ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES FOR NOTES
Accessibility features
IBM Lotus Notes has accessibility features that help users who have a physical disability, such as restricted mobility or limited vision, to use information technology products successfully. These are the major accessibility features in Lotus Notes:
Command keys directly trigger an action and usually make use of the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Macintosh) keys. For example, to print, press Ctrl+P (Macintosh users, Command+P).
For information on available Lotus Notes keyboard shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts or Keyboard shortcuts for the Macintosh.
This product uses standard Microsoft Windows navigation keys in addition to application-specific keys.
Interface information
Settings you can customize in basic preferences
Click File > Preferences > User Preferences (Macintosh OS X users: Click Lotus Notes > Preferences > User Preferences) to do the following:
You can select an icon color or size that is easier to see.
Under Display, use Icon color scheme to change color; use Bookmark icon size to change icon size.
Change default fonts
You can select different fonts for clarity.
Under Display, click Default Fonts, choose default font options and click OK.
Select or clear the Show extended accelerators option
Extended accelerators offer keyboard methods for operating the bookmarks bar and window tabs. If you have extended accelerators enabled, press and hold Alt to display additional accelerators for each bookmark and window tab. Once you see the extended accelerators displayed on your screen, press the letter or number that corresponds to the area of Notes you want to go to.
Under Additional options, select or clear Show extended accelerators.
Select or clear the Textured Workspace or Right double-click closes window options
The Textured workspace option can be cleared to improve screen clarity or to improve access for screen readers. The Right double-click closes window option offers an alternate way of closing windows in Lotus Notes.
Under Additional options, select or clear one or both of these options.
Enable or disable Java applets, JavaScript, Java access from JavaScript, JavaScript error dialogs, Plugins in Notes Browser, or ActiveX in Notes Browser
Notes supports Java Applets, JavaScript, Plugins, and ActiveX technology. Currently, some of these technologies are not accessible. Depending on which access technology you are using, you may want to disable these features.
Under Additional options, enable or disable any of these options.
Select or clear the Use Tab to navigate Read-Only Documents option
Tab moves to next unread document until the last unread document is selected. Then it moves to the next navigable object in the next frame. When a document is open in read mode, Tab navigates to any embedded object such as URLs, application links, and attachments.
Under Additional options, select or clear Use Tab to navigate Read-Only Documents.
Select or clear the Use Accessibility Keyboard navigation option
You can disable the directional arrows and enable Tab to move from field to field within a document in edit mode.
Under Additional options, select or clear Use Accessibility Keyboard navigation.
You can choose to display the Window menu in the menu bar, allowing you to move between open documents and applications. If the Window menu option is enabled, extended accelerators for window tabs are disabled, and instead enabled for the Window menu.
Under Additional options, select or clear Display Window Menu.
If you have specified one of the Windows high-contrast color schemes (See Windows Help to learn how to enable high-contrast color schemes), you can set Lotus Notes to use the same colors in its user interface, views, and documents.
Note: The High Contrast options have a default time out of five minutes. If your system is idle for five minutes the settings may change out of high contrast and back to a default setting.
Under Additional options, select or clear Use System Color.
Settings you can customize in mail preferences
Click File > Preferences > User Preferences (Macintosh OS X users: Click Lotus Notes > Preferences > User Preferences), and then click Mail to do the following:
Set audible or visual notification for incoming mail
When you receive a new mail message, Lotus Notes can notify you with either a sound or a visual cue.
Under When new mail arrives, click Play a sound or Display a popup alert.
Select a specific word processor
Although the editing features in Lotus Notes are designed to be accessible, you can also use your own word processor to edit documents.
Under Alternate message editor, select Microsoft Word or Lotus Word Pro.
Set your Internet mail format or Internet news format
You can select HTML or plain-text format.
Under Mail, click Internet. Then, for Internet mail, select a format under Internet mail format; for Internet news, select a format under Internet news format.
Settings you can customize in location preferences
Choose whether or not Lotus Notes should load images
If you are using a screen reader, it may help not to load images. You can turn them off to improve performance.
Click File > Preferences > Location Preferences (Macintosh OS X users: Click Lotus Notes > Preferences > Location Preferences).
Then, click the Advanced tab and then the Basics tab. In the Load images field, click On request.
