10 aids for living with impaired vision

There are all sorts of things that can make daily life easier for partially sighted people. These aids can make such a difference to your quality of life that you will be much less conscious of any sight problems you have. Here's a small sample of what's on the market:

1. Choose watches and clocks with huge numbers and thick hands, and avoid Roman numerals, which are harder to distinguish.
2. Look for large-print books at your local library.
3. Computer keyboards are available with large keys and big letters set against different-coloured backgrounds, as well as touch pattern keys.
4. Set the text size on your word processor to large and experiment with different colours and backgrounds — often yellow text on a black background is easier to read than black on white.
5. Choose felt-tipped pens rather than ballpoint to write with.
6. Voice-recognition software can interpret what you say and transform it into written text; speech software that reads text back to you is also available.
7. Specialist suppliers have an astonishing range of products for people with visual impairment: large-print calendars, talking or tactile watches and clocks, magnifiers for reading and writing, and writing frames to help you to write in a straight line and sign cheques in the correct place.
8. You can obtain voice-activated phones, talking books, audio-set timers, and talking thermometers and measuring cups.
9. You can even get a hand-held camera to capture and magnify images wherever you are, for instance to read the very small print on supermarket labels.
10. Remember, too, that you can always ask your service providers to send you large-print bills, statements and other crucial information.