Although the speculations as to whether Window-Eyes will still be around
is a bit hasty, I still encourage the use of more than one screen reader
in general. First of all, you will benefit from the functionality of
each reader, many times giving you better tools to perform the job you
want, the best way. Even a 30 minute demo version, might be exactly what
you need, to get you out of a tricky spot, or help you fill in a given
form. In addition, no software, or hardware, lassts forever. Even if the
developer himself intends to stay in business for ages, things that are
not in his control does happen. Who knows what the next version of the
OS will be like? Or, who tells the next version of a third-party
software will stick to convensional practices for accessibility? And
every screen reader has to hook on to the computer some way. Different
technologies, approaches and ways of interpretation will be applied, why
we see one screen reader work better in a given situation, than its
alternatives.
One of you, asked if there is any list of alternative screen readers. A
search on the net, for the term:
"Windows screen reader for the blind"
provided me a long list of websites. I admittedly did not scroll through
all the many hits, but have listed a few websites below, for your
convenience. I do notice that an update might be in place for som of the
pages, so read with perceptiveness. Still, it might give you a tiny
idea, that the mainstream screen readers, may be the better choices (if
you can afford them), but definitely are not the only ones available.
For fully fledged screen readers, that would be alternatives for your
Window-Eyes or Jaws, I think three alternatives point themselves out, if
you still don't want to go for NVDA. They are:
System Access To Go, by Sarotek,
Dolphin - Supernova or Hal,
Cobra.
For those of you who want to get more familiar with NVDA, be aware that
they recently have released some learning material. Most as EBooks, but
it seems the Basics can even be had in Braille. Not free, but costs like
30 Austrailian dollars, something like 25 US dollars. Still a cheap way
to get the more sofisticated grasp of the screen reader. Although I have
not had my hands on it yet, wanted to share the following two links from
the NVDA homepage, for your references:
Basic Training for NVDA (eBook)
http://www.nvaccess.org/product/basic-training-for-nvda-ebook/
NV Access Shop:
http://www.nvaccess.org/shop/
For those of you, who would like an English Self-voicing set of useful
software, here is a cheap (Us $80) alternative. According to the
developer, the software package has been all developed with blindness in
mind. It apparently runs on just about any Windows version, released the
last 20 years. It includes a talking mail client, Calculator,
Addressbook, Text Editor, and more. I have not had my hands on it, only
listened to an hour long demonstration of the product. You find it all
described in details here:
http://www.braillebookstore.com/Talking-Toolbox.1app
And first you are there, check out this page as well, for more
self-voicing products:
http://www.braillebookstore.com/The-Future-of-Sound
Or, give the whole store of daily living products a go, at:
http://www.braillebookstore.com/
or,
futureaids.com
.
And here is the list for your homework:
10 Free Screen Readers For Blind Or Visually Impaired Users
http://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-blind-visually-impaired-users/
Screen Readers - American Foundation for the Blind Screen ...
http://www.afb.org/ProdBrowseCatResults.asp?CatID=49
List of Computer Screen Readers for Visually Impaired
https://www.disabled-world.com/assistivedevices/computer/screen-readers.php
List of screen readers - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screen_readers
On 11/26/2016 7:50 PM, Dave via Talk wrote:
> I must admit, the Future of Window Eyes does look like it could be very
> limited, as in soon to be Discontinued. But, who knows for sure. The
> Parent Company might be slow and Cumbersome which makes them slow to do
> anything that gets back to the customers Slow to announce new stuff,
> slow to bring out Updates, slow to Fix problems etc.
>
> I too am starting to use NVDA a bit more. On my System, NVDA is just a
> touch slower, and I am still not understanding it way of reading parts
> of the screen, at least not consistently.
>
> email, MS Word and the Internet all seem to read well enough. Some
> times a bit too much is spoken, and I am still learning how to make NVDA
> speak less.
>
> And to be fair, NVDA is not Free, but you can obtain it for Free, use it,
> and if you like it, then the owners and creators of NVDA would love to
> see a Donation come their way. Money does motivate the continued
> improvement of their product.
>
> If more money had been coming into GW Micro, then A I Squared would not
> have bought GW Micro. and this discussion would never have taken place.
>
> I doubt if any of us would work for Free indefinitely. And the guys
> who have put NVDA together would not put in so much effort into NVDA if
> they did not receive enough to make it worth their time and energy.
>
> The thing about NVDA is that you can donate $50 and the guys will be
> grateful. $50 is cheaper than $1300 for JAWS.
>
> NVDA doesn't do everything JAWS does, but to be honest, I do not need
> NVDA to do everything JAWS does. Each person will need to find out if
> NVDA will do everything they need it to do. If it doesn't, and we all
> find out that Window Eyes is truly Dead, then those needing more will
> need to start saving up for their copy of JAWS, whether they like it or
> not.
>
> I have two programs that NVDA will not read. Window Eyes will read one
> of them, and when JAWS 18 has a Demo, I intend to try it, to see if it
> will read both of these programs. If it does, against my will, I will
> need to purchase a copy of JAWS. I might object, but if I wish to use
> these programs, then I have no choice.
>
> Time will tell what the Future of Window Eyes will be, and whether or
> not we each need to see what we can find to replace a decent and
> respectable Screen Reader.
>
> There are other choices than NVDA and JAWS, although, I know nothing
> about them. And since I rarely hear of them, I assume they are not
> all that good. Maybe some of you here have experience with some of
> the other choices in Screen Readers?
>
> Grumpy Dave
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author
> and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared.
>
> For membership options, visit
> http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/trailerdavid%40hotmail.com.
> For subscription options, visit
> http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
> List archives can be found at
> http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
> .
>
_______________________________________________
Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared.
For membership options, visit
http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/archive%40mail-archive.com.
For subscription options, visit
http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
List archives can be found at
http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
