Screen magnifier
Software that enlarges part of the screen, leaving users with a small viewport where distant controls and updates can vanish.
See it
What it is
A screen magnifier enlarges the pixels on all or part of the display for people with low vision. Windows Magnifier, macOS Zoom, and ZoomText can follow the pointer, keyboard focus, or text cursor while showing only a small slice of the interface at once. Unlike a screen reader, a magnifier does not turn the page into speech; visual layout and contrast still do the work.
Think about magnifier users when testing zoom, reflow, focus movement, sticky headers, dialogs, toasts, and validation errors. At high magnification, an update on the opposite side of the viewport might as well be on another monitor. Keep related controls and feedback close, let content reflow instead of forcing two-dimensional panning, and make the focused element easy to locate.
Gotcha: browser zoom is a valuable layout test, but it is not a complete screen magnifier test. A system magnifier creates a moving viewport and may track focus differently. It also enlarges poor contrast rather than fixing it, so tiny gray text becomes large gray text. Test with the real tool as well as at 200% and 400% browser zoom.
Ask AI for it
Fix this interface for low-vision users working with Windows Magnifier at 400%. Keep DOM and visual order aligned, preserve a strong :focus-visible indicator, and move focus to newly opened dialogs and back to their trigger on close. Place validation messages beside their fields and status updates near the control that caused them. At 200% and 400% browser zoom, make the layout reflow without horizontal scrolling except for content that genuinely needs two dimensions, such as a data table. Remove user-scalable=no, prevent sticky headers from covering focused content, use overflow-wrap: anywhere for long strings, and verify text contrast separately. Report the exact zoom and focus path used for every fix.