How do the visually impared handle boot failures and other low-level environments

Question

I know that screen readers and similar software exists to help the blind and visually impaired to use computers when in Windows or other operating systems.

I am curious as to what support is available in lower level environments such as OS installers and BIOS setup etc.

Answer 1

If it's linux and you have an external speech synthisizer you can use a program called speakup that will speak kernel messages. Other then that your out of luck and have to call someone with eyes that work better then yours.

Answer 2

For the people who are only visually impaired, rather than completely blind, in general the colors of the lower level systems are somewhat easier to see than black on a white background. The increased contrast should help a little. Other than that, there isn't much that I know of that could help them.

Answer 3

Systems often have standard series of beeps for when things go wrong, like no CPU, no RAM etc. However you can only find out what these mean by reading the manual...

Answer 4

Technical support is usually available from manufacturers/retailers. It's just a question of paying for it. Obviously it's cheaper to use a seeing eye(r) geek...

Answer 5

In Windows, there's really no way for visually impaired users to use the computer before the Windows login screen appears. JAWS (and WindowEyes and Hal, probably the others, too) install video hooks under the display drivers, and these are not loaded until the GUI login is shown.