The text is small and your eyes are hurting
Imagine you open an email, document spreadsheet or online form. The text is small and the screen feels busy. You need to check something important, such as a name, address, date, reference number or action, but it is hard to see the details clearly.
You may also be moving between Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and PDF’s. The mouse pointer may be hard to find. Buttons, fields and links may be close together.
This can be tiring, especially if you are working quickly, using a laptop screen or mobile device for a long time. If this happens to you, you are not alone. Simple tools and settings can make text easier to read and help reduce eye strain.
What is getting in the way?
- Small text in emails, documents or forms
- Busy screens with lots of columns, menus, tabs, icons or links close together
- Losing your place when moving between documents, systems or screens
- Finding it hard to check fine details such as names, dates, addresses or figures
- Eye strain, headaches or tiredness after reading on screen for a long time
Tools that can help
- Magnifying, zooming, scaling and increasing the size of your screen – helps you control the size of text, images and elements on your screen
- Mouse pointer and text cursor settings – makes the pointer or typing cursor easier to see, especially when moving between screens or selecting fields in forms.
- Brightness, contrast and colour settings – can reduce glare and make information easier to read, particularly during longer periods of screen work.
You do not need to try everything. Start with one small change and see what helps.
