and getting a trackball. I guess I don’t have to?

Next steps

I’m going to try to get used to this on my personal computer. I may need to create new keyboard macros or adjust settings further. I’ll have to get used to a whole new workflow that’s very different from what I’ve been using for 15 years, but the potential advantages are huge.

I need to be as quick navigating the computer this way as I am with the trackpad, but I always use a lot of typing for actions - Spotlight search, Raycaat, the command palettes on VS Code and Rider - so I think it’s doable.

Takeaway

I, at least, accept that there are takeoffs when accommodating for and dealing with my disability. In this case I’ve practically been accepting developing a new disability in exchange for being able to work with one I already have. Gotta keep that shareholder value ticking up.

You may or may not be doing the same, but chances are you’ve figured out what works for you and gotten into a local maximum of efficiency, like I did. Alternatives similar to this are worse, so I that this was as good as it got. I had to experiment with what I knew wouldn’t work for me to have the opportunity to find something that works even better. Maybe that’ll be an absolute maximum in efficiency for me or maybe I’ll learn something better later on.

The bottom line is experimenting and trying different approaches is always a good idea. Worst case scenario, you confirm you’re doing the best thing for you.

Do you have any experiences like this? Finding out your perfect setup wasn’t so perfect after all?

Communities like this (rblind.com) and r/blind are focused on serving the blind and visually impaired community, including friends and family. They’re also valuable as an opportunity for people outside the community to learn about the blind experience.

That brings us to the question: sighted friends, what have you learned that you’d like to share?

With global warming (and other factors) affecting coffee production and prices, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting patterns in marketing strategies for household and white label brands.

Everything is extra intense, high intensity, intensity 11 (probably comes with a free Spinal Tap record)… Robusta roasted past 5th crack, no doubt.

I also spotted a bag of highly exclusive “100% Robusta.” At this point I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to market “0% cyanide” coffee.

How’s everybody else’s grocery shopping experience these days? Is this a big trend in your area?

I switched to macOS pretty for all my day-to-day, development and work uses, but still have a Ryzem+RTX (I do use Ray tracing features) desktop that I only ever use for gaming anymore.

I play games from Steam, GoG, Epic, and occasionally Xbox Game Pass.

The big problem here is I’m visually impaired and need a desktop environment that will let me consistently use a lime green mouse cursor and zoom in full screen via keyboard and scroll shortcuts.

At the risk of 1) nobody having actual experience and 2) the current Linux distro/DE ecosystem being hopelessly broken, what should I try?

I also only have some 2 hours a week for videogames. I can’t afford the time to tinker, after the transition and setup period.

I’m perfectly happy with “you’re outta luck, buddy, just suffer through Windows,” but I figure it can’t hurt to ask…

Life is hard - for everybody, but in many ways more so for blind and visually impaired folks. It’s also awesome though, so let’s talk about that.

What did you recently succeed in and want to talk about? Work, relationships, travel… something else?

Blind On The Move was incredibly useful to me, when I couldn’t get O&M training during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Besides that convenience, video resources like this are also very interesting for family and friends, and for dipping your toe into rehab, when you’re still coming to grips with blindness or low vision.

I’m excited for this series!

I use full screen zoom/magnification on all my computers. That works fine on laptop displays or on a single desktop monitor, but if you use more than one monitor, the computer zooms in both as if they were a single display and it all becomes a huge mess.

I know ZoomText supports zooming in on a single monitor and I know ZoomIt can be coaxed into working the same way on Windows, but, until a little while ago, there were no acceptable options on macOS.

So what changed?

Well, the other day I left my work laptop open at the office after plugging it in to the dock and accidentally zoomed in on the internal display and… it zoomed in on that alone. Nothing funky happened with the other display.

I’ve tested this at home with my own MacBook Pro and it worked the same. I guess it was a macOS update? There was no mention of any of this on any release notes I read.

There you go: rational multi-monitor zoom on macOS. Enjoy!

Have you noticed this at all? Who else had my use case? I really like using macOS with magnification, compared to Windows, so I image a few other people will get good use out of this feature.

As the holidays are warming up, let's share our suggestions and idea requests for gifts for our blind and VI family and friends.

When requesting or offering suggestions, please include:

• Budget (free, just about free, rough Dollar, Pound or Euro range)

• Relevant recipient characteristics (level of vision, age, interests, devices owned, etc.)

• Time constraints, if any (something that goes on sale for a short period of time or your favorite event that only takes place for a few months every 17 years)

Let's use this thread to avoid clutter, to make searching easier and to have a nice reference to build upon, for the future.--

I've been having issues getting decent photos of sea life at aquariums. I went to two different ones recently. I used a Canon R10 at both: for the first I took a 24 f/2.8 pancake lens and felt like the maximum aperture wasn't providing enough light to autofocus fast enough. For the second trip, I used a 50 f/1.8 and that did address that problem, but I'm still left with blurry photos and massive blue-yellow chromatic aberration.

It's a challenging environment to begin with with how dark it is and how fast and unpredictability some fish and other animals move. The best - still pretty bad - results I got were at f/4, 1/300 or faster and moderate ISO speeds.

Part of the issue is that, with my username being very literal, I can't really adjust my settings in response to image quality, on the spot. Reviewing images in the EVF with magnification is awesome and helpful, but I still end up getting disappointed when I open the photos up on my 32 inch monitor...

So... any tips? Is there a secret for this, something like a Watery 16 rule I don't know about?

For what it's worth, one of these places is pretty close by. I could get an annual pass and head there every weekend and try something new. I don't want to, but I could. Hehe.

I figured I should share some of my thoughts on this. Think what you will about my perspective or decisions and formulate your own - we should all get to act on our values.