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ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE AND DEVICES
In addition to accessibility features that are included in
computer operating systems there, are a number of software
programs and hardware devices that help disabled users access
computers and printed materials. These accessibility devices and
programs can be divide into categories that deal with the needs
of users having a variety of disabilities.
Screen Readers
Screen reading programs assist students who are blind or who
have severe visual impairments and cannot see the information
displayed on the screen. Screen reading programs have a number
of keyboard commands that enable the user to hear information on
the screen spoken in a meaningful way so that they can use
standard applications including browsers. Screen reading
keyboard commands are also used to perform mouse functions since
users often cannot see the mouse pointer and are unable to
operate the mouse. In order to adequately benefit from the
access provided from Screen reading programs users have to spend
several hours of training and practice to learn the numerous
commands and to adequately navigate the various application
interfaces and varying screed layouts. Screen reading programs
don't work with all applications and in some cases additional
scripts have to be developed in order to use less standard
programs. Two leading screen reading programs used in the
Windows OS are JAWS and WindowEyes.
Screen Magnification Programs
Screen Magnification programs enable the user to change the size
of the screen output. As the magnification is increased a
Smaller portion of the screen is .displayed in magnified view-
Screen magnification programs will track cursor and pointer
movements and usually focus on the action area of the screen, in
addition to magnification features, these programs also have
color filtering and other features that may make the screen
display more accessible to users with different visual
preferences. Some screen magnification programs also come with a
limited screen reading capacity. Two of the leading screen
magnification programs used in the Windows OS environment are
ZoomText and MAGIC.
Voice Recognition Systems
Voice recognition programs enable users to use computers who
have limited use of their hands or who are unable to use the
standard keyboard. Screen recognition systems involve the use of
a microphone for dictating text and commands, Once a user has
completed a short training period in which they dictate several
paragraphs of text so that the system can recognize their
particular speech patterns, they can then use the system for
dictating and interfacing in a variety of standard applications.
Users must also learn basic syntax commands so that navigation,
editing and interfacing can be done in addition to dictating.
Dragon Naturally Speaking is one of the popular voice
recognition programs used with the Windows based computers.
OCR based Reading Systems
Reading systems involve scanning documents using optical
character recognition scanning devices (OCR) that copy the
information from hard copy documents and place this information
onto the computer screen. Once the material has been scanned and
recognized users can have the documents read to them with voiced
output of the text .OCR based reading systems are helpful for
users who have reading and processing difficulties as well as
users with visual disabilities that prevent or limit access to
printed materials. Kurzweil 1000/3000 are examples of reading
systems used in computers with Windows OS.
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