Suggestions for software for visualy impared persons

[A.S. Pushkin]

I have a friend that is near 80 years old and has macular degeneration.

I'd like to give him a laptop, but it would require some accessibility software due
his vision. It may not be Gentoo, but will certainly be some distro of Linux.

The laptop will ot be a power house, but it should permit ease of use.

Any suggestions of hardware and accessibility software would be appreciated.

Thanks
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ASPushkin

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

[audiodef]

I am long out of date with software, but I have seen some useful accessibility options provided by Ubuntu out of the box, in the settings menu.
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[Goverp]

My aunt developed Macular Disease in late life; however, she was not a computer user, so I didn't have to investigate PC accessibility aids.

The main thing that helps with MD is a big screen and/or magnification. MD users typically have a big black spot slap bang in the middle of their field of view, about the size of a persons head from 6 feet. Their peripheral vision is usually unaffected, though until MD hits you don't realize how little we use it and how bad it is. With practice, MD sufferers adapt; my aunt could read about 14 point type. In the UK at least there is an organization The Macular Disease Society; it's well worth getting in touch for support. No doubt equivalents exist in other countries.

KDE has a accessibility aids, though mostly concerned with speech <-> text, but there's also a magnifier, Kmag which blows up a region of the screen. No doubt other desktops have them. There's also benefit in choosing a high-contrast screen theme - yellow on black is often used - peripheral vision is basically monochrome.

You may like to look at Knoppix - the developer's wife has limited vision, and so he incorporated accessibility features, though most of us never use them. The main part seems to be the Adriane audio desktop.

My aunt bought a document reader; basically a PC monitor attached to a camera with a zoom lens and some high contrast settings, and a visible "current line" highlighter. Useful for handling printed material. There's probably a software package to achieve the same, otherwise it's a SMOP (small matter of programming) to get a camera on a suitable mount to show what's beneath it, with magnification and contrast enhancement.
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Greybeard

[A.S. Pushkin]

Thank for the suggestions. I will investigate further what you have provided which I think may work well.

Thanks again.
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ASPushkin

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell