It has a Firefox plugin and a bookmarklet.  I'd post links to the addons, etc but my internet is all screwy today... blazing fast 1 second and down the next . 

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE RESPONSES.. 

 Especially to Ramesh (how do you manage to be sooo verbose? - I find it dificult to write more than a couple of paragraphs usually.!)

From the advices above, I am feeling somewhat embarassed and guilty of not putting enough effort into researching the subject thoroughly myself. Therefore my profuse apologies on this account - but huge thanks for helping so far.

I promise to work through the links etc. suggested and experiment to find what works best (for me) and then present my findings to, hopefully, benefit others having similar sight difficulty, either through this forum or a public web post (any suggestions?). Interim responses to your suggestions will, however, be posted here as a courtesy.

This exercise, however, could take an indeterminate time as I now intend to do a more in-depth study (not quite a university thesis though - I left that arena quite a while ago, those were the days  - although it does seem a good topic to work on there.)

Anyone wishing to collaborate on the project please contact me to set up a direct dialogue mechanism. I have a Google Wave account and might use it for this purpose (and to see how the Wave performs) if you can also indicate whether this is acceptable. If you do not have a Wave account, I have a few invitations up for grabs.

My browser of choice is Firefox, currently vr.3.6, with Chrome, Safari and Opera also available for particular alternative requirements. I.E. 8 also is available to me for those sites that seem to insist on it's use exclusively.

Once again, a BIG thanks to all respondents. LOL

AlanR

We have at least 1 Iphone owner with us in our dottech family. That lady is very helpful as it is & might be able to throw light on this.........in this dottech relay race.

All the very best AlanR!

Ramesh

 

 

Hi AlanR!  

Karen was that particular wonderful lady I was referring to in this case

There are several other wonderful ladies in our dottech family........................and many wonderful gents too!

Ramesh

NoSquint:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592 - allows users to change font sizes and colors on a global or per site basis

NoColor:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5758 - removes colors and background images from a page.

WCAG Contrast Checker:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7391 - this is more for website developers, but it helps them check color contrasts and how they conform to standards for various visual impairments

Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9108 - again, more for developers to help them make their websites more accessible

N-Abled Web Accessibility Toolbar:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14206 - experimental add-on.  One click changes to web site color schemes.

Stylish:  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108 - allows you to create custom styles for web pages (basically changes the css but in a more user friendly way)

1) http://www.inform.umd.edu/UniversalDesign/index.html

2) http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/

5) http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&hs=ggC&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&q=Internet+Explorer+for+colour+blind+people&btnG=Search&meta=

Ramesh

We have at least 1 Iphone owner with us in our dottech family. That lady is very helpful as it is & might be able to throw light on this.........in this dottech relay race.

All the very best AlanR!

Ramesh

 

 

Finally I request some of our ultra savvy dottechies to refer to forum thread "Dottech Improvement Suggestion 1". In it in one post I've given an html link which lists various browsers including speciality browsers.

Perhaps one of those speciality browsers could provide a solution for AlanR

Ramesh

Hope this helps. I'll check IE6 now. Btw these are the only 3 browsers I have & use. IE6 I use as little as possible because of worry regarding ActiveX Com Objects. Other dottechies might be able to check up Chrome, Safari or the other browsers I mentioned in my thread called "Dottech Improvement Suggestion 1"

I pray some dottechie can email customized css code to you. We have some who know coding in this wonderful dottech family.

All the best. I'll now focus on IE6.

Ramesh

Hi AlanR!

I've checked Internet Explorer 6 as well.

You are likely to find the solution you seek only in Opera 9.64 & Safari browser. Here's why:-

1) IE disgusted me. While it does come up on Google hits every single time I searched;  the link it took me to a web page which explains colour blindness rather than providing a solution. That's cheating! I did not like that. How would they feel if they suffered colour blindness. Anyway I could clinically gather that Internet Explorer could not solve this problem even though more than 300 million people in the world who are colour blind!

