Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman) (06/28/91)
Index Number: 16589
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
DH> Excuse me... I am the Sysop of Pagan Rites in Tampa, Fl. I have two
DH> blind users who are looking for better readers.. not really sure what
DH> they are using but they have asked me to try to get some info for
DH> them..
DH> They are a little shy about posting...
Well, as long as they don't expect you to handle all the replying and further
questions once they start getting responses, here goes:
As I'm a screen reader author myself, I'm not going to even try to be
objective. My program, Tinytalk, is an inexpensive and memory-efficient
screen reader that provides all the features users have come to expect in such
a program: BIOS output automatically read, keyboard echo, cursor tracking,
review mode and control over synthesizer parameters. You can automatically
monitor areas of the screen for changes and tell Tinytalk how to read the
areas. Popup windows can be read automatically without having to specify
their locations. When you're "filling out a form" in a database application,
you can hear the individual field prompts as you move between them, even if
there are several fields on the same line. You can keep up to 10
configurations in memory at one time (you can keep as many as you want on
disk) and you can automatically switch to a program's configuration just by
running the program (look ma, no batch files!).
Tinytalk is shareware with a $75 registration fee. Its name comes from the
fact that it uses only 18K of memory. It's available from several boards; if
someone doesn't have access to a BBS that has it, I'll send out an
unregistered copy for $5 (applicable to the registration fee). Tinytalk is
from:
OMS Development
1921 Highland Ave.
Wilmette, IL 60091
Make checks payable to Eric Bohlman.
Now for the halfhearted attempt at objectivity: other popular screen readers
are Flipper (from Omnichron), Jaws (from Henter-Joyce), Vocal-Eyes (from GW
Micro), Soft Vert (from TSI), Artic Vision and Business Vision (from Artic),
VOS (from Computer Conversations), Provox (from Kansys), ASAP (from Microtalk)
and a few more. With the exception of the Artic programs, they all support
most common synthesizers. Most of them have demonstration versions floating
around on various BBSs; the demos will usually run for 20 minutes or so at a
time. The manufacturers will usually send out demo copies if you ask them.
Quite a few people here will tell you about their favorite package.
There's also a shareware program called Enable Reader which is a bit limited
due to its age (it was written at a time when fewer programs did fancy screen
tricks) and a freeware program called Model Tea Reader, which comes from
Britain and is a stripped-down version of a program called HAL. Neither is as
capable as Tinytalk.
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