[infoshare] Low-Cost Screen Readers(Braille Monitor) may 2009
- From: "Luis Guerra" <jerseypalisades@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
- Date: Sun, 17 May 2009 18:25:19 -0400
Low-Cost Screen Readers
by the Access Technology Team
Pictured here from left to right are IBTC Access Technology Team members
Wesley Majerus, Anne Taylor, and Tony Olivero.
From the Editor: In the following article the International Braille and
Technology Center Access Technology Team reviews four free or low-cost
screen readers:
Thunder, NVDA, System Access, and WebAnywhere. This is what they say:
Thunder
Thunder is a free screen-access program as long as its use is personal. If
Thunder is being used in a work setting, the company is asked to contact
Screenreader.net
CIC to discuss pricing. Thunder can be downloaded from
<www.screenreader.net> and installed on any computer running Windows 2000,
XP, or Vista. Windows
98, ME, and earlier versions are not compatible with Thunder. A pro version
is available for a fee that runs from a thumb drive.
Thunder is compatible with the following programs: Outlook Express,
Microsoft Word, WordPad, Notepad, MS Calculator, MS Excel, Nod32 AntiVirus,
Listen Again
radio, and MS Sound Recorder. When you download Thunder, an additional
program called WebbIE is automatically downloaded and installed with Thunder
for
browsing the Internet.
Thunder is controlled by standard Windows commands, and there are special
commands for controlling Thunder. Its greatest limitation is Web browsing.
The
only way to navigate the Web is by using WebbIE. It is important to read the
hot keys list at <www.screenreader.net> because there are several special
commands for Web browsing. When filling out a form on the Web, you must
press Enter before typing in the form field.
NVDA
The next screen reader is NVDA, which stands for NonVisual Desktop Access.
It is free and can be downloaded by visiting <http://www.nvda-project.org>.
This
is experimental software and may contain bugs. We find it very responsive
and easy to use. NVDA will run on Windows XP and Windows Vista. NVDA
supports
both SAPI 4 and 5 voices, Audiologic, Display, and Silence; it comes with
eSpeak as the default speech synthesizer. It can be installed to a PC, or
the
files can be placed on a CD or USB thumb drive for portable use. If the
installer is downloaded to a PC, voiced instructions will guide the user
through
the installation. If the program is placed on a USB thumb drive, the user
will need to start the program manually.
NVDA supports MS Word 2003, Firefox, Thunderbird, Internet Explorer, Outlook
Express, MS Excel 2003, IBM Lotus Symphony, and many other programs. It is
worth being cautious about using these screen-access software packages
outside of their stated scope. For example, NVDA performed less than
desirably with
Microsoft Outlook 2003 (as opposed to Outlook Express). While it was
possible to read the Inbox message list and read messages, a number of areas
caused
NVDA to stop responding. When composing a new message, we could not read the
auto-complete options for an email address. Additionally, when reviewing the
To, Cc, and Bcc fields, we found the addresses unreadable. The address book,
which opens when Outlook prompts the user to confirm an address, did not
read
at all. Our system also stopped responding when we reached the message edit
area of the new message form. We could enter text, but NVDA did not allow us
to review or edit it. The Outlook calendar and contacts folders were not
read at all. A blind user has no way of reviewing this information in the
standard
views.
There is currently no support for Microsoft Office 2007. When you are in an
edit field while browsing the Internet, Enter or the space bar must be
pressed
before filling in the form or choosing a radio button. We recommend that
Firefox be used to browse the Web; however, we have used Internet Explorer
successfully.
When you are going to a Web page that needs to refresh automatically,
Firefox will yield better results. When navigating the Web, the user can
move to
forms, tables, headings, lists, and links by pressing a single key. NVDA has
built-in keyboard help. When NVDA is installed on the computer, start-up
time
is very fast. User settings can be changed and saved within the Preference
menu of the program. Voice settings, mouse settings, speech synthesizer,
mouse,
and many other options are available from this menu.
System Access
Another screen-access software package is System Access. This low-cost
screen reader is available from <http://www.serotek.com>. It can be
purchased outright;
alternatively, the user can get a monthly subscription. Prices vary
depending on the package you choose. Contact Serotek for current pricing
information
or visit <http://www.serotek.com/cas.html>.
The AIR Foundation and Serotek now also offer System Access to Go, which
gives free screen access using the Website <www.satogo.com>.
