We have been running the Thunder project for over four years now and we rightly from time to time think about the future of Thunder and free screenreader software for blind people in general. Mind you, the idea of running something is interesting in itself with all the turbulence in North Africa and the Middle East. Maybe those that run things are merely figure-heads who need respect and support to stay in charge. Maybe it is the ordinary people that actually keep things going as indeed it is with Thunder users. So thank you to the many who have enjoyed Thunder and helped other blind people to do good things on the computer.
So what about the future? We are not closing down and we know Thunder has its place for years to come. NVDA is much loved by techies but it is not so good for beginners and home users as Thunder and I have no difficulty in making use of both products on my machine and totally respecting and admiring what the NVDA team have achieved.
But there is much more now at stake than the desktop and laptop, NVDA and Thunder. We are witnessing a move from PC to mobile smart phone and the touch screen. There is budget shift towards ever lower costs which even manufacturers of specialist stuff for blind users can’t escape from. A word processor like MS Word used to cost well over £100 whereas now there is Pages for the iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard, Braille or QWERTY, and Pages only costs a few pounds.
Sticking with the smart mobile concept, you no longer have to memorise lots of obscure keystrokes or pay out a week’s wages for the latest upgrade. Instead, you quickly download a free upgrade in minutes. This is a huge advantage for newly blind people but something of a challenge to those of us versed in the old PC Windows ways. But I for one no longer sit at my PC in the evenings to catch up on news, music and technical updates like I used to. I am now comfortable on the couch with the iPad by me and a pair of high quality headphones over my bald head.
And the smart phone does far more than word processing, the web and phone calls. It tells me when the next bus is due and what street I am in and what landmarks and road crossings are nearby. Maybe the accuracy is not quite there yet but its good and will get better. It won’t be long before I shall be able to mark up with seeing help my personal local landmarks just like is done on the expensive commercial navigation aids of today.
So where is all this leading with reference to the Thunder project? Probably you have begun to work it out already. In fact we are going to continue to support Thunder by email, telephone and with our manuals and tutorials which we are just now updating. But we would be foolish not to be putting more effort into the smart phone, iPhone and Google Android, simply because this is what our blind and visually impaired customers will want and need to keep pace and stay mainstream.
Keep enjoying WebbIE and Thunder and we will still be here to support you. Watch this space for development and please do talk to us about what works for you, what does not and what you want of us.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Friday, 12 November 2010
THE IPHONE AS A JOURNEY COMPANION
12 November 2010
In a previous article, I briefly described some of the apps on my iPhone. I hope I made the point that the iPhone could add value to our lives as visually impaired people in a variety of ways. In this article, I plan to share some of my mobility experiences but I want to make it very clear that the iPhone is only a supplement to my white cane, my weak vision and my habit of involving others in helping me cope with out and about journeys. The current state of GPS technology does not give you precise location information and neither does it work for you inside buildings. Also, I am not anticipating that there is or will be just one app which fulfils all your needs. I have gone for an option which puts together several apps on one screen and it is pretty easy to move from one app to the other as and when you require some specific intelligence. Sometimes I need to know when the next bus is due; sometimes it’s about the next train to London. When out walking, I like to know which direction I am travelling in, especially when off the beaten track; And it is always useful to hear which roads I am passing and what the next crossing will be. At the time of writing, the missing link for me is that I don’t have the ability on the iPhone to create my own personal points of interest and hear them later as I pass by. No doubt that will come soon.
So here is a little about each of the mobility apps which I have got used to over the past few months. By the time you read this, there will be changes, improvements and possibly disappointments. We can’t assume that every app written for the iPhone will speak to us just because The apple Corporation have built their VoiceOver speech into the guts of the system. Apple can only encourage and advise developers to take heed of our particular needs. Incidentally, they each cost no more than £1.50 pence except the TomTom app which cost nearly £50 and maybe I don’t especially need now there is Sendero.
