Large print / high contrast keycaps?

[jolyonbrown]

Thanks to a genetic condition (Mitochondrial Disease) my teenage son's eyesight has gradually been deteriorating to the point where we're now looking at visual aids for everyday tasks. This week he asked me to log him into his computer as he's struggling to see his keyboard (a Corsair K65 - he's a teenage gamer ). That got me wondering whether I could replace that with one of my keyboards with some kind of high contrast / large print keycap. There are some large print keyboards out there (on the likes of the RNIB shop here in the UK [https://shop.rnib.org.uk/accessible-tec ... oards.html] but they're frankly god awful. If we have to go down that route we will, but I'd love to be able to give him something with decent switches and some great keycaps. Has anyone here been down this road?

[ddrfraser1]

Sorry to hear that. The only thing I know of are either backlit key caps with good quality printing like the steel series keyboards, if you back lit it with white light that would create a good contrast, plus the font is slightly bigger and sharper than the crappy stenciled fonts on most gaming keyboards. The other option would be to buy some SA keycaps that have some white on black printing. It’s not quite as thick as you’re looking for but it’s definitely bigger. These caps have the added benefit of being high profile and sculpted which will help him as he learns to touch type. Plus, they are not excellent quality. Try MAXKEY BLACK DOUBLESHOT ABS SA KEYCAPS at KBDfans. Sorry, my phone wouldn’t let me copy the link.

[Darkshado]

I'd take a look at WASD or Max Keyboard; either company could print something with large characters and high contrast.

Max Keyboard also does backlit laser ablated sets but I think the backlighting would be too uneven on large characters to go down that route.

Both companies use a regular "OEM" profile closer if not identical to what's already on your son's Corsair, unlike the SA profile others have suggested.

[fohat]

Not this actual keyboard, but one similar to it:

https://www.specialneedscomputers.ca/in ... tail&p=101

Several years ago I bought one like this and it had light, clicky simplified Alps with oversized key caps (a full inch vs 3/4 inch). It was not something I would use, but I sold it to a man for his elderly mother who absolutely loved it.

It might work for you, but I don't know how you will be able to tell in advance what kind of switches it uses. And the caps are not properly interchangeable with others since they are physically larger (although I did test it with standard Alps caps and they worked fine, just leaving wide gaps between).

[kbdfr]

As a provisional solution, you could simply use these specially designed stickers:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274149490609

And then the German company Blista Brailletec specializes in equipment and supplies for the visually impaired:
https://en.brailletec.de/vig-keys/
One of their products are keyboards named "VIG keys", which exist based on different existing keyboards,
including with MX-compatible Cherry keycaps (of course expensive, perhaps you could get just keycaps from them).

Used ones appear from time to time on eBay and other platforms,
here for example a German model:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 2-225-3194

[jolyonbrown]

Thanks all for these suggestions - I’m going to spend some time looking into each one. I really appreciate the replies. Thank you.

[4sStylZ]

I think Max keyboard also provide a custom printable service. You can probably make your own bold font.