Eyes not what they used to be? Hate to admit it, but neither are mine - and I’m forever losing my glasses.

Well, over the past few years most web designers have put an awful lot of work into making their web sites easier to read. Trouble is, I find that most people don’t know how to take advantage of this fact.

How many of you know how to make everything on your computer easier to read? Maybe your hands aren’t as steady as they used to be and using the mouse is a pain, that can be sorted out quite easily too.

If you, or somebody you know, might benefit then read on…

Just as a taster
Try this if you are working on a machine that’s using Windows. It might or might not work, depending on the version of the web browser you have installed.

To enlarge the text press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘+’.

Ok, that’s computer speak for press and hold down the Ctrl button, whilst the Ctrl button is down press the + button. (Ctrl is bottom left of keyboard, + is on main part of keyboard to the right of the numbers. Ctrl is short for ‘Control’.)

If this worked, try it again and the text will get even larger. To go down a text size press ‘Ctrl’ + ‘-’. To return to the default size of text press ‘Ctrl + ‘0′ (that’s a zero).

That was only the start
Possibly you want the text enlarged on all programs on the computer. You may find that reading black on white is tiring, or you may benefit from having a higher contrast, or you may be colour-blind making it difficult to see which words are links. Maybe you want the mouse pointer larger, or the mouse to be a bit less responsive.

Make the computer work for you, don’t work for the computer!

Now, rather than me reproduce everything here, I’m going to point you to an excellent area on the BBC web site that shows you step by step how to do all of these things with various operating systems and browsers.

When you get there try pressing the three ‘A’ symbols at the top right of the page - these will give you just a flavour of the kind of things that can be achieved (it doesn’t have to be as extreme as this). Also note that when you have chosen your operating system (Windows, Mac or Linux), the link titled ‘Help With Seeing Web Sites’ also tells you how to change things for all programs on your computer.

Without further ado, here’s the link:BBC Accessibility page