Choose a browser other than Lotus Notes
You can use Lotus Notes as your Internet browser or use another browser, such as a text-only browser, instead. You must already have your preferred browser installed on your system.
Click File > Preferences > Location Preferences (Macintosh OS X users: Click Lotus Notes > Preferences > Location Preferences), click the Internet Browser tab, and then click the browser in the Internet browser field. If you click Other, specify the browser path in the Internet browser path field.
Additional Lotus Notes settings
Additional settings are available.
Set your workspace as your home page
For easier navigation, you may prefer to set the Lotus Notes workspace, rather than the Lotus Notes Home page, to appear when you start Lotus Notes. Both the workspace and the Home page are accessible through MSAA. In your bookmarks, open the Applications folder, right-click (Macintosh users, Ctrl+click) the workspace bookmark, and click Set Bookmark as Home Page.
Change font settings in your Notes.ini file
The Notes.ini file configuration file is located in your Lotus Notes directory. It stores information about your personal Lotus Notes installation. If you need to use slightly larger or smaller fonts at all times, close Lotus Notes, open your Notes.ini file in a text editor, and add the following setting as a new line anywhere in the file:
Save your Notes.ini file after you add the new font line, and then re-open Lotus Notes.
Enable keyboard navigation of the bookmarks list
If Show extended accelerators is enabled in your basic preferences, you can enable keyboard navigation along the bookmarks list. Press Alt+B to shift focus to the bookmarks list. For navigation, use the Up and Down arrows, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down. To select a bookmark, press Enter. To remove focus from the bookmarks list, press Esc.
Enable summaries in your calendar
In the default calendar views, dates are horizontally-oriented with regular vertical time slots. For easier navigation, you may prefer to use summaries in these views, which make the views completely vertically-oriented without the time slots, so you can navigate directly from entry to entry. To do so, open your calendar, and then click View > Show > Summary.
Using the preview pane
Depending on how you use Notes, you may want to turn the preview pane on or off in views such as your mail's Inbox.
Screen reader users should turn the preview pane off. To do so from a view, press Alt+V to open the View menu, press P to open the Preview Pane menu, and press P again to deselect the Show Preview option.
Keyboard users and high contrast users may want to keep the preview pane open as it provides a way for them to get information about the selected document (for example, a calendar entry) that is not available from the view.
Setting up Lotus Notes for low vision
If you have low vision, you can increase the size of fonts displayed in Lotus Notes, and you can reduce the use of color and graphics when scheduling a meeting by setting the Scheduler to always open to the Summary view.
Increasing the size of fonts displayed in Lotus Notes
1. If necessary, exit Lotus Notes. For operating system high contrast settings to be recognized by Lotus Notes, they must be set before Lotus Notes is started.
2. In the Windows accessibility options, enable High Contrast mode through your operating system (refer to the operating system's Help for details).
3. Start Lotus Notes and click View > Text Size > Largest, Larger, or Restore to change the size of the Lotus Notes display text for documents and views.
It is best to change the size of your Lotus Notes fonts by changing your display fonts in Windows. (Changing your Windows display fonts affects all programs on your computer.) Refer to Windows Help for more information.
Note: In Microsoft Windows XP, selecting the Large size option in the DPI setting field will not have the desired effect in Lotus Notes. You must select Custom setting and then select the percentage to scale to.
Note: You can also change font size in Lotus Notes by adding large font settings to your Notes.ini file, but doing so may cause formatting problems.
Setting Scheduler to always open to the Summary view
The Scheduler indicates when people are available for a meeting in one of two ways--a Summary view or a Details view. Details makes use of color and graphics to indicate whether people are available. If you have low vision, you may find it easier to use the Summary view, which is text-based. The Summary view is the default in your calendar preferences, but if the default has been changed and you want to reset it, do the following:
1. From your calendar, click Actions > More > Preferences.
2. Click the Scheduling tab, and then click the Scheduler Display tab.
3. Select Suggested best times for meeting, and click OK.
For more information on using the Summary and Details views in the Scheduler, see Finding free time for a meeting.
IBM and accessibility
See the IBM Accessibility Center (www.ibm.com/able) for more information about the commitment that IBM has to accessibility.
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