Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!olivea!oliveb!bunker!hcap!hnews!382!60!Tommy.Craig From: Tommy.Craig@f60.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Tommy Craig) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Re: Please Help: Equipment Advice Message-ID: <15587@bunker.UUCP> Date: 13 Nov 90 17:53:12 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP Reply-To: Tommy.Craig@f60.n382.z1.fidonet.org Distribution: misc Organization: FidoNet node 1:382/60 - DATAQUEST, Austin TX Lines: 42 Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP Index Number: 11680 [This is from the Blink Talk Conference] Hi Jim, you ask a lot of questions and I'll do my best to answer as many of them as posible. Let me start of by saying that there are several screen reading packages. The four leading packages are Jaws, Flipper, Vert and Vocal Eyes. I different packages work better for some applications than others and a lot has to do with personal preference. After deciding on a software package you then need to choose a speech synthesizer. There are dozens of different synthesizers available. The most popular ones are Accent, DecTalk, Prose, Echo and Audapter. These range in price from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. The combination that I recommend is Jaws and the Accent. I think that they offer the most flexibility and ease of use for the money. Jaws is quite easy to learn but it is still a very powerful screen reading package. The Accent comes in several version and offers several features that are not available on synthesizers costing much more. As far as telecommunications goes, Telix and your modem should work just fine with any of the above packages. The same is true for editors. Word Perfect and Word Star are both very popular with blind users. The screen readers listed above should work quite well with almost all ibm software as long as it is not graphics based. As far as special services available from the phone company, the only real service offered to blind is an exemption from directory assistance charges for blind persons. I think that covers most of your questions. If you have more questions I'd be happy to try and answer them. You can call me "voice" at 512 451-1717 or "bbs" at 512 451-4349. I have demo copies of most of these screen readers available for download. I will also be happy to tell you how to order any of the products listed above. Tommy -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!382!60!Tommy.Craig Internet: Tommy.Craig@f60.n382.z1.fidonet.org