System Access by default comes with Dectalk voices. For an additional fee
two Real Speak voices can be downloaded and installed. This program runs on
Windows
2003 Server, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. System Access supports the
following applications: Notepad, WordPad, Outlook Express, Email Center on a
Vista
machine, Excel, PowerPoint, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office
2007, Skype, and many other programs. System Access is easy to use because
it
uses many standard Windows commands. Moreover, many screen-reader commands
are the same as those in other screen readers on the market today. When
using
Internet Explorer, you can get a links list, tab to move by link, use first
letter navigation to move to headings, tables, lists, and many other
elements
as well. In Internet Explorer, if a Webpage requires a lot of refreshing,
this program may not always work. If you are a subscriber to the System
Access
mobile network, the page can be opened by the browser. With a System Access
U3 USB thumb drive, you can walk up to a computer, plug in the drive, and
have
System Access begin talking. If users have System Access on a computer at
home or the office and have enabled remote access, they can use that
computer
from any machine as if they were sitting at it. With System Access the user
can also remote-control another user's computer if that person accepts a
request
from the other machine.
System Access provides access to the Microsoft Excel interface. The user can
input and manipulate data and formulas and interact with the menus and
toolbars.
The user can also create a chart and, depending on the type, read the data
it contains. A dialog box, accessed by pressing the System Access modifier
key
and F7, displays list boxes for all cells containing data, cells containing
links, totals cells (those containing totals derived from a formula), and
the
worksheets contained in the Excel workbook. Selecting one of the totals
cells and pressing the space bar toggles the automatic reading of that cell
if
the data it contains changes.
Access to the Microsoft Word word processor is also available with System
Access. Menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes are usable. When you move by
character
or word, formatting details such as bold or italic are spoken in a different
voice after the word or character is read. However, elements such as heading
levels are not spoken. The spell check is accessible, and System Access
speaks the misspelled word and the recommended replacement. System Access
also
supports the Alva Braille Controller 640 as a Braille display; no other
Braille support is documented.
Web Anywhere
Web Anywhere (WA) is not a screen reader in the traditional sense of the
word. It does provide audio output of screen contents but is restricted to
the
Web browser solely. The Web Anywhere site was developed by the Computer
Science Department of the University of Washington and can be accessed at
<wa.cs.washington.edu>.
When this page is launched, your computer should begin reading Web
Anywhere's start page. This page describes the Web Anywhere system and
provides a list
of keystrokes that can be used with Web Anywhere.
In a basic sense Web browsing can be achieved with Web Anywhere in a
traditional way. Users can arrow around the page and tab and shift tab
between the
links. Above the page content is a box for typing in the URL that you would
like Web Anywhere to navigate to. WA loads your desired page into the
browser
window that contains Web Anywhere, which is evident if you examine the
window with a screen reader like JAWS. However, with all other screen
readers shut
down, you have access to only the part of the Web browser where Web Anywhere
and your desired page are located. You will not be able to use any
third-party
applications while using WA.
In its current form Web Anywhere is an alpha release. It offers basic Web
browsing that includes navigation by heading, link, and input control. There
are
also commands to read from the current cursor position, read from the top,
and move to the next and previous form control, regardless of what type of
control
it is. WA currently lacks a traditional table-reading mode but does offer
ways to move through a table by row and by cell. It is difficult to
understand
how the table is formatted because you cannot easily navigate to cells and
multiple rows. Web Anywhere also does not provide ways to list links,
controls,
or other elements as you can in more powerful screen readers.
Web Anywhere is an alpha project. It is available free of charge from
<wa.cs.washington.edu>. Since it is a Web-based application, you will always
have
the latest version whenever you launch the site.
We have written this article to make users aware of free and low-cost screen
readers. System Access is the most powerful of the screen readers we have
discussed.
JAWS, Hal, and Window-Eyes allow the user to write JAWS and Hal scripts or
Window-Eyes scripts or set files to customize programs to work better. If a
person wants to have basic use of the computer, the screen-access software
discussed in this article will allow this. We believe that Thunder is the
least
powerful screen reader followed by NVDA, and then System Access. Other than
the limited Braille support for System Access mentioned above, none of the
screen-access software discussed in this article has Braille support at this
time. If you have further questions, give our access technology line a call
at (410) 659-9314, option 5.
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