2) An Iphone launched by Apple in June 2009 has an app directly focused to solve colour blindness. It makes a colour blind web page visible to the colour blind. Common sense tells me that if one computer device aka a mobile phone aka IPhone has it then definitely Safari browser from Apple company has every chance of having it.

We have at least 1 Iphone owner with us in our dottech family. That lady is very helpful as it is & might be able to throw light on this.........in this dottech relay race.

All the very best AlanR!

Ramesh

Hope this helps. I'll check IE6 now. Btw these are the only 3 browsers I have & use. IE6 I use as little as possible because of worry regarding ActiveX Com Objects. Other dottechies might be able to check up Chrome, Safari or the other browsers I mentioned in my thread called "Dottech Improvement Suggestion 1"

Ramesh 

I am happier than you are while sharing this great news with you. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Incidentally Opera 9.64 installer is available on both Cnet & FileHippo. Incidentally it is free. Dear friend I'd say it is better to use Cnet rather than FileHippo - other things remaining equal.

I pray some dottechie can email customized css code to you. We have some who know coding in this wonderful dottech family.

All the best. I'll now focus on IE6. I am so happy!

Ramesh

AlanR said:Hope this helps. This is what I could rustle up for the immediate present AlanR.

I'll now check in Opera 10.10.

Ramesh

 

 

I am blogging from Opera 10.10 now. 

I've found an html link which worked for the colour blind in Opera 9.64. The html link is:-

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=355721

This feels like a relay race. I could only carry the baton this far. I hope someone can carry it further. I quote directly from that html link, having given credit to that html link. Start of Quote       

"Custom.css code help needed 
Two years ago some kind souls on this forum wrote me a custom.css ini file which catered for my visual disabilities (I need light text on a dark background) and it now needs updating. Now that the net has moved on & Opera 10 now works with "Voice" I rely on it as the main browser (9.64 was my fav) I find that due to my custom.css settings I miss a lot, if not all, images on any given page.

My research pointed me to the "lack of a general transparency for images code rule" being the issue but I'm not skilled enough to insert that default line of code into my custom.css. Can anyone write the line of code to add a generic transparency rule in my attached custom.css?

I guess that I would have to compromise on my dark background / light text stipulation say if the background itself was an image with a light background. And also small images on button icons (like the Forward & Previous in Hotmail Live) that I cant currently see will have to be as originally coded as black on white images.

I will provide examples of the websites with & without my custom.css to help illustrate my needs.

Opera with Custom_css example 1.jpg
Opera without Custom_css example 1.jpg
Opera with Custom_css example 2.jpg
Opera without Custom_css example 2.jpg
Opera with Custom_css example 3.jpg
Opera without Custom_css example 3.jpg
Opera with Custom_css example 4.jpg
Opera without Custom_css example 4.jpg
Opera with Custom_css example 5.jpg
Opera without Custom_css example 5.jpg

Example 5 is at ttp://jalopnik.com/5437194/so-ugly-theyre-beautiful-20-cool-frankencars/gallery/?skyline=true&s=i
is a issue when I use the FULL Screen or 800 x 600 option image with my custom.css

As always any help is appreciated". End of Quote

Hope this helps. I'll check IE6 now. Btw these are the only 3 browsers I have & use. IE6 I use as little as possible because of worry regarding ActiveX Com Objects. Other dottechies might be able to check up Chrome, Safari or the other browsers I mentioned in my thread called "Dottech Improvement Suggestion 1"

Ramesh 

Has anyone considered those of us unfortunate to have a different perception of colours than the majority?

Not everyone sees colours identically.

Being "colour-blind" does not necessarily mean one cannot see any colour, rather, it is used to indicate there are deviations from the norm.

The blindness inference refers to conditions where certain combinations of the affected primary colours, especially in combination with BLACK (and also night / darkness visibilty conditions) renders them indiscernible to the afflicted viewer.

