New York ? One of the biggest problems 79-year-old Al Berger has tackled while teaching fellow seniors how to use the Internet is getting them to sit through his lessons.

“I’ve had people leave the class because they said the type was too small,” said Berger, an instructor for SeniorNet, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that offers computer training to people aged 50 and older.

	New Internet technology can help users set the following preferences:Make font sizes bigger.Recognize accidental mouse clicks or keystrokes.Stop flashing or distracting site animation.

It’s not just the font size that intimidates older Americans, preventing them from e-mailing friends and relatives or finding information about their government benefits.

Unwieldy mice and keyboards, flashing riots of color, distracting backgrounds and blurry images make the Internet hostile territory for many of them.

But software and hardware companies, which have traditionally focused on a younger market, are beginning to develop ways of helping the fastest-growing segment of Web surfers in the United States.

As part of a pilot program with SeniorNet, IBM Corp. is testing software that lets people with tremors, deteriorating eyesight and achy hands better navigate the Web.

The IBM software, stored on a computer that is accessed through a Web browser, reformats Web pages to conform to the preferences of each user without changing the content.

It can also help those who have difficulties with mouse and keyboard. It can be set to recognize when mouse clicks are repeated accidentally, and when keys are being held in too long by unsteady hands.

Most computers can be set to improve accessibility much like IBM’s software, but setting those options can be hard, especially for someone with physical difficulties, said Marc Itzkowitz, a technology consultant working on the IBM/SeniorNet project.

The IBM software makes things easier by collecting all these options in one place, and making each user’s settings accessible from any Internet-connected computer.

The software is being tested at 20 of SeniorNet’s 220 learning centers around the country. The Armonk, N.Y.-based computer company hopes to expand the use of the service to all the centers and eventually make it available to the wider public, said Vicki Hanson, manager of IBM’s accessibility research group.

At a recent demonstration at SeniorNet’s center in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, trainer Vera Feingold looked at a Web site for a fitness club after changing the text size and stopping the animation.

“It’s exciting,” said Feingold, who said she’s in her 60s. “It seems easy enough to use. It’s quick to learn and for those who need it, it will be very helpful.”

Apple also has developed software to help seniors, for example by letting them communicate over the Internet by using the computer as a telephone, Itzkowitz said.

But most of the existing products for seniors are gadgets that can be hard to install, such as large trackballs that replace mice and large keyboards. Most of these are made by small companies.

“One of the problems we were seeing is that no big company has embraced older people,” said Itzkowitz. “There’s so little available yet it’s such a potentially lucrative market.”