The Coburn Blog

I know most of you are probably wondering, if you are blind, or mostly blind, how do you use a Computer?  I get this question alot, so here in this post, I will attempt to answer this question as best I can.

Like dogs and white walking sticks for travel, they have software for the Computer that turns text on the screen into audio speech. Its very good software.  There are three different ones made by three different companies. The most well known is called  Jaws for Windows

Jaws for Windows

Another one not quite as well known, is by a company called GW Micro, who are located here in Indiana, its called Window-Eyes:  Window Eyes

The last option is the Hal Screen reader by Dolphin software, but their a company located outside the united states so their products aren’t used much here in the states.

All three of the above options have both screen reading capabilities, and the option to hook up what is called a “braille display” to the computer instead of a traditional monitor.  Most people who have no sight at all, prefer the braille displays, so they don’t have to mess with all the graphics and such.   I like Jaws, I’ve used it before, the other two I haven’t used so I don’t know how good or bad they are.

Myself, I don’t use Jaws on a regular basis. I use a different solution from AI Squared called Zoomtext.

The reason I prefer Zoomtext, over Jaws, is because I have some usable vision left. Zoomtext has options to magnify the screen up to 32x its original size, and options to remove problem colors and put the screen into reverse video, similar to how a Closed Circuit Television works for those who are familiar with that process.  The Windows accessibility features built into Windows does some of that, but it doesn’t do full screen zooming, the text and pictures are blurry and unreadable when there magnified, and you can’t toggle reverse video on and off with a hotkey, thats why I like Zoomtext better then the options built into Windows.  Zoomtext has whats called xFont technology, which is used so the text is easily readable in the highest of magnification modes, which is a feature exclusive to Zoomtext. It also has mouse and cursor highlighters because sometimes the visually impaired have trouble locating the mouse and text cursors on the screen, I know I do, which is a very nice feature I use it everyday.  Zoomtext is centered around the extreme sight impaired, while products like Jaws are better suitable for the completely blind, because Zoomtext speech reading isn’t as good as Jaws, and you still have to point the mouse cursor at the point you want it to start speaking,  while with Jaws you don’t have to use the mouse or monitor at all, so Jaws or Window Eyes are definitely better solutions for the completely blind.

Because these options are expensive, and because there are 4 different options depending upon severity of vision loss and user preference, for instance Window Eyes can be used on a USB stick, while Jaws has to be installed on the Computer with administrative privileges which wouldn’t be suitable at a college computer lab or the local library for instance, so there are advantages and disadvantages to each option,  they usually recommend a blind person goto her local states Vocational Rehabilitation office.  There, they can put her thru mobility and independent living skills training.   My independent living skills trainer is also a low vision specialist,  and she taught me how to use Jaws and Zoomtext to be productive on the computer in my everyday lifestyle.  She went over how to use the software, how to use the software with word and excel to maximize my productivity, how to use it with a web browser and do web searches, so on and so forth.  I could even use it to take the CompTIA A+ and Network+ and Microsoft Office Certification exams, if CompTIA would allow it, but lately they have been giving me grief about it, claiming the software “may” not be compatible with their testing software environment, so they won’t even let me try it at all, isn’t that stupid?  and the testing proctors at school can’t allow me to try it without permission from CompTIA, so its a big mess.  The college should speak to them in my behalf on that, but they don’t, which just makes me mad, because I as an individual cannot prosecute a big company like CompTIA or PearsonVUE, that would be like me taking on Microsoft or CISCO, without someone important to speak in my behalf, I don’t have a prayer.

The only problem with the speech software solutions, is they can’t read images or Flash / shockware / ColdFusion content. so usually how we get around this is by reading the XML code of the page, or having the software read its page source.  For instance, Window-Eyes will convert the HTML source of the page into speech, skipping the HTML markup and reading just the actual text and links on a page. I don’t understand the specifics of the process, I just know the software does all that for me, that is a good reason why webmasters should always follow XHTML compliance, because the screen readers don’t read content very well that isn’t XHTML compliant, and special CSS styles can be used specifically for braille displays. Window Eyes and Jaws users use the keyboard to click on links and buttons they want to go to next, its pretty neat, I’ve used it before, I just prefer Zoomtext as long as I have some usable vision left, so I can see pictures and visual layouts that the screen reader wouldn’t be able to read to me.  Zoomtext’s screen magnification is actually quite good and can enlarge pictures, Flash movies, and other video content without making the images blurry as the magnification level increases, its really cool. Ai Squared even has a stripped down version of the software for people who aren’t blind, who just want the magnification, reverse video, and XFont technologies on these incredibly tiny 1600×1200, or higher, display resolutions that only teeny bobbers can read. hehe.  Doesn’t it seem like the bigger your LCD display is, the higher the native resolution is?  I’ve seen some 27 inch monitors lately with 2048×1536 resolutions before. I can’t imagine someone with 20/20 vision being able to see that!!  You can check that software out at:  getzoomware.com. there is a 30 or 60 day demo on all these products, by the way, on their websites to check out and play around with.

The main thing to keep in mind,  when a blind person uses a computer, they don’t use a monitor, or a mouse.   Now I do because I still have some usable vision left, but I could use Jaws without a monitor or mouse if I wanted to, probably will have to one day since the doctor said my vision will progressively get worse in time, as I notice a little less everyday now,  and I have used a computer without a monitor or mouse before when my eyes have given me problems,  but you usually have to go thru Vocational Rehab to purchase the software,  because each solution is in the $600-900 range, which is a lot of money, but if its for school or work or something, VR usually covers it, as they did me since I major in Computers at school.

Hope this answers the questions about how I use a computer Granted, the software isn’t perfect, nothing ever is, but its pretty neat stuff for those who might be interested.  Its given me the ability to not only use a computer, but choose computers as my field of study as a someday career move.