[Electronics-Talk] Accessible Printer

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hello Nicole,

That is a good question. Printers are getting to be flat panel driven if you
have to touch the buttons which you usually do not have to do.
Some are even touch screen. I have not bought a printer in several years so
cannot recommend a specific one.
Stay away from touch screens. If you find one with raised buttons easily
touched, then go with that if it meets your needs.
There are flat buttons on my printer but its so small, I cannot label them.
Fortunately, the printer is mostly controlled from the print drivers in the
pc though so I do not need to press the buttons on the printer.

I also have a little vision so if I look close, I can see a few things such
as the light on it and if its blinking.

I have a canon printer now and did in the past as well. So far, these small
ink jet printers are simple enough to use.

I would recommend a simple canon or HP ink jet printer as long as you are
purchasing it for straight forward printing. Many printers are multi
function now a days but you do not have to use the other features like
scanning and copying. You can just ignore that and don't have to set it up.

As Dave said, once set up, you can operate the printer and launch a print
command from the computer.
Its controlled by the printer driver in the computer. You do not have to
operate it from the printer like you used to.

Unfortunately, without seeing the display, you will need sighted help for
setting up advanced features or setting up the printer on your wifi network.
Setting it up on your local wifi home connection enables you to print from
more than one device. I had assistance doing this. Its helpful for me to
have this set up so now I can print from my laptop anywhere in the house! I
no longer have to just print from my desktop pc here which has the printer
hard wired to it via a chord.


I had mine set up for me so cannot speak to whether its accessible to set up
from the start.
But once set up and connected to your pc or laptop, you simply open what you
want to print, press Control P, and if you just want one copy which is the
default option, you press enter and it prints off for you and your print
papers will be lying on the printer tray for you at the end.

My advice is to go to Best Buy or another store selling electronics and talk
to the staff about your needs. They can show you the printers hopefully or
if they are in boxes only, they can describe the layout and features of the
printer.

At least with printers, you can control most of it from the pc and Jaws will
read out the print dialogue box so you know the status of it such as which
page is printing and also error messages should you have a problem printing.

Its hard now a days to buy something over half accessible as more and more
office equipment is turning touch screen or contains such small buttons that
its hard to operate because we cannot feel the buttons from one another. Its
not low vision friendly either because buttons are so small with small
labels and little contrast.

Good luck!
Ashley

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of
Nicole Torcolini via Electronics-Talk
Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2024 1:30 PM
To: 'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances'
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Nicole Torcolini <torcolini at comcast.net>
Subject: [Electronics-Talk] Accessible Printer

            Does anyone have suggestions for a low cost printer that is easy
to use by the blind?

 

Nicole

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