Using magnifier and zoom functionality

Cobra Learning is a learning management system that enables you to access course material online. There are a number of learning tools within the system that course content is contained in. This topic provides some basic advice for using the system with screen magnifiers and zooming functionality.

Screen magnifiers and zooming functionality are often used by people who have difficulties reading online. Difficulties can include low vision, color blindness, eye strain, or dyslexia. Screen magnifiers and zooming functionality are also used by individuals who have fine motor skills difficulty as they increase the target for selectable content (such as links, icons and form fields).

Table of contents

1. Magnifying vs. zooming
2. Account Settings
3. Getting additional support

Magnifying vs. zooming

There are a couple of ways you can increase the size of content in Cobra Learning to improve readability:

• Use the Account Settings tool in Cobra Learning to increase the system font size. This only increases the size of system fonts, it does not increase the size of icons and other graphics or user-created content.
• Use an assistive technology or browser that supports zooming. This increases the magnification of the entire page. This option works well in Cobra Learning as images and navigation panels resize well.
• Use a screen magnifier to magnify a portion of the page, such as the area around the cursor. Many users like screen magnifiers because they preserve the layout of the page, but allow you to focus on the content in a specific area.
• If you are using equation built with Equation Editor, double-click on inline equations to view them at a larger size.

Account Settings

There are a number of settings in the Account Settings tool that you may find improves the readability of Cobra Learning.

Account Settings

• You can select from four font sizes and/or you can opt to use the OpenDyslexic font type by checking the box for readability. You can use this option in combination with a screen magnifier or zooming.
• If you disable style sheets to navigate Cobra Learning we recommend you select Show secondary windows as pop-ups; otherwise, some secondary pages may not be distinguishable from the main page.

Discussions tab

• Some users also Include original message text in replies so they don’t have to move between discussion messages as frequently.

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Getting additional support

If you are having difficulty using Cobra Learning to complete your course work, consider seeking help from Accessibility Services. Contact them at email: accessibilityservices@parkland.edu; or by voice: 217-353-2338.  Or by visiting their website: https://www.parkland.edu/Main/About-Parkland/Department-Office-Directory/Counseling-Services/Accessibility-Services.

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