Way I see it, if GW - or anyone else - would make onscreen OCR available, it
would sure make a leap forward. But not just forward, rather even into the
modern-day world.
True, there is a load of features that might be of high importance, for a
screen reader to deal with. And likely we could have made a list, that would
range the priority of a number of them, higher than Onscreen OCR. I am not
going to argue about that. But still, more and more cases will arise, where
the onscreen OCR will come in handy. And, as such, I do hold it to be worth
to consider having the screen reader handle those cases as well. Maybe we
are not even aware of all the cases where it would prove helpful. Today, we
are unable to handle this and that task properly; and hence deem it
inaccessible. Why? Because we don't see the screen. Our screen reader goes
quiet. And we, judge that ther there is nothing on the screen but graphics.
In reality, maybe the document or any other text, might have been fully
accessible, if there was such a thing as Onscreen OCR. With the risk of
having a ton of people arguing me, I do dare to claim, if the thing is not
good for any reason - then why is it that other screen reader manufacturers
have ever bothered to put resources into the matter.
And, as for the legality of performing such OCR, I am not sure about every
country's local laws. Yet, I would think there could be strong reasons, why
any blind person would have his full rights to OCR any written document. OK,
a printed document could have a copyright statement, that it is not to be
reproduced in electronic format. As such, you could claim, it was illegal
for me to OCR that printed paper. Yet most countries would accept me doing
so, realizing that it is the only way for me to get my hands on the
information. When comes to onscreen OCR though, any such statement will
already have fallen to the ground - due to the fact, they are already
electronic - the documents. The term ONSCREEN OCR, indicates that the
document has to be on your screen first-hand, and you then run an OCR on it.
In other words, if an author makes his document available in a format that
shows up on your screen, that document is already in an electronic format.
Hence you are not reproducing anything at all, and therefore should not be
violating any law. Look upon your OCR as your reading glasses. Are you going
to tell your grandmother, that she is not allowed to put on her reading
glasses? Would she violate any law by using glasses when reading her
newspaper, correspondance, restaurant menus, or ingredience list on the
groceries? Well, you are doing exactly the same thing, only in a far more
hazzled way - with your computer.
----- Original Message -----
From: "shannon" <[email protected]>
To: "Don H" <[email protected]>; "gwmicro" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: WE and OCR
I would agree with you.
I have been looking for a OCR program too and I have had little success.
I downloaded the fine reader demo and I could not make much of it and now
my trial is out of time. It is buy it or unload it, and it put files all
over my system.
I know open book is designed for the blind user but it is so expensive. I
wish there was a way to make one of the less expensive ones work well.
Shannon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don H" <[email protected]>
To: "gwmicro" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 10:00 AM
Subject: WE and OCR
I have always thought it would be a great idea to pick one of the
available OCR programs like finereader or what ever create a App to make
it more user friendly with WE and maybe just maybe take some sales away
from FS and Open Book which is so expensive.
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