Grandma needs a PC

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sky_diver_

My 94 year old Grandmother has been very happy with her WebTV for years
now. But a recent lightning strike took out the Philips set top box. On
the upside she has become more receptive to computers after being
indoctrinated on WebTV/msnTV.

So I will soon be heading "over the river and through the woods" to
assess the situation and get her back online. Its possible that now she
may be interested in functions not available from the set top box. I
would like to know before I get there if it is possible to build a PC
that would make a suitable WebTV client. Mostly I'm concerned about
fonts and legibility.
 
She is lblessed to have a grandson like you who helps her out! :-)
Great to hear that she is well and enjoys watching TV at her age.
Can't give you advice as I don't know about the TV situation in the
States, although everybody there seem to be in love with a product
called Tivo...

One idea may be to check with some online group for people who are
visually impaired and find out how they solve this dilemma.
(I would not have thought that they use the internet or TV a lot, but it
turns out that they do, they just need special settings. In fact they
are very much present online as I learnt at a course that I went to for
work.)
Look out for something where the menu font size can be adjusted to a
larger size.

Windows PCs are actually good for this. From the display settings and
tweakers like "Window Blinds" you can virtually double or triple the
font size without distorting proportions.

If your Grandmother happens to be into audio-books, please would you
post to say how you set that up for her? I want to get my grandmother
something to read mp3 format audio books, but she is a bit suspicious
towards anything technical, and most mp3 players would probably be too
fiddly.
Jo
 
My 94 year old Grandmother has been very happy with her WebTV for years
now. But a recent lightning strike took out the Philips set top box.
Click to expand...

Oh, so *she's* the one who was still using WebTV. I was wondering who
that was...

A_C
 
[email protected] said:
My 94 year old Grandmother has been very happy with her WebTV for years
now. ......[snip] Its possible that now she
may be interested in functions not available from the set top box. I
would like to know before I get there if it is possible to build a PC
that would make a suitable WebTV client. Mostly I'm concerned about
fonts and legibility.
Click to expand...

[snip]
One idea may be to check with some online group for people who are
visually impaired and find out how they solve this dilemma....
[snip] ....I want to get my grandmother
something to read mp3 format audio books.....[snip]
Click to expand...

A group that seems quite well informed on this topic is
alt.comp.blind-users, and I have seen these kind of questions
discussed in a UK/USA/Canada context.

Geo
 
i dont think so....it depends on the hardware and os u use. winxp
comes stock with plenty of accesibilty options such as a narrarator
and a magnafier.
 
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