Another idea for Magnification

[Richard Powell <gnome-info powell homeip net>]

All,

I've been using GNOME for almost 10 years now.  In 2003 I became legally 
blind (visually impaired).  Since that time I have had to use a 
combination of tricks to allow me to see the screen well enough to use 
it.  These "tricks" have included low resolution display setting, large 
monitors, extremely large font sizing and the use of a hand held magnifier.

I've read through some of the discussions on this mailing list and it 
looks like the team members have some ambitious goals.  I truly hope 
that these goals can and will be met.  However, as a visually impaired 
GNOME user I know what would make GNOME much easier to use that I don't 
believe is nearly as ambitious.  Microsoft introduced a feature with 
their mice a few years back that has solved my problem entirely on a 
Windows machine (which ironically is not as easy to setup for the 
visually impaired as GNOME).  It's called "Magnify".  Unlike Logitech's 
"Zoom" feature, which is little more than a button mapping to the text 
sizing function of applications such as Mozilla, "Magnify" actually pops 
up a magnification window around that mouse cursor.  This window can be 
adjusted for size and magnification level by simple mouse controls.  
What this does for me and the other people that I have introduced to 
this, is it allows me to not have to change all my display and font 
settings and more importantly I no longer have to hold a magnifier in 
one hand while trying to use the computer with my other hand.

I'm not sure what the effort level would be for this kind of task.  I do 
know however that this feature has been the most useful feature to me 
(as a visually impaired person) since the introduction of the mouse 
itself.  This may be a simpler solution that would solve the same issues 
that you are currently wrestling with.  It's application independent and 
it's extremely flexible to the user.

Richard Powell