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Screen Readers - Recommendations - Experience?

Discussion in 'Other PC Software' started by PeteC, 2004/08/19.

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  1. 2004/08/19
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    I have a friend who is visually impaired and has increasing difficulty in reading his computer screen even though I have set his 20" monitor to 800 x 600 which in itself creates problems. We are looking for a screen reader.

    He has spoken with groups dedicated to helping the visually impaired and they have recommended several software screen readers, but these are priced in the range £700 to £1000 which is prohibitive. This seems to be out of all proportion when you consider that Acrobat Reader (free) has a very capable reader for pdf files.

    MS Narrator is a joke to put it bluntly and appears to be incapable of reading Word (2000) docs anyway.

    Googling has brought up a few possibilities at sensible prices, but is there any experience of screen reading programs out there?

    TIA
     
    PeteC,
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  2. 2004/08/19
    Newt

    Newt Inactive

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    PeteC - sorry I can't give specifics but it's been a while since I was involved with any of this.

    Certainly the couple of really high-end apps are expensive and I really think that in part, it's because they can sell them for that rather than because they are that much better.

    http://www.tucows.com/mmedia/textspeech95.html has a list of shareware apps for converting text to speech. Not sure how good any of them are but no cost to test and low cost to buy if you fine one you like.

    The app listed at the top of the page, Speak, for instance sounds like it is pretty feature rich and will only be $20 to buy if you decide after the free trial that you like it.
     
    Newt,
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  4. 2004/08/19
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    Newt,

    Thanks for the link to tucows - will download those which look interesting and give them a whirl.
     
    PeteC,
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  5. 2004/08/19
    Abraxas

    Abraxas Inactive

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    These don't address your problem directly, Pete, but I came across these trying to solve a problem for someone who wanted email read to him, even though not visually impaired (The impairment was there, just not visual, if you know what I mean :D).

    http://news.com.com/2100-1023_3-204481.html
    http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/560885.html
    http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/6154.html
    http://www.remposs.com/itmidx2.htm

    Some of the things for sale for the visually impaired are unconscienable. Many text-to-speech programs, using the same engines and technology that you can get for free, costs outrageous amounts. It's sad, really.
     
    Abraxas,
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  6. 2004/08/20
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    Abraxas

    Thanks for the links - the last looks promising, but at a cost - and I completely agree with your comments - pure exploitation of the less fortunate, totally despicable.

    My friend is out of town for the next week, but I shall download a few of the shareware versions (from Newt's post and elsewhere) to try out when he returns. Sad thing is that he can get by - just, at the present, but knows full well that his situation will deteriorate either in the short term or long term and he wants to be prepared.

    At present the exorbitant prices for some software solutions are prohibitive, but later on the perspective may well change of course.
     
    PeteC,
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  7. 2004/08/20
    Newt

    Newt Inactive

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    I dunno about the cost thing PeteC. Not a programmer so no idea how complicated the code is to write or maintain but given that it is written for a limited market, it would pretty much have to cost more unless the author just coded it for fun.
     
    Newt,
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  8. 2004/08/21
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff Thread Starter

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    I understand all about the limited market, but if Adobe can include a very respectable screen reader in the free Acrobat Reader it makes you wonder about profiteering, etc. :(
     
    PeteC,
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  9. 2004/08/23
    RayH

    RayH Inactive

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    Windows has accessability options. One is a magnifier.
     
    RayH,
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  10. 2004/08/26
    Dennis L Lifetime Subscription

    Dennis L Inactive Alumni

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    Hi Pete

    You may want to look at MozBraille, an extension for Mozilla Suite and Firefox.....

    transform Mozilla or Firefox to a stand alone accessible Internet browser designed for blind or partially sighted users . So with mozBraille you don't need a third party program like a screenreader. MozBraille offers its users three displays or outputs ....

    Have been using Firefox the past month, very impressive, including extensions. This extension is a 0.1 development so may be limited. Be sure to sign up for the extensions email update subscription to stay current with development. Thank the Lord for open source and their unselfish commitment.
     
    Last edited: 2004/08/26
    Dennis L,
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