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Free Assistive Technology Applications
1. Mozilla Firefox Bundle Introduction: The Mozilla Firefox bundle includes the Fire Vox, “CLiCk, Speak,” and CLC Star extensions. See below for details.
CLiCk, Speak
extension: an open source, freely available extension for the Firefox web
browser. It is part of the CLC-4-TTS Suite of products, it features a mouse
driven interface, and it reads web pages - hence its name. CLiCk, Speak is
designed for sighted users who want text-to-speech functionality. It doesn't
identify elements or announce events - two features that are very important for
visually impaired users but very annoying for sighted users. It also has a
simplified, mouse driven interface that is designed to be easy for users
familiar with point-and-click graphical user interfaces. CLiCk, Speak works on
Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
Fire Vox extension: Fire Vox is an open source, freely available talking
browser extension for the Firefox web browser. Think of it as a screen reader
that is designed especially for Firefox. In addition to the basic features that
are expected of screen readers, such as being able to identify headings, links,
images, etc. and providing navigational assistance, Fire Vox provides support
for MathML and CSS speech module properties. It also works on Windows,
Macintosh, and Linux. CLC
STAR extension: Allows users to easily setup preferences for how they want
pages presented to them in Firefox. Features include:
**NOTE: Some systems may require up to 3 minutes to launch, load and activate Fire Fox with the Click,Speak and/or Fire Vox extension(s). Please be patient and give it time!! You will see the Firefox Web Browser at the top of the page when it is ready.
2. iZoom Web Introduction:
iZoom Web is the only screen
magnifier which can run directly from a website while having a minimal impact on
the operating system. It has all the advanced features of the iZoom 2.0 family
but requires no download. Simply visit
www.issist.ca to
start it up.
3. Power Talk Introduction:
PowerTalk is a free
program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. You simply start PowerTalk and open and run
your presentation as usual. PowerTalk then speaks the text on your slides. The
advantage over other generic 'Text To Speech' programs is that PowerTalk is able
to speak text as it appears and can also speak hidden text attached to images.
Speech is provided by the standard synthesised computer voices that are provided
with Windows.
4. Click-N-Type Introduction:
Click-N-Type is a virtual
keyboard designed for anyone with a disability that prevents him or her from
typing on a physical computer keyboard. So long as the person can control a
mouse, trackball or other pointing device, he or she can send keystrokes to
virtually any Windows application or DOS application that can run within a DOS
window. Click-N-Type is a 32 bit application that requires Windows 95 or later.
5. LetMeType Introduction:
LetMeType helps you enter text.
Running in the background, it analyses what you type. After some time it has
collected enough information to guess a word after you have typed the first two
or three letters. A list of the most probable words is displayed, and you can
select one with a single keystroke or just continue typing.
6. Non Visual Desktop Reader (NVDA) Introduction: A screen reader is a program that speaks what is happening on the computer to the user. People who have low vision or are totally blind use screen readers. People who may have problems reading may also at times use screen readers. There are many screen readers available; this text is going to cover one screen reader called NVDA. NVDA
stands for “Non visual desktop access”. Everything that you are going to do on
the computer will be told to you with synthesized speech. Synthesized speech is
an artificial computerized voice. You will be doing everything only by using the
computer keyboard.
7. Nextalk Introduction:
NexTalk is a network based
system with special provisions for the communication needs of the deaf and hard
of hearing, but with advanced communications and messaging features. It is a
blending of telephone and computer technologies which links TTY callers with
every NexTalk personal computer user on the local and wide area networks. With
NexTalk, any TTY call can be answered and then transferred to another NexTalk
user or group of users (department).
8. WordTalk Introduction: WordTalk is a
free plug-in developed for use with all versions of Microsoft Word (from Word 97
upwards), which can help people with reading difficulties use Microsoft Word
more effectively. It will speak the text of the document and will highlight it
as it goes. It contains a talking dictionary to help decide which word spelling
is most appropriate. It sits neatly in your toolbar and is highly configurable,
allowing you to adjust the highlight colours, the voice and the speed of the
speech. |
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