Comments on: Screen Reader Software for the Visually Impaired

By: John Greer

John Greer — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:31:56 +0000

Lately, I have been tinkering with a build of Linux called Ubuntu at http://www.ubuntu.com. The gnome desktop version of it has a screen reader called Orca that also has a screen magnifier on it. Linux is a bit of a pain to get set up, but after browsing through the ubuntu forums, I found a method in which a blind person could even install the operating system using the screen reader. For those who don’t know, installing the operating system in Windows for the blind is quite a pain. It can be done, but it requires creating an unattended Windows disk. In any case ubuntu may be an option to look into. The operating system and everything is free, but it does require a bit of computer knowledge to be able to use Linux effectively.

By: The Bat From Hell

The Bat From Hell — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:34:46 +0000

Hi, Onex,

Careful – “Screen reader” usually means “text-to-speech program”, so it’s the wrong term for a program that zooms or magnifies.

Incidentally, there are plenty of those for free, including one called Windows Light that can apparently handle Mandarin and Cantonese as well as English.

http://www.retina.org.hk/wlight.htm

And there’s NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access)

http://www.nvda-project.org/

The eSpeak synthesizer built into NVDA is being developed to handle various languages, but it’s a separate project, based at Sourceforge.

http://espeak.sourceforge.net/

Now for screen magnification. Recent versions of Windows let you zoom by using Ctrl key + mouse-wheel.

While on line, you could tray iZoom Web.

http://www.issist.com/products/iZoomWeb/redirect.asp

There’s also a desktop version of iZoom, and versions 1.0 and 1.1 were free, but it seems the makers don’t support these any more. I could be wrong, and it may still be worth Googling for iZoom 1.0 or 1.1. There are other programs called izoom, but the one you want was made by issist.com.

iZoom is a bit like an old version of ZoomText, and has speech as well as magnification.

Try Magnifiers Home Page:
http://www.magnifiers.org/

Here you might find iZoom 1.x, and it’s also worth looking at Desktop Zoom. This is a full-screen magnifier, and is rather nice.

I don’t recommend the magnifiers that just magnify an area around the mouse pointer. They can be very confusing, don’t let you work while using them, and often crash.

hope that’s some help.

The BAT!

By: Dennis Robinson

Dennis Robinson — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:50:57 +0000

Hi Stormy Swords

I think the point is to establish is what version of Internet Explorer
you are using.If I’m right the ” Zoom ” feature only started in Ver. 7 of IE
It may be only a Update to IE7 to get the feature you require.
Greetings from Australia

By: Gordon Lee

Gordon Lee — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:11:17 +0000

I find opera browser fast and simple for increaseing font size.

By: Doug Bays

Doug Bays — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:30:01 +0000

Easy Read is an excellent tool that puts a + and – icon in your toolbar. It’s also available within the Context menu. It functions with IE 6 and 7 and some other browsers, but is not compatible with Firefox. It also functions with photos and graphicson most web pages and photo sites.

By: jvley

jvley — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:36:12 +0000

I have been visually impaired for several years and have used Zoom text on my windows machines for the last 5 yeas in order to be able to use a computer. 2 years ago I purchased an older mac with OS 10.3 learned to use the built in zoom since upgraded to 10.4 and a newer mac and now waiting delivery of a new mac with 10.5
Zoom text has multiple problems with compatibility with other programs and is a video memory pig.
I have not had the problem with the built in zoom feature in the mac.
I am done with windows,

By: pctech37

pctech37 — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:27:22 +0000

i just use the one in windows, it does the same stuff.

By: StormySwords

StormySwords — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:23:47 +0000

I need these i just keep looking and looking but no luck im about to buy zoom text

By: Peter Milham

Peter Milham — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:47:01 +0000

Try Windows ZoomIt. It supports screen zoom and annotation tool, and its free. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/zoomit.mspx

By: Enthropy

Enthropy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:32:21 +0000

Sorry, reread this and felt stupid. Jaws is a text to speach screen reader. I don’t know what Chris uses for magnification, but usually the normal Windows Magnifier works ok for me. It’s in the accessibility options with the on-screen keyboard.

By: Enthropy

Enthropy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:27:53 +0000

One of my friends has pretty bad vision. He uses a program called Jaws on his PC. It’s Windows only, but he seems pretty happy with it, all things considered. Link to Jaws: http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp

I haven’t really played with much of it, but I know there’s alot of OS projects like this for Linux too. They’re probably more of a pain to setup because there’s no all-in-one solution as far as I know, but if you know a blind guy that likes Linux . . .

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:53:28 +0000

You could always use the Macs built in Universal Access in the System Preferences. Turn on Zoom and use option/command = to zoom in and option/command – to zoom out.

If you want to try an application, try Magnifier by SubRosaSoft.com I think it’s a $10.00 app.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:28:28 +0000

Mac OSX has for at least two generations, included screen zooming within the operating system. I suffer from early onset “Macula Degeneration” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macular_degeneration ) and the zoom feature lets me continue to work. The Mac also will read almost everything I select.
Since I work in XP sometimes, I would love to find the same feature for the PC side as well.

By: StormySwords

StormySwords — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:01:09 +0000

Hey man i know your pain.i too deal with crappy vision problem.You should she me i am always two inches away from my screen in order to see it.Sorry though i do not know of any software to help,but if someone does can they tell me about it as well.