Computers include features aimed at making life easier for people with low or no vision and other features that might be of particular interest. This is the first area to investigate, because it may be that these features are enough to enable you to use the computer. If not, you need to consider getting additional software or hardware to help you.
Broadly speaking, low vision users can choose screen colours and font sizes, mouse pointer size and colour, or magnify everything on the screen. Users with no vision can control the computer with the keyboard instead of a mouse, and use a built-in screen reader that speaks information that appears on the screen. As examples of where to find these features:
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Windows: Start Menu, Control Panel, Ease of Access, Ease of Access Center or on Windows Vista, 7 or 8, type what you are looking for on the Start menu/screen
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Mac OS X: Apple menu, System Preferences, Universal Access (on Mountain Lion it's called Accessibility) or open Spotlight and type what you're looking for, then select it from the results within System Preferences
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Ubuntu 12.04: System menu, System Settings, Universal Access
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Chrome: Spanner menu, Settings, Show advanced settings
For a step-by-step guide to making many accessibility changes to your computer, visit AbilityNet's My Computer My Way website. The BBC's My Web My Way website is also very useful.
Change size and shape of system fonts and icons
The text and icons on computer screens are by default small, so that lots of them can be shown on the screen at any one time. It is possible to make them bigger in two ways.
The first is to change the resolution of the screen. A computer screen is made up of dots called pixels, arranged in lines across the screen. The more pixels there are, the clearer and smaller text and images on the screen can be. A screen resolution of 1024 x 768 means there are 768 horizontal lines, each of 1024 pixels. Lowering these numbers will make everything on the screen larger, but may also make them look fuzzier. The exact numbers you can change your resolution to depend on the monitor you have, but a common size that most monitors can use is 800 x 600.
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Windows: Start menu, Control Panel, Adjust Screen Resolution or right click an empty area of the Desktop and choose Screen resolution (Windows XP - choose Properties, Settings tab)
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Mac OS X: Apple menu, System Preferences, Displays
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Ubuntu 12.04: System menu, Displays
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Chrome: There is no way to alter resolution, which is set automatically
The second way to change the size of text is by finding the system font size and changing it:
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Windows XP: Right click an empty area of tehe Desktop, Properties, Appearance tab
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Windows 7: Start Menu, search for "large text"
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Mac OS X: No option for changing system font size
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Ubuntu 12:04: System menu, System Settings, Universal Access, Seeing tab
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Chrome: Spanner menu, Settings, Show advanced settings, look under Web content
Colours
Computers use colour to separate screen elements or to indicate whether something is available for use. Most often text is shown as dark text on a lighter background. You can invert these colour options or choose specific colours to use for text and background.
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Windows XP: Start menu, Control Panel, Display or right click an empty area of the Desktop. Colour options are on the Appearance page. Or LeftAlt + LeftShift + Print Screen to toggle High Contrast.
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Windows 7 or 8: Search Start menu or screen for "change the theme", or right click an empty area of the Desktop and choose Personalise. Choose a theme and then choose Window Color or Colour for further options. Or LeftAlt + LeftShift + Print Screen to toggle High Contrast.
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Mac OS X: Apple menu, System Preferences, Universal Access (Accessibility on Mountain Lion), Display. Or toggle invert with Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-8, alter contrast with Ctrl-Opt-Command-Period/Comma.
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Ubuntu 12.04: System menu, System Settings, Universal Access, Seeing, Contrast.
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Chrome: Spanner menu, Settings, Show advanced settings, look under Accessibility
Screen magnification
Full screen magnification is possible on Windows 7 and 8 and Mac OS X; there are no font smoothing or automatic reading functions .
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Windows XP: Start menu, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Magnifier or Windows + U. No full screen mode.
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Windows 7 or 8: Search Start menu/screen for "Magnifier", or switch on with Windows + Plus, off with Windows + Escape. Full screen, Docked and Lens modes.