Those web-sites that think it is "cool" to use dark and sombre (black or nearly so) backgrounds coupled with other coloured text / icons etc. are putting at a disadvantage their colour-blind visitors.  I am one such person.

This problem is not restricted to web-sites (the hard-print industry, magazines, etc., are equally guilty) - and the 3-D cinema / TV that needs goggles to watch - but, as this is a Tech-post, I would pose the following challenge / question.

Does anyone know of a browser Plug-in or other utility that can be used for simply toggling screen colouring to enhance readability when necessary?

If not already available, can you please help in development of one? It would need to be adjustable / customisable for individual proclivities.

Sorry if I started off with a mini lecture and then griped a bit. It was, I believe, necessary to give a brief introdution for the understanding of those not aware of such problems and their affects.

An alternative would be for each website concerned to have a B & W box for toggling to alternative views or monochrome text only display - but how to make that mandatory?

O.K. dotTechies, any bright ideas.?

Hi AlanR!

I cannot lay claim to any bright idea but just a humble effort to find a solution.

I've saved some html links & am providing those to you & to dottechies as well. My objectives were:-

1)First priority was to try & provide immediate solutions for you before something customized gets developed. It looked to me that there are at least 2 solutions - one online & one off line. *Advanced web developers &/or advanced browser users might be able to use config:sys within the browser to either sleeve in functionality or tweak it.*     *It looked like Firefox 3.5.8 had no plugin in for this. One search result plugin for Firefox did come up for "colour blind" but it was an experimental plugin AlanR*  The user reviews were unclear & the developer too did not explain much - Anyway this is what it is -

N-Abled Web Accessibility Toolbar
by N-Abled-Dev

2)Second priority was to provide dottechies with further background to colour blindness to supplement what you already usefully provided

The html links covering immediate solutions & also further background info are:-

1)  http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/

3) http://www.vischeck.com/downloads/

5) http://wearecolorblind.com/

7) http://www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/colorblind.html

8) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&q=browser+plugin+for+the+colour+blind&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Hope this helps. This is what I could rustle up for the immediate present AlanR.

I'll now check in Opera 10.10.

Ramesh

Ramesh

Not everyone sees colours identically. Due to quirks in our genetic coding, the distribution of cones in the eye do not register evenly the normal visible spectrum.

Some people see more, or less, of various colours than others. This, typically, occurs in the GREEN  and RED spectrum and affects more men than women.

Being "colour-blind" does not necessarily mean one cannot see any colour, rather, it is used to indicate there are deviations from the norm.

The blindness inference refers to conditions where certain combinations of the affected primary colours, especially in combination with BLACK (and also night / darkness visibilty conditions) renders them indiscernible to the afflicted viewer.

Those web-sites that think it is "cool" to use dark and sombre (black or nearly so) backgrounds coupled with other coloured text / icons etc. are putting at a disadvantage their colour-blind visitors.  I am one such person.

One of my tricks (when I am really determined to get the information) to read the text is by using mouse-over highlighting, which sadly, does not always work though. Consequently, I tend not to bother with such sites much these days and suppose other like persons might do the same - a potential loss of patronage / revenue to the purveyors.

This problem is not restricted to web-sites (the hard-print industry, magazines, etc., are equally guilty) - and the 3-D cinema / TV that needs goggles to watch - but, as this is a Tech-post, I would pose the following challenge / question.

Does anyone know of a browser Plug-in or other utility that can be used for simply toggling screen colouring to enhance readability when necessary?

If not already available, can you please help in development of one? It would need to be adjustable / customisable for individual proclivities.

Sorry if I started off with a mini lecture and then griped a bit. It was, I believe, necessary to give a brief introdution for the understanding of those not aware of such problems and their affects.

An alternative would be for each website concerned to have a B & W box for toggling to alternative views or monochrome text only display - but how to make that mandatory?

O.K. dotTechies, any bright ideas.?