At your computer: Extra accommodations

The glare of light from computer screens can drive you crazy. It might give you a headache or eyestrain or make the print do strange things. Here's help:

Good ol' low tech solution: lay one or more overlays over your screen if you've already been screened for Irlen. You may need more overlays than you use on paper.

Hint: Overlays work great for computer glare if you use different computers or share a computer with other people. Or if your email is really white and everything else is okay.


Change your screen's brightness and contrast levels by messing around with those little buttons on the bottom of your monitor. I can't explain what buttons exactly, because all computers are a little different. Ask your little brother for help. (If you have a laptop your little brother can't help you; you just don't have any buttons.) You might also be able to download a program that automatically changes the settings for you (below).


Download a program to change the color, brightness and contrast of your screen if you can't figure out those little buttons on the bottom of your monitor. The main problem here is that these programs only work with certain brands of monitors, but you might be able to find one that works for you.

Note: If one of the programs below says that it doesn't work with the type of monitor that you have just choose a different program. If you don't you could possibly screw up some of your monitor's settings or something.

Display Tuner - Claims to work with many different kinds of monitors. Also can save and load different profiles, so if you have a family computer you can all have different settings.

NaViSet - For NEC and Mitsubishi monitors

MagicTune - For Samsung monitors. If you don't have a Samsung monitor please don't use this, as it can screw up your computer. Just use one of the other programs listed here

     ReadScape ComfortScreen - Made specifically to help people with Irlen by a man who has Irlen himself. ReadScape costs $20 but if it helps you it's worth the money. A free evaluation version will likely be available for download sometime in the future
      -The ReadScape site is currently down

Also, take a look at my tutorial below for changing the color for some programs, etc. in Windows:

Tutorial: Changing your computer's background color

(Tutorial performed on Windows XP. However, steps for other versions of Windows are very similar.)

Change the background color of your computer so that certain programs will use something easier on your eyes than the default bright white background color.


1. Right click on an empty space in your desktop to bring up the little options menu. Click on "Properties". The Display Properties box will open.
 
 
2. Click on the "Appearances" tab.
 
 
3. Click on the "Advanced" button.
 
 
4. Click the arrow on the "Item:" drop down menu and select the last option, "Window". Changing the color for this changes the background color for any application that uses Windows' background color settings. (Ex. Word, Excel, Outlook, certain text boxes, etc.)
 Note: In this tutorial we'll just be changing the "Window" color, but it's possible to change the color of every item in the list.
 
5. Click  the drop down arrow under "Color 1" and click the "Other..." button exactly as shown below.
Note: Be sure to click on "Color 1" as shown above and not on "Color". "Color 1" changes the background color, which is what you want to do. "Color" changes default text color, which you don't need to mess with. (Or maybe you do want to later.)
 
 
6. Select the color that is most comfortable for you. Click on the large color box to select your hue and slide the slider on the right up and down to select your shade. You can make a collection of your favorite colors if you like by clicking "Add to Custom Colors".
 
 
7. When you find the color you like best, exit out of all of the stuff you just opened by clicking "Ok" 3 times.
 
 
8. Try it out! Open Word or Internet Explorer and...
Note: The background in the example above is blue, but for you it should be whatever color you picked out. (No duh.) Go back to Step 5 if you want to change the text color.
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