I just read an article where around 50 people in Saudi Arabia are each getting a free instance of the HAL screenreader software, I think, from the state.
Now, just imagine if over here we got something like Jaws or Window-eyes for free...
Again, that just makes me want to remind you about the free/open-source screenreader software called NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access), that can even run off of a CD or flash/usb drive.
Like I said before, it also comes with all the eSpeak voices included, which means it can even 'speak' Afrikaans/German/Spanish/Italian etc. etc.
While it's not necessarily as good as Jaws/Window-eyes for certain things, and can't be used in certain applications which don't use standard editing fields etc., it's under permanent development, so give it a little bit of time and we'll see where it goes. One very useful thing it does in fact do, however, is that it even has a mode where you can get it to read whatever comes under the mouse cursor, and funny enough, I've already found a couple of actual computer games for blind people which 'want/instruct' you to use the mouse since they reckon it's a good thing to build virtual imagery type stuff in your brain whereabout you are visualizing 'moving' the mouse with your hand, so maybe even just 'practising' with NVDA is a good idea...? Who knows.
Cheers Jacob Kruger Blind Biker ---------- To send a message to the list, send any message to blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to blindza-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line --- The 'homepage' for this list is at http://www.blindza.co.za