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Mac OS X: Hold down the Ctrl key and push two fingers up on the trackpad or Magic Mouse.
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Mac OS X before Mountain Lion: Apple menu, System Preferences, Universal Access, Zoom or toggle on and off with Opt-Command-8.
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Mac OS X Mountain Lion: Use Apple menu, System Preferences, Accessibility, Zoom to turn on shortcuts.
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Ubuntu 12.04: Does not include a magnification feature
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Chrome: Does not include a magnification feature.
Screen reader
All computers have a built-in screen reader, although its capability varies greatly. For Windows the built-in option is poor but there are lots of third party options; for Mac OS X, Linux and Chrome the built-in options are essentially the only ones available.
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Windows XP: Start menu, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Narrator or Windows + U and choose relevant options.
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Windows 7: Search Start menu for "Narrator" or Start menu, Control Panel, Ease of Access Center, or Windows + U, Alt + N
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Windows 8: Search Start screen for "Narrator" or Start screen, Control Panel, Ease of Access Center or Windows + Enter or Windows + Control + U or on a touch screen device, Windows + Volume Up.
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Mac OS X: Apple menu, System Preferences, Universal Access (Accessibility in Mountain Lion) or Cmd - F5
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Ubuntu 11.10: Alt + F2, type "orca" and press Return.
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Chrome: Ctrl + Alt + Z or Spanner menu, Settings, Show advanced settings, look under Accessibility
Mouse pointer
If you can use the mouse, it's worth knowing that you can change the size of the mouse poitner, and sometimes the shape and colour too. You may also be able to press a key to locate the pointer, or add trails to it to make it more visible.
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Windows XP: Start menu, Control Panel, Mouse
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Windows 7 or 8: Search Start menu/screen for "mouse" or Start menu, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Mouse
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Mac OS X before Mountain Lion: Apple menu, System Preferences, Universal Access, Mouse & Trackpad page (size only)
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Mac OS X Mountain Lion: Apple menu, System Preferences, Accessibility, Display page (size only)
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Ubuntu 12.04: No options for mouse pointers
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Chrome: No options for mouse pointers
Operating system-specific options
As mentioned above, Windows has a lot of options to allow you to tweak screen colours to your liking, although if you have very specific requirements, you may still find it difficult to get them exactly right. Keyboard accessibility is available at all times and is very well-developed.
Macs allow you to use the trackpad (built-in on laptops, or available separately for desktops) to perform gestures rather than using the keyboard or mouse. Keyboard accessibility is available but limited until you go to System Preferences, Keyboard Preferences and turn on full keyboard access, or press Ctrl-F7.
Both Windows and Macs have increasingly good voice recognition built in, but using a keyboard is still a quicker way to do things other than write simple text.
Neither Ubuntu nor Chrome have any other notable accessibility options.
For each of these operating systems, the latest version at least has access to an online repository of software from where themes and apps can be downloaded. Themes are collections of colour settings for the screen, and some apps can change the mouse pointer shape and colour.
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The Windows Store is for Windows 8 only
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The Mac App store is available for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and later
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The Chrome Web Store works for all Chromebooks
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The Ubuntu Software Centre is for Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and later.
Application options
Many applications have settings that can be helpful in terms of simplifying the screen or changing the way the application looks.
On Windows computers, a good place to look for these is the View menu of an application. Most Microsoft applications have a Tools menu and the Options item at the bottom gives access to a large set of settings; for many other applications these settings are found in the Edit menu, Preferences item.
On Mac computers, go to the name of the application on the menu bar and choose Preferences, or press Cmd-Comma.
Linux applications are similar to Windows applications; the View menu may have a number of useful options, and also either Tools > Options or Edit > Preferences.
Chrome applications all work within the web browser and have no settings outside those mentioned above.
Further information
The information above only scratches the surface when it comes to accessibility. More is available on the manufacturer's websites:
RNIB's TechKnowMore blog entries also sometimes highlight specific features, for instance