The Windows itself provides some assistive functionalities. Even though they are very simple and are not suitable for serious work. However, they may be sufficent for some users with very little limitation with their eyesight. Also they are useful enough for users who need to perform an initial setup of a Windows computer, such as installing a screen reader for the first time. Some of these functionalities are listed below.
The appearance of the screen can also be changed through the Display setting accessible through the Control Panel. To access this dialog box, do the following:
There are several tabs within this dialog box. The ``Appearance'' tab is where users can adjust the contrast and other appearance. The most important control within this tab is the ``color Scheme'' combo box. The display can easily be set to high contrast through this combo box.
The ``Settings'' tab of this dialog box has a button labeled ``Advanced.'' Whe this button is activated, a dialog box appears where users can change the size of characters and other objects displayed on the screen. This can be changed through the combo box labeled ``DPI Setting.'' The larger the number of the DPI setting, the larger the objects on the screen. This setting applies to most objects on the screen, unlike the settings in the appearance tab where they only apply to text.
It may help totally blind users if the sound settings are changed so that some events trigger sound cue. This can be done through the ``sSound and Multimedia'' in the Control Panel. Being able to identify Events such as starting and ending programs, menu command, menu popup, etc. with sound cues can be very helpful, especially screen reader is not working properly.