How do I set up a device for someone with poor eyesight?
The full set of settings worth changing, in order of how much difference each makes.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 45 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
Display size first, then bold text, then contrast — in that order. Display size scales buttons and touch targets as well as text, which usually helps more than text size alone.
There is a lot more available than the text size slider, and the settings that help most are often not the obvious ones. Working through them in order of impact gets to a usable device faster than experimenting.
Step by step
- Increase display size, not just text size.Display size or display zoom scales the whole interface — buttons, icons and touch targets. It usually helps more than text size on its own.
- Then increase text size, including the larger accessibility sizes.There is usually an additional toggle that unlocks much bigger sizes than the standard slider allows.
- Turn on bold text.Thin light fonts are the real problem for many people. Bold often helps more than another size increase.
- Increase contrast and reduce transparency."Increase contrast" and "reduce transparency" both sharpen edges and darken text against backgrounds.
- Try colour filters or inversion.Smart invert, greyscale and colour filters help with specific conditions. Try each — the right one is individual and obvious when found.
- Set up the magnifier shortcut.A triple-click or gesture that magnifies part of the screen. Essential for occasional small text without changing everything.
- Consider the screen reader.VoiceOver or TalkBack read the screen aloud. A significant learning curve, but transformative for severe sight loss. Introduce it deliberately, not as an afterthought.
- Set up voice dictation and voice control.Reduces reliance on seeing the keyboard, and voice control allows full operation without reading the interface.
Tips
- Change one thing at a time and check. Altering six settings at once makes it impossible to tell what helped.
- Very high contrast is not always better — some people find dark mode harder, particularly with astigmatism. Test both.
- A larger phone is a genuine accessibility improvement. Screen size is a setting you buy rather than change.
Questions people ask
What helps most for poor eyesight on a phone?
Display size, because it scales buttons and touch targets as well as text. Then bold text and increased contrast, which often help more than further size increases.
Should I turn on the screen reader?
For severe sight loss it is transformative, but it changes how the whole device is operated and needs proper learning time. For mild difficulty, magnification and contrast are usually enough.