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From: Doug.Geoffray@f8.n369.z1.fidonet.org (Doug Geoffray)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: screen readers
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Date: 23 Jan 91 15:33:05 GMT
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[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 DR> I use Soft Vert
 DR> in conjunction with Accent speech and have been very pleased
 DR> with the results.  I have also seen Vocal Eyes and think it is
 DR> great.  I am using the 4.5 version of Soft Vert and it appearss
 DR> to me to have features which are comparable to Vocal Eyes.  I
 DR> would appreciate anyone's input regarding the differences
 DR> between the two programs.

Donald,
  I almost did not reply to this because I don't like to down play
the other guy.  I hope that someone else here will reply as well.  It
is difficult for me to be unbias.  Also, just for the record as I have
said before, I don't feel any screen reader is the best!

Here are a few features I believe set Vocal-Eyes from some of the othere:

1) You can go a long way without using any kind of macro.  This saves
memory and complexity.  Vocal-Eyes offers 46 cursoring keys which are
application keys that you assign what should be spoken after the
application program aks on it.

2) You can load up to 9 voice environments in memory at one time and
switch between them with two keypresses.  Of course, you can always load
from disk at any time.  You don't have to be at the DOS prompt.

3) Vocal-Eyes is very visual.  This is very important in sighted
environments.

4) It works in extended or expanded memory.  If you load Vocal-Eyes in
DOS RAM it only takes 52K.  If you don't want the review help, that
drops to 42K.  If you load in Extended or expanded regardless it only
takes 2K of DOS RAM regardless of the buffers or help screens.

5) Every single hot key without exception can be definable by the user.
There is no exception to this!

6) Not only do you have the ability to read the current character, word
and line but you can also read the sentence and paragraph.  You can read
the previous and next for any of these as well.

7) Vocal-Eyes offers a screen cut and paste.  You can make a copy of
something on the screen and later dump it out at the cursor position as
if you typed it in.

8) Extensive and well written manual.  We have not gotten one bad review
on the manual.  And for a computer manual that is hard to believe.

Well, Donald, these are just a few of the features I believe make Vocal-Eyes
stand out from the others.  I have noticed some of these features start
popping up in new releases of other screen readers.  This is why I am
currently in the process of creating a new release of Vocal-Eyes.  At that
time I will be able to give you a much bigger list then this.

Regards,
  Doug

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