GENERAL INTEREST CONTINUED

Posted by Dorothy Rose on May 26, 1999 at 13:45:23:

Can magnification be included as part of prescription glasses to help in reading? I've been asked to teach a music workshop next month. I need better vision for this. Where can I go for suggestions? Thanks.

Below is Dr. Goldberg's response regarding your question.

Regarding the question about magnification in glasses, it can be done to an extent. For example, sometimes I'll prescribe glasses with about a power of +12.00, roughly equivalent to a 4x magnifier. The only problem is that the stronger the power, the shorter the working distance must be. For example, with this +12.00 power, a person will need to hold his or her reading material about 3 or 4 inches from the eyes. For this reason, that is about as strong as I'll prescribe in this type of glasses. There are also prismatic microscopic readers, which operate on the same basis, but with prism built in. The idea is to be able to have both eyes working together, but usually what happens with such short working distances is that the person just uses one eye to read (whichever eye is better).

Another option, if feasible for the music teacher, is an illuminated stand magnifier, which can provide greater levels of magnification while allowing a more normal working distance. If she/he doesn't need very much magnification, spectacle binoculars are also available (they provide about 2x mag), allowing free use of the hands. All of these items may be ordered from my practice or any of the low vision providers available. A more sophisticated option may be to obtain a spectacle-mounted telescope, with near-point focusing. This will require a visit to a qualified low-vision specialist.

Best wishes,
Stephen Goldberg, O.D.
Vision Enhancement Corp.
030 Woodcrest Terr., Suite 208
St. Louis MO 63141
1-888-683-9600

Reading a Computer Screen

Posted by Ken on June 09, 1999 at 13:30:45:

Hello All,
A friend of mine has AMD and has noticed that it is easier to read a computer screen if the characters are white and the background is black - the opposite of standard Windows applications. While we can make the type in certain applications larger, does anyone know of a way to universally convert white to black and black to white within Windows?

Thanks,
Ken

Posted by Marsha on June 23, 1999 at 01:32:07:

Dear Ken,
I hope this information may be of assistance to you. In Windows, desktop showing, right click mouse on any blank space. This will bring up a mini-menu; move mouse to highlight "Properties" and left click. In next window, left click Appearance tab. From here, you can select an item from a scroll down menu (i.e. desktop, icon, menu, message box, window, etc) and change their associative scheme, color, size, and font. When done, there are options to "save as" and "delete".

Good luck!!!

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