Assistive Technology Assistive Computer Devices

Computer Screen Readers for the Visually Impaired

A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the computer screen. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology (AT) potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers.

A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the computer screen.

This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology (AT) potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers.

Listed below are short reviews and links to screen readers that are both free to download, and screen readers that offer a free trial and can be purchased online.

Free Screen Readers:

BRLTTY is a background process (daemon) which provides access to the Linux/Unix console (when in text mode) for a blind person using a refreshable braille display. It drives the braille display, and provides complete screen review functionality. Some speech capability has also been incorporated.

EdBrowse Free and open source. Makes a complete audio desktop, including web access with JavaScript support. This program is a re-implementation of ed, with browse capabilities built in. You can edit a local file or a remote html document. If you have retrieved an html file, the new command `b' browses the document, rendering all the html tags in a blind-friendly manner. Since it is a combined editor browser, it is called edbrowse.

Emacspeak is a speech interface that allows visually impaired users to interact independently and efficiently with the computer. Emacspeak speech-enables local and remote information via a consistent and well-integrated user interface. Available free of cost, Emacspeak has dramatically changed how the author and hundreds of blind and visually impaired users around the world interact with the personal computer and the Internet by providing efficient speech-enabled access to the audio desktop. Emacspeak/Linux provides a reliable, stable speech-friendly solution that opens up the Internet to visually impaired users around the world.

Spoken Web: Users of IE can take advantage of this helpful text to speech tool.

Tex-Edit Plus: This simple text editing program comes complete with a suite of voices that can read back to you what you've typed in. Tex-Edit Plus is a scriptable, styled text editor that fills the gap between Apple's bare-bones SimpleText and a full-featured word processor. It's fast, efficient, and has a clean, uncluttered interface. It's also great for cleaning up text which is transmitted over the Internet. (Shareware $15)

NVDA is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows Operating System. This software can enable blind or vision impaired people to access computers running Windows.

Orca is a free, open source, flexible, extensible, and powerful assistive technology for people with visual impairments. Using various combinations of speech synthesis, braille, and magnification, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI (e.g., the GNOME desktop). The development of Orca has been led by the Accessibility Program Office of Sun Microsystems, Inc. with contributions from many community members.

VoiceOver for Mac users - An accessibility interface that offers you magnification options, keyboard control and spoken English descriptions of what’s happening on screen. VoiceOver reads aloud the contents of files including web pages, Mail messages and word processing files, provides a comprehensive audible description of your workspace and includes a rich set of keyboard commands that allow you to navigate the Mac OS X interface and interact with application and system controls.

Commercial Screen Readers:

JAWS The most popular screen reader worldwide, JAWS® for Windows® works with your PC to provide access to today’s software applications and the Internet. With its internal software speech synthesizer and the computer’s sound card, information from the screen is read aloud, providing technology to access a wide variety of information, education and job related applications. JAWS also outputs to refreshable braille displays.

Simply Talker is an inexpensive screen reader for Windows 95, Windows 98, WindowsMe Millennium, Windows NT4(SP6), Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Simply Talker 98/2000 provides ample support for Windows. It works with applications that comply with the Active Accessibility standard and has a built-in software based text to speech engine (you can also use your existing synthesizer if it supports the SSIL, SAM or SAPI interfaces).

ZoomText seeing and hearing everything on your computer screen is clearer than ever. ZoomText’s xFont magnification displays high-definition text that you'll recognize effortlessly. With NeoSpeech synthesizers, your applications and documents are read aloud by friendly, human-sounding voices - right through your computer's speakers. And with ZoomText’s productivity tools, finding what you’re looking for is quick and easy.

Window Eyes gives total control over what you hear and how you hear it. Plus, with its enhanced Braille support that control is extended to what you feel as well. On top of all that, the power and stability of Window-Eyes means that most applications work right out of the box with no need for endless tinkering in order to get them to function properly.

Narrator is a text–to–speech utility for people who are blind or have low vision. Narrator reads what is displayed on the screen—the contents of the active window, menu options, or text that has been typed. Narrator is designed to work with Notepad, WordPad, Control Panel programs, Internet Explorer, the Windows desktop, and some parts of Windows Setup. Narrator may not read words aloud correctly in other programs.

Lookout will give a voice to your computer. You will hear what you type and listen to everything that appears on your screen. If you see a little, it will save you having to strain and look all the time. If you can't see at all, you can still enjoy the computer. You can also alter the way the voice behaves and sounds.

HAL Hal has been developed for blind computer users, at home, at work and in education. Hal is a software screen reader that works by reading the screen interactively and communicating through a speech synthesiser or a refreshable Braille display. Hal talks as you type, announcing words or characters so you can check what you write. Read image labels, font styles, Windows menus and icons for easy navigation.

HT Visual is a screenreader for Windows XP. Using the speech synthesis or the Braille terminal, the application helps visually impaired user access the computer. Features include speech synthesis and Braille terminal support Optional reading of element attributes (type and order of attributes), Access to Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Word, Excel, Skype, Access to PDF files and two reading modes - normal mode, screen mode.

iZoom2Go is the world's first truly mobile solution for visually impaired users. It works on any Windows 2000/XP/Vista based machine, regardless of administrative privileges. iZoom Web is the only magnifier in the world which works directly from a website.

TextAloud reads text from email, web pages, reports and more, aloud on your PC. TextAloud can also save your daily reading to MP3 or Windows Media files ready for playback on your iPod, PocketPC, or even on your TV with Tivo's Home Media Option. You can download a free trial version of TextAloud. It does not include the optional premium voices, but is a fully functional version of TextAloud that you can evaluate for 15 days with no obligation.

Digital Future specializes in developing human voice computer synthesis software (text-to-speech software). Providing exceptional voice quality through their partners from AT&T (R) and NeoSpeech (a VoiceWare subsidiary). TextSpeech Pro, has proven that the unique technological principals and wide features of the voice synthesis system provided are highly valued and unique.

System Access delivers full access to any computer running the Windows XP or later operating system. You get all the functionality of traditional screen readers. SA is intuitive and easy to use. With just a few basic commands you can use popular applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook (including the calendar function), Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Adobe Reader (including forms filling), Skype, and many more - the tools you need for your job, your lifestyle, and for interactive social networking. The System Access license includes two computers.

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