[access-uk] Re: Free Screenreader Is There already

  • From: "Graham Page" <gpage@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 20:34:27 +0100

Dorris, is Connect Outloud still sold?  it does seem to be on the Sight and 
Sound list but it is hardly pushed.

It is good to see a basic screenreading solution that works on basic things 
that a home user would want.

If you look around companies like EuroPC you can get a PC there for under 
£400 even with a screen.  Webbie, th thunder screenreader and winamp would 
give a user all they could want.  One thing that could be worth checking is 
the spell checker in Word and Outlook Express.  Spell checkers are useful 
even for the most basic wordprocessor users.

Cheers

Graham
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chipmunks" <chipmunks@xxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 7:54 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Free Screenreader Is There already


That is very strange because I did download the screenreader itself
here, a 4.2 meg installer. Before you can download it, it asks for
your name and email address. Not sure while it's not working for you.

I have ince installed it here and played around with it a little. It
appears to be a msaa based reader that can happily coexist with other
access software, in my case jfw.

I am actually very pleasantly surprised by the program. I think it
well is worth its price. <g> Seriously, the speech is clear and
adjustable and Thunder can be set to use any existing sapi 5 voice on
a system. If Scansoft daniel is installed, it sees to default to
that. I set it to use Cepstrel /Frank instead which is more
responsive but DAniel sounds good - and MS tts isn't that bad either
as it is not only Sam that is available.  the combo listing tthe
available sapi voices actually also listed the sapi4 ones I have on
my systemand I tried switching to something like IBM via voice just
for fun but switching languages is very slow as each voice is loaded
first and Thunder kept crashing when I tried to load a sapi 4 voice.

I've just briefly given TThunder a once-over and think it keeps what
it promises. It allows accessing the Internet using Web IE, it can
read mail with OE and read text in MS Word and various text editors.

Being a Eudora user, I was disappointed it didn't work with eudora
out of the box. It read the messages but had trouble with the list
views in Eudora and does not have a window reclassification utility, I 
believe.

In addition to the Net, Outlook express and Text editors, I tried
Thunder with Media Plaer Classic and with winamp. It reads both well
enough to play music and also access the configuration options. I
also briefly tried ftp explorer (the old free version) with Thunder
and that read well also. It also seems to read OK for
basic  functionality in AVG Antivirus, something which I find very
important.  In addition to this, Thunder seems to give access to
major widnowscomponents like Widnows explorer, control panel or
Device Manager. I had a bit of a hard time navigating the system tray
that i had gotten to with the windows xp keystroke of

winkey+b

Thunder read the items in the notification area but I had problems
selecting one as the mouse seemed to get stuck on one system tray
entry or anohter. I do not know at this point if Thunder has
keystrokes to access the system tray. That is actually true for most
of its features: I have not really had enough time to review and
learn all of Thunderbirds features and really just poked around a bit thus 
far.

In closing though, I think Thunder is well worth a try and a very
good option for someone who does not have another windows access
solution. It is easy to work with, offers clear and configurable
speech and gives access to most of the basic features and
functionalities of widnows and the internet. I hope it will continue
to be developed. In my opinion, it is much better and gives much
wider computer access than some other beginner's limited screen
access solutions like FS's Connect OutLoud which costs US$250. I
especially appreciate that it talks with different media players and
most of all with Antivirus software. I find COL's lack of support of
antivirus software almost criminal as it leaves a computer wide open
to attack if it doesn't allow the user to put on and use some
antivirus software.

Cheers,

Doris



At 05:14 PM 5/23/2006 +0100, you wrote:

>Hello listers,
>
>I have just visited the site and the Thunder screen reader is not
>ready for download yet, but you can download the hotkey reference,
>user manual and a 15-day trial of the Daniel Realspeak voice.  Hope this 
>helps.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Clive Pallett
>
>
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