Visual Impairments and Opera

The range of visual impairments is broad and Opera addresses symptoms of low vision and blindness by providing features specifically designed to aid visually impaired users.

Low vision can incorporate color blindness, contrast sensitivity, and difficulty in changing focus. Users may have problems reading colored text and links, and experience eye strain with flashes and video display.

Low vision users

Zoom graphics and text

Zoom the contents of a document (text and images) from 20%-1000% either from the drop-down zoom box at the top of the browser or by simply pressing + to zoom in or - to zoom out.

Change colors, text size and increase buttons

Customize the color of text and links, and increase the size of the text from the Preferences menu.

To change the color of text and links:

  1. Go to File > Preferences > Fonts and colors
  2. Change the fonts and colors of the text and links, background color, and minimum text size to a style that better suits you

Disable animations and video display

Opera lets you disable GIF animations, video displays, and Java plug-ins that can be obtrusive if you have difficulty changing focus or experience eye strain.

Press G to toggle images on/off on a page. This allows you to only view text and the page will load much faster.

  1. To disable GIF animations go to File > Preferences > Multimedia and uncheck the "Enable GIF animation" box in the images section
  2. To disable video displays, Java, and plug-ins go to File > Preferences > Multimedia, then to the "Media types" section, and uncheck the actions you want to disable

Implement your own style sheet

You can specify your own style sheet and disable the document's style sheet, which will let you view the page with the colors and fonts you prefer. In File > Preferences > Page style, you can select that Opera displays the pages with the colors, fonts, and link style that you choose. Select "My style sheet", "My fonts", etc., and insert the file of the style sheet you have authored and/or customized.

You can switch between the "User mode" or "Author mode" style sheet by pressing Ctrl+G, or by clicking the User mode/author mode icon you find on each page. The "User mode" style sheet lets you customize the color of the font and the background, as well as the text size. For example, if black text on a white background strains your eyesight, you can change the background to black with a green font for easier reading. The "Author mode" displays the Web pages as the Web designer or author intends it to be seen.

Blind users

Sound alerts

Opera lets users implement sounds for several actions performed while surfing. Any sound can be installed for various movements, such as Opera start-up and exit, page loaded, transfer done, failure, instant message received, and follow link.

  1. Go to File > Preferences > Sounds and choose a sound file for each event