Screen Reader Software

ppshay

I have an adult friend who cannot read. He is self-employed and has managed fine with the business so far. He now needs to purchase a computer system, a laptop and software.

I had a quick look on Google and see that there is software availabe that claims to read what is on screen. Has anybody ever used any of this type of software? What did you use and would you recommend it?

Much appreciate any advice.

RainyDay

There are basic screen reading facilities on any Windows PC, and I think on any Mac, so he might not have to buy extra software. However, I wouldn't get into this lightly. Lots of assistive technology is wasted when people take on more than they can chew, and don't get the proper training and support.

The NCBI are very good on screen reading software, though most of their users would be people with sight loss. I presume your friend has literacy difficulties rather than sight loss - might be worth giving him a call anyway.

Whatever happens, make sure your friend gets lots of training and support, or the computer is likely to be gathering dust after a few weeks.

HappyDancer

Hi OP,

Could you provide a little more information as to your friends requirements and reading difficulties? Are there any specific programs intended for his business which require access? Any specific hardware needs with regards to the computer?

As already mentioned in other posts, computer systems - Win(Narrator) & Mac (Voice Over) have an element of screen reading but produce a "robotic sounding" output which struggles with pages high in text content. Text can be also be copied and pasted into more realistic speech synthesisers which produce slightly better results for most ears - try Readplease as a free intro and option http://readplease.en.softonic.com/

Hope this is of some help
Regards

Scruffles

NVDA looks to be the best windows based screen reader;its free and open source as well;
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nvda/?source=directory

in terms of internet,firefox has their own selection of screen readers to add on available here-
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=screen+reader&appver=22.0&platform=windows

was going to recommend ORCA,as it is both very popular and free/open source but didnt realise it was linux only.

snorlax

Jaws will do the trick but I'm sure there's some open-source alternatives.

martinosullivan

I am a Jaws and NVDA user. I am migrating away From JAWS towards NVDA. I prefer the Free Software model, and I think that it makes for a more equitable solution, as people can contribute to the project even if they don’t have enough little bits of paper otherwise known as money.

The problem I have with JAWS, is if you cant get government funding, and you don’t happen to have a spare 1500 euro lying around, you cant get the product, well legally anyway.

This can mean that you cant get a Job, or even access the internet which are becoming more important as time goes by.

Also NVDA will open the opportunity for many house hold appliances, to be self voicing.

A lot of new household appliances now have touch screens, which means that they are completely inaccessible to vision impaired people. So as more and more of these household appliances become mini computers in their own right, Screen reading technology will become more important.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, you could attend the event I have posted as a new thread. I cant post a link to the event, as I have not maid 50 posts yet. Perhaps one of the moderators could post the link for me.