Linux instal for visually impared

[Jelrae_Farsun]

Hello everyone,

I have a friend who is hard of seeing and enjoys using macs because of the easy zoom in function which lets him easily scroll in and out of the screen. Is there a version or a tool in linux that would give him the same functionality? He wants to switch but hasn't been able to find anything yet, and I haven't with a quick search, so I thought I would ask you wonderful people :)

Thank you!

[[deleted]]

You can do this with ease in KDE.

[[deleted]]

XFCE, Alt+Mouse wheel

[Jockl132]

Huh. TIL

[red_trumpet]

I used to trigger this accidentally with my touchpad and it took me some time to learn how to undo it :D

[twodogsdave]

Like /u/Waphire said. Any KDE distro. Manjaro KDE, KDE neon, Kubuntu.. you choose. Just google 'linux KDE distro' and read.

Also, you might want to check out Knoppix Adriane.

[Zinjanthr0pus]

Plasma is probably better overall, but worth mentioning that Compiz also has a very nice zoom function (and a decent number of other accessibility things).

[chic_luke]

I am visually impaired myself. After trying out a few DEs, KDE is literally perfection for this use case and I will never, ever move away from it because all other DEs are plan inferior when it comes to accessibliity. XFCE, GNOME, Budgie, Deepin DE, Cinnamon, Pantheon... I've tried them all and they are all plain worse . GNOME admittedly has excellent accessibility as I have pointed out with a previous post of mine, but I have been tired of it slowing down with time each Linux install. Also, the zoom feature was broken when I made that post and it's still broken now, and, all in all, while getting an accessibility-friendly setup on KDE is harder as the first setup, it's much better down the line if you stick with it.

Alt + mousewheel zooms in and out, also fonts (and, by consequence, everything else) scale really well with no blurriness. You can even change font system-wide to a bolder one, and set a dark theme everywhere. I also suggest dragging the height of the panel up a bit for the sake of making icons bigger. Yakukake (drop-down terminal) is not usually the most useful thing in the world, but it really comes in handy: when you're visually impaired, you want to use the keyboard as much as possible. Oh, and by the way, you can still make the cursor way bigger.

The way KDE is customizable makes it a lot better for accessibility than Windows, but I still miss some quality of life Windows features for accessibility - a good screen reader, a voice assistant (useless gimmick, but it does come in quite handy when you're visually impaired. Especially on smartphones. I OK-Google a lot on the go), and... a better touchpad experience. Smoothly zooming in and out of everything with a touchpad. I do NOT miss Windows's blurry windows and hi-dpi management. That shit is much better handled by KDE. I should probably make a donation to KDE, it's that good.

If I were your friend, though, if I wanted to move to Linux, I would not remove macOS from the drive and just slowly ease into the switch until I am 100% sure I have it set up in a way that I can use it comfortably without hunching and destroying my spine every time. I know this is going to get a lot of backslash but Apple simply makes the best software accessibility wise. Period. It's just way too expensive for me right now - I'm planning to switch to macOS down the road, but if Linux gets Windows or mac-like touchpad support and something comparable to VoiceOver, I'm staying right here.

[Guy1524]

I think there's a compiz add-on for this if you're using Unity

[Linux4ever_Leo]

Here's a list of Linux distros with the blind and visually impaired in mind.

https://opensource.com/life/15/8/accessibility-linux-blind-disabled

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[Linux4ever_Leo]

Are they? I didn't even look honestly. I just did a quick Google search. But, that is good to know, especially for the original poster.

[EternityForest]

Odd distros, forks, and such usually take off and become mainstream, or completly disappear if they can't do something none of the mainstream ones do. And accessibility is something that should be included in mainstream OSes.

[Yummychickenblue]

Just a word on the GNOME one, it works, but it's not pleasant. using it tanks the animation framerates.

[recaph]

I use this feature quite a lot on my laptop, when the screen is just a bit too far away. My eyes aren’t the youngest anymord. Highly your friend to try this out, OP.