Video Magnifiers or CCTVS

Video magnifiers can take any printed material and enlarge it onto a screen. The original can be blown up to many times its original size and the use of such technology can often enable people to read print that would otherwise be too small to read.

Video magnifiers used to be large desktop contraptions with a screen and moveable camera. Today the technology is smaller and ranges from desktop devices with flat screens to handheld devices through to apps on smartphones and tablets. Smartphone cameras can be used to magnify at a distance, so it is possible to read print on posters, timetables, blackboards etc.

Some models of video magnifier also combine speech technology and can therefore read print aloud.