Nextbuses: If you live out of town like us, it’s pretty handy to know when the next bus is coming. Nextbuses gives you this information in great detail. Go into the app, agree to have your location confirmed by the GPS iPhone system and you are away. This location confirmation is typical of almost all the GPS maps mentioned in this article. The screen is divided into two halves. The top half is only useful when zoomed to partially sighted users because it is a map. But the lower half of the screen contains a row by row list of my local bus stops. I flick to the right with one finger and hear them in turn, each one offering me a more info choice. I double tap on the more info I want and am told the next bus is due in nine minutes and another one in twenty-one minutes. No need to rush or be anxious. . At the very top of the touch screen are two buttons: The left button, About, tells me about the app and who created it. Malcolm Barclay is very supportive of the needs of blind users.
Mybus; Mybus in many ways performs the same function as Nextbuses; but the screen is wholly taken by a map. Perhaps this is for those with some useful sight who love maps but I found it doable. There are three buttons at the top of the screen and a Map Pin Button in the bottom left corner. Top left is Favourites where you can store your most used routes. Top middle is un-named and just says button. But it takes you to the Kizoom website and gives you the chance to give them feedback. Top right is the Nearme button which has a visual effect. Tapping the map pin button, bottom left, brings up the name of the relevant street and the direction the bus is travelling. Immediately to the right of the direction is a more info button. This takes you to a screen giving details of the next bus. At the bottom of the screen are two further buttons: Bottom left takes you to a list of local taxi numbers and bottom right takes you to even more info about the bus stop and journeys. If VI users pursued the makers, This could be a very useful app, if only because of the added bonus of taxi on the spot in an unfamiliar area.
iRail:, Thetrainline and Traintimes: These three apps purport to give you useful train travel information up to the minute. They are pretty accessible but, when out and about relying on the somewhat tedious iPhone onscreen keyboard, perhaps Traintimes is the easiest to manage. When you first go into the Traintimes app, you are asked if you want to designate a home station. If you do, a search text field comes up and you start typing in the first few letters of your chosen station. It is pretty quick, for instance, to get to Peterborough. Once confirmed, you come to a screen divided up as follows: At the top of the screen is e.g. Peterborough Departures and immediately below you can select a station for your journey. Below this is Plan A Journey followed by Next Train Home. At the bottom of the screen is the option to change your settings. You might here change your home station, choose only direct trains, show the distance you will travel etc. As usually happens with the Iphone, there is a back button top left on the screen. The response is remarkably quick and accurate. As with the bus information, you know within a minute or so of actual changes.
UK Ireland: This is the iPhone TomTom app, the only expensive app mentioned here at around £50. I don’t really need this but was curious and delighted to find that it is extremely accessible and usable after a deal of practice and growing understanding. It is actually quite nice to hear what you are passing, streets, shops and towns when you are on a coach or in a car. You can even plan a journey for a seeing driver. I bought TomTom to use as a pedestrian before Sendero released their free app but more of this later. I won’t describe its functions in any detail here but might recommend it for a blind partner who wants in some way to share the navigation stresses with a seeing driving partner or friend.
Compass: I am one that likes to know the direction in which I travel. I aim to build up a mental map of my surroundings, so a talking compass is the perfect solution as an integral part of the phone I carry with me. The iPhone compass gives your travel direction to within a few degrees and responds quickly as you move your position.
Sendero GPS, avicat and GPS20S: Each week some new GPS app becomes available for the iPhone. The various apps are pretty similar and I mention three here you might want to explore. They tend to operate in a similar manner, giving pin map information re where you are and what is around. By the time you read this, the whole picture may well have changed but for now I will describe Sendero GPS because it is currently the most accessible and has been produced by a company which has, over the years, done great service to blind people and their mobility needs.
If you are in doors, in a car or near some electrical machinery, the chances are you get an opening message warning you of Compass interference. You are told to wave the iPhone in a figure of eight way to get rid of this. The Sendero screen is divided into three parts: At the top, you read what you need to know in any situation. Towards the bottom, there are three very clearly labelled buttons: Where am I, nearest cross point and nearest points of interest. Double tapping on either button takes you to masses of useful info relevant to where you are. At the very bottom of the screen are the following buttons from left to right: map, compass, Shake on, settings, and POI category.
