[access-uk] Re: Low cost screenreaders and text-to-speech software
- From: "Adrian Higginbotham" <adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:24:03 -0000
Of course the one that everyone is missing thus far is narrator which is
bundled free with windows xp and vista and while it isn't quite up to
thebig 3 it isn't bad at all and plenty good enough for basic email and
internet use and the occasional document creation. Although I haven't
tried it the theory is that it is some what better in vista too.
=20
Adrian Higginbotham
Project manager, Standards
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency - BECTA
Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Becta switchboard 02476-416994.
Email: Adrian.Higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ=20
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Sent: 14 February 2007 09:50
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Low cost screenreaders and text-to-speech
software
I'm trying to maintain a comparative table of screen readers at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screen_readers
It needs more work with regards to the detailed notes (feel free to chip
in folks <smile/>), but you might find it useful when shopping around.
Nothing will yet match the broad capabilities of commercial screen
readers. However, if it were me I would definitely investigate free
alternatives like Thunder and especially free, open source, and
scriptable alternatives like NVDA:
http://www.nvaccess.org/nvda/
I've used both, but I was mainly looking into web accessibility, not
office accessibility. Both Thunder and NVDA claim to support basic Word
functionality; only NVDA makes an explicit claim to support basic Excel
functionality. Thunder uses the WebbIE browser; NVDA uses Firefox and
Internet Explorer. Thunder claims to support Outlook, NVDA claims to
support Outlook Express.
NVDA is still in early, but surprisingly rapid development. If you give
feedback on missing features you need, the developers might be able to
add them for you. Support for filling in online forms in Firefox may
have to wait until Firefox 3 comes out with better accessibility
support, but in the meantime there's:
http://www.firevox.clcworld.net/
If you're serious about minimizing costs, you might look into Linux
options such as:
http://oralux.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/access
The later is, likewise, going to get a lot better once Firefox 3 is out
(currently people often resort to using the Orca screen reader with a
text browser).
I hope that helps.
--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
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