Sat at my desk at home, double tapping where am I tells me I am facing South near the address of my house. It is as good as that. Likewise, the nearest crossing buttons accurately tells me the name of my road and the main road at its end. The POI default is set to business so, the nearest five points of interest are local companies, the first being The Holiday Inn. There is a vibration to assure you that a connection is being made. Now for the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
The map button is no use to me but could be zoomed up by a partially sighted person or seeing companion. The compass button reminds me I am facing South and responds quickly if I turn round in my chair. The Shake on button is a toggle. When on, I can just shake my iPhone to hear the where am I information. The off option is for when you are on a bumpy journey, I suppose. The Settings button gives three options: Again, shake gesture, North America or Europe, and, lastly, measurements in in yards or metres. There is a useful help button bottom right of this screen and a back button top left.
In a word, it’s great and the only thing missing is the ability to create your own points of interest. We are given eighteen POI categories from Airport to school in alphabetical order. I failed to make this feature work at first but learned you have to swipe up or down with one finger to select your chosen category.
Well, clearly, there is much more to all this and exciting things to come at low cost to us users, I plan to present more iPhone information to Access IT readers over the coming months on such subjects as listening to radio and podcasts, educational stuff, games and leisure etc. I want to make it clear that we don’t sell the iPhone. You must go mainstream to the nearest Apple store. But we do sell a small braille display and keyboard, the BraillePen, for £995 as an introductory offer which works brilliantly with an iPhone or indeed with other mobiles and computers as well. As a long-term braillists, it is a huge thrill to be able to feel dots as well as to listen and we are proud to introduce the first braille display into the UK for under £1000. .
Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds run Screenreader.net, a not for profit company which focuses on low cost or no cost access technology solutions. We are currently involved in promoting the Thunder free screen reader software for Windows and the range of Apple solutions which have accessibility , VoiceOver, built into the operating system.
Contact Details:
Tel: 01733 234441
Email: roger@screenreader.net.
In a previous article, I briefly described some of the apps on my iPhone. I hope I made the point that the iPhone could add value to our lives as visually impaired people in a variety of ways. In this article, I plan to share some of my mobility experiences but I want to make it very clear that the iPhone is only a supplement to my white cane, my weak vision and my habit of involving others in helping me cope with out and about journeys. The current state of GPS technology does not give you precise location information and neither does it work for you inside buildings. Also, I am not anticipating that there is or will be just one app which fulfils all your needs. I have gone for an option which puts together several apps on one screen and it is pretty easy to move from one app to the other as and when you require some specific intelligence. Sometimes I need to know when the next bus is due; sometimes it’s about the next train to London. When out walking, I like to know which direction I am travelling in, especially when off the beaten track; And it is always useful to hear which roads I am passing and what the next crossing will be. At the time of writing, the missing link for me is that I don’t have the ability on the iPhone to create my own personal points of interest and hear them later as I pass by. No doubt that will come soon.
So here is a little about each of the mobility apps which I have got used to over the past few months. By the time you read this, there will be changes, improvements and possibly disappointments. We can’t assume that every app written for the iPhone will speak to us just because The apple Corporation have built their VoiceOver speech into the guts of the system. Apple can only encourage and advise developers to take heed of our particular needs. Incidentally, they each cost no more than £1.50 pence except the TomTom app which cost nearly £50 and maybe I don’t especially need now there is Sendero.
Nextbuses: If you live out of town like us, it’s pretty handy to know when the next bus is coming. Nextbuses gives you this information in great detail. Go into the app, agree to have your location confirmed by the GPS iPhone system and you are away. This location confirmation is typical of almost all the GPS maps mentioned in this article. The screen is divided into two halves. The top half is only useful when zoomed to partially sighted users because it is a map. But the lower half of the screen contains a row by row list of my local bus stops. I flick to the right with one finger and hear them in turn, each one offering me a more info choice. I double tap on the more info I want and am told the next bus is due in nine minutes and another one in twenty-one minutes. No need to rush or be anxious. . At the very top of the touch screen are two buttons: The left button, About, tells me about the app and who created it. Malcolm Barclay is very supportive of the needs of blind users.
Mybus; Mybus in many ways performs the same function as Nextbuses; but the screen is wholly taken by a map. Perhaps this is for those with some useful sight who love maps but I found it doable. There are three buttons at the top of the screen and a Map Pin Button in the bottom left corner. Top left is Favourites where you can store your most used routes. Top middle is un-named and just says button. But it takes you to the Kizoom website and gives you the chance to give them feedback. Top right is the Nearme button which has a visual effect. Tapping the map pin button, bottom left, brings up the name of the relevant street and the direction the bus is travelling. Immediately to the right of the direction is a more info button. This takes you to a screen giving details of the next bus. At the bottom of the screen are two further buttons: Bottom left takes you to a list of local taxi numbers and bottom right takes you to even more info about the bus stop and journeys. If VI users pursued the makers, This could be a very useful app, if only because of the added bonus of taxi on the spot in an unfamiliar area.
iRail:, Thetrainline and Traintimes: These three apps purport to give you useful train travel information up to the minute. They are pretty accessible but, when out and about relying on the somewhat tedious iPhone onscreen keyboard, perhaps Traintimes is the easiest to manage. When you first go into the Traintimes app, you are asked if you want to designate a home station. If you do, a search text field comes up and you start typing in the first few letters of your chosen station. It is pretty quick, for instance, to get to Peterborough. Once confirmed, you come to a screen divided up as follows: At the top of the screen is e.g. Peterborough Departures and immediately below you can select a station for your journey. Below this is Plan A Journey followed by Next Train Home. At the bottom of the screen is the option to change your settings. You might here change your home station, choose only direct trains, show the distance you will travel etc. As usually happens with the Iphone, there is a back button top left on the screen. The response is remarkably quick and accurate. As with the bus information, you know within a minute or so of actual changes.
UK Ireland: This is the iPhone TomTom app, the only expensive app mentioned here at around £50. I don’t really need this but was curious and delighted to find that it is extremely accessible and usable after a deal of practice and growing understanding. It is actually quite nice to hear what you are passing, streets, shops and towns when you are on a coach or in a car. You can even plan a journey for a seeing driver. I bought TomTom to use as a pedestrian before Sendero released their free app but more of this later. I won’t describe its functions in any detail here but might recommend it for a blind partner who wants in some way to share the navigation stresses with a seeing driving partner or friend.
Compass: I am one that likes to know the direction in which I travel. I aim to build up a mental map of my surroundings, so a talking compass is the perfect solution as an integral part of the phone I carry with me. The iPhone compass gives your travel direction to within a few degrees and responds quickly as you move your position.
Sendero GPS, avicat and GPS20S: Each week some new GPS app becomes available for the iPhone. The various apps are pretty similar and I mention three here you might want to explore. They tend to operate in a similar manner, giving pin map information re where you are and what is around. By the time you read this, the whole picture may well have changed but for now I will describe Sendero GPS because it is currently the most accessible and has been produced by a company which has, over the years, done great service to blind people and their mobility needs.
If you are in doors, in a car or near some electrical machinery, the chances are you get an opening message warning you of Compass interference. You are told to wave the iPhone in a figure of eight way to get rid of this. The Sendero screen is divided into three parts: At the top, you read what you need to know in any situation. Towards the bottom, there are three very clearly labelled buttons: Where am I, nearest cross point and nearest points of interest. Double tapping on either button takes you to masses of useful info relevant to where you are. At the very bottom of the screen are the following buttons from left to right: map, compass, Shake on, settings, and POI category.
Sat at my desk at home, double tapping where am I tells me I am facing South near the address of my house. It is as good as that. Likewise, the nearest crossing buttons accurately tells me the name of my road and the main road at its end. The POI default is set to business so, the nearest five points of interest are local companies, the first being The Holiday Inn. There is a vibration to assure you that a connection is being made. Now for the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
The map button is no use to me but could be zoomed up by a partially sighted person or seeing companion. The compass button reminds me I am facing South and responds quickly if I turn round in my chair. The Shake on button is a toggle. When on, I can just shake my iPhone to hear the where am I information. The off option is for when you are on a bumpy journey, I suppose. The Settings button gives three options: Again, shake gesture, North America or Europe, and, lastly, measurements in in yards or metres. There is a useful help button bottom right of this screen and a back button top left.
In a word, it’s great and the only thing missing is the ability to create your own points of interest. We are given eighteen POI categories from Airport to school in alphabetical order. I failed to make this feature work at first but learned you have to swipe up or down with one finger to select your chosen category.
Well, clearly, there is much more to all this and exciting things to come at low cost to us users, I plan to present more iPhone information to Access IT readers over the coming months on such subjects as listening to radio and podcasts, educational stuff, games and leisure etc. I want to make it clear that we don’t sell the iPhone. You must go mainstream to the nearest Apple store. But we do sell a small braille display and keyboard, the BraillePen, for £995 as an introductory offer which works brilliantly with an iPhone or indeed with other mobiles and computers as well. As a long-term braillists, it is a huge thrill to be able to feel dots as well as to listen and we are proud to introduce the first braille display into the UK for under £1000. .
Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds run Screenreader.net, a not for profit company which focuses on low cost or no cost access technology solutions. We are currently involved in promoting the Thunder free screen reader software for Windows and the range of Apple solutions which have accessibility , VoiceOver, built into the operating system.
Contact Details:
Tel: 01733 234441
Email: roger@screenreader.net.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
SUMMER HOTCHPOCH
We are having quite a busy Summer here at Screenreader.net in Peterborough. Roger went along to the Sight Village exhibition in Birmingham but we did not have our own stand this year. Instead, we pitched in with LOOK, the parents’ organisation for visually impaired children. It was great with laughter all the way and masses of young visitors. They loved the Iphone and the Ipad and we were pleased to hear just how many use our Thunder and WebbIE software at home. But the star was a lovely little lass no more than eight years old who giggled uncontrollably as she pressed the buttons of the Fart4Free Iphone Ap. It was a joy to hear her delight.
While at the exhibition, I spent time on the Harpo stand looking at the new tiny Braille display called BraillePen. Just twelve cells and light as a feather, it hooks up to Windows machines as well as to mobiles and smart phones running Talks and Mobile Speak. We plan to distribute it from the UK and would love to hear from anyone wanting a lower cost efficient Braille display. Of course, it works well to with Iphone and Ipad. We think the retail price will be around £1250 including some setting up and tuition. Since then, I have had great fun with it here at home and it works out of the box with my Apple desktop too. In the very near future, I am sure it will be up and running with our free Thunder software which makes the whole package extremely competitive and functional.
We have been busy too updating Thunder. Our minds are focused on making it the best and easiest web experience for home users with little or no sight and we are well on the way to achieve this. The current version is a little sluggish and this has been put right in the version I am currently testing. Also, you can now enjoy most or many web pages just by constantly pressing the PGDN key which is really handy if you are using a notebook or netbook. The END key, often just below this, takes you through form-filling and there are just four or five other keys to remember when you want to search the web, get to links fast or find something straight away on the page you have open. The new version I am testing should be up and running soon and it will have an automatic updating option so that you will never miss out each time an update becomes available. It all takes a little time but we are getting there with masses of users, no disability cost and an ever-improving computer and web experience.
Our helpline people, Steph and Graham, are always around to help and we have just bought in some new remote access software from The Serotek Corporation in America. This little miracle allows us to make contact directly with your computer in your home and sort out problems as if we were there at your keyboard. You might think this is old hat and so it is for seeing people. But remember our helpline staff don’t see and are real genuine visually impaired users like you so they get to hear what is going on with your computer and can use their knowledge and skills to put things right. Please give it a go if you have problems. They are very expert helpline staff.
You may well have received an email lately from us asking if you want to remain on our mailing list. Thunder has been going now for more than four years and we have a massive list of those thousands who have downloaded the Thunder software. So we are getting organised and tidying up things so we only communicate with people who want to hear from us. Thank you to those who have responded and I enjoyed renewing contact with lots of mates from the past. Sorry if we have been a minor pain to some people not wanting to hear from us.
Thunder continues to edge its way round the world and we now have interest in Nepal and Azerbaijan. Ten young blind people are able to listen to and use their computers in their native Nepalese but we have not yet been able to sort an Azerbaijani synthesiser. Those of us speaking English are very privileged but we do try hard with other languages.
Well, that’s it for now and hopefully there will be another Thunder version for you to download within weeks.
We are having quite a busy Summer here at Screenreader.net in Peterborough. Roger went along to the Sight Village exhibition in Birmingham but we did not have our own stand this year. Instead, we pitched in with LOOK, the parents’ organisation for visually impaired children. It was great with laughter all the way and masses of young visitors. They loved the Iphone and the Ipad and we were pleased to hear just how many use our Thunder and WebbIE software at home. But the star was a lovely little lass no more than eight years old who giggled uncontrollably as she pressed the buttons of the Fart4Free Iphone Ap. It was a joy to hear her delight.
While at the exhibition, I spent time on the Harpo stand looking at the new tiny Braille display called BraillePen. Just twelve cells and light as a feather, it hooks up to Windows machines as well as to mobiles and smart phones running Talks and Mobile Speak. We plan to distribute it from the UK and would love to hear from anyone wanting a lower cost efficient Braille display. Of course, it works well to with Iphone and Ipad. We think the retail price will be around £1250 including some setting up and tuition. Since then, I have had great fun with it here at home and it works out of the box with my Apple desktop too. In the very near future, I am sure it will be up and running with our free Thunder software which makes the whole package extremely competitive and functional.
We have been busy too updating Thunder. Our minds are focused on making it the best and easiest web experience for home users with little or no sight and we are well on the way to achieve this. The current version is a little sluggish and this has been put right in the version I am currently testing. Also, you can now enjoy most or many web pages just by constantly pressing the PGDN key which is really handy if you are using a notebook or netbook. The END key, often just below this, takes you through form-filling and there are just four or five other keys to remember when you want to search the web, get to links fast or find something straight away on the page you have open. The new version I am testing should be up and running soon and it will have an automatic updating option so that you will never miss out each time an update becomes available. It all takes a little time but we are getting there with masses of users, no disability cost and an ever-improving computer and web experience.
Our helpline people, Steph and Graham, are always around to help and we have just bought in some new remote access software from The Serotek Corporation in America. This little miracle allows us to make contact directly with your computer in your home and sort out problems as if we were there at your keyboard. You might think this is old hat and so it is for seeing people. But remember our helpline staff don’t see and are real genuine visually impaired users like you so they get to hear what is going on with your computer and can use their knowledge and skills to put things right. Please give it a go if you have problems. They are very expert helpline staff.
You may well have received an email lately from us asking if you want to remain on our mailing list. Thunder has been going now for more than four years and we have a massive list of those thousands who have downloaded the Thunder software. So we are getting organised and tidying up things so we only communicate with people who want to hear from us. Thank you to those who have responded and I enjoyed renewing contact with lots of mates from the past. Sorry if we have been a minor pain to some people not wanting to hear from us.
Thunder continues to edge its way round the world and we now have interest in Nepal and Azerbaijan. Ten young blind people are able to listen to and use their computers in their native Nepalese but we have not yet been able to sort an Azerbaijani synthesiser. Those of us speaking English are very privileged but we do try hard with other languages.
Well, that’s it for now and hopefully there will be another Thunder version for you to download within weeks.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
The ipad has landed
The ipad has landed
Tool or toy or both for people with little or no sight?
I noticed that the iphone and the ipad failed to make an appearance at last year’s Sight Village in Birmingham and again there was no sign of it at this year’s Csun as reviewed by Dr Mike Townsend in the May edition of this excellent magazine. Strange when there is so much interest in both products. So what is going on here and what is changing? Could it just be that blind and visually impaired people can go into Apple Stores etc in the nearest town or city and take a peep for themselves. The Apple staff know how to set up Zoom magnification or VoiceOver speech and family members, especially children, are taking a great interest and will be quick to help their visually impaired family member to do well with such a cool mainstream bit of kit.
I am old enough to remember the excitement of handling my first computer that talked to me and made stuff large enough on the screen for me to see and even slowly read by sight. It was the BBC computer and it gave me hours of fun and learning. It’s not easy to recapture all this even though computers are so wonderful for us now but the ipad has won my heart and certainly my fingers, eyes and ears. In this blog, I don’t want to do the detail but simply focus on the visual, remembering that I have very little sight by normal standards but very precious eccentric sight by my own standards. So what is it about the ipad?
It is small, thin, neat and held in one hand while your finger in the other hand manages the very responsive touch screen. Stuff on the screen is bright, extremely clear and the colours are intense. You can soften the brightness if glare is your problem. The interesting thing for me is that the ipad is handheld. If you have little sight, the great thing is being able to totally control how near things are, the ipad in this case, what angle they are to your face and eyes. How many of us have hunched over a screen, tried small screens to obtain clarity and or large ones to cope with magnification. How many of us have struggled to read print books with powerful telescopic lenses or done battle with the environment to get the lighting just right. The ipad in your hand copes with all this and, incidentally, when you buy an electronic book for it, you can quickly choose print size, the font style of the print and actually hear the book at the same time.
The ipad revolution brings with it yet another joy. The speech output and enlargement facilities are all part of the mainstream deal out of the box. No need to pay extra for your visual disability needs. The voice is clear and the pictures and colours are stunning. As a big boy, I was very excited to trial a driving game; a fast car amongst all sorts of obstacles I could hardly make out. But because the sounds were there and the pictures right up to my eyes, I felt the thrill of the simulation. I just need a driving game slow enough and with clear and spoken labelling so that I and many like me could get started. The cost of programs or apps is also very reasonable indeed, sometimes as little as fifty nine pence. Many apps are just free of charge.
Sound remains my preference though and I liked the facility to plug in my best headphones and listen to high quality music, podcasts, masses of book titles and radio stations from all round the world and all in the living room in a comfy arm chair and not sat at a keyboard. There is just so much to listen to that I would have to give up work to get time to fully enjoy it all. Sometimes one has had to decide whether or not to be a blind or a weak-sighted operator when choosing technology kit. Here, though, you can just press the buttons and hear or see large, just as you please at the moment of need.
Of course you can email, word process, cope with spreadsheets and keep your list of contacts and your calendar too. I purchased a natty Bluetooth keyboard to go with my ipad so I can quickly write documents and notes etc. There is an onboard on screen keyboard which is very usable with little or no sight, if slow. Incidentally, if you like speaking to your mates, Skype is there and very accessible and easy to use but, beware because there is a phone charge.
So would I recommend the ipad for blind and partially sighted people? Certainly not but I think you should make a big effort to go and handle one and get to know more about it and you might end up being as delighted as I am with it. Do remember too, that I have just scratched the surface and there is much more it can do. And finally, there are lessons to learn here. There is so much choice for us these days from freebies, cheapies to high class Rolls Royces. Who should be recommending? High priced products permit a sales team to go round the country and attend costly specialist exhibitions. The web is stuffed with information if you know the right key words for your web search. Your peers with little or no sight will surely have an opinion as I have; but my views are very biased and personal to my own needs and abilities. Sadly, there are very few professional so-called experts that have no axe to grind, nothing to sell, as it were. And even these trusty few must struggle to know the whole picture. For our part, at Screenreader.net, we no longer just bang on about our own Thunder screenreader software and WebbIE browser as you can see from this Apple article. The best advice is to go, learn and enjoy the huge choice of opportunities now available to us. In the new climate of cuts and reduced spending, we have all got to do more for ourselves and that is no bad thing, maybe.
Tool or toy or both for people with little or no sight?
I noticed that the iphone and the ipad failed to make an appearance at last year’s Sight Village in Birmingham and again there was no sign of it at this year’s Csun as reviewed by Dr Mike Townsend in the May edition of this excellent magazine. Strange when there is so much interest in both products. So what is going on here and what is changing? Could it just be that blind and visually impaired people can go into Apple Stores etc in the nearest town or city and take a peep for themselves. The Apple staff know how to set up Zoom magnification or VoiceOver speech and family members, especially children, are taking a great interest and will be quick to help their visually impaired family member to do well with such a cool mainstream bit of kit.
I am old enough to remember the excitement of handling my first computer that talked to me and made stuff large enough on the screen for me to see and even slowly read by sight. It was the BBC computer and it gave me hours of fun and learning. It’s not easy to recapture all this even though computers are so wonderful for us now but the ipad has won my heart and certainly my fingers, eyes and ears. In this blog, I don’t want to do the detail but simply focus on the visual, remembering that I have very little sight by normal standards but very precious eccentric sight by my own standards. So what is it about the ipad?
It is small, thin, neat and held in one hand while your finger in the other hand manages the very responsive touch screen. Stuff on the screen is bright, extremely clear and the colours are intense. You can soften the brightness if glare is your problem. The interesting thing for me is that the ipad is handheld. If you have little sight, the great thing is being able to totally control how near things are, the ipad in this case, what angle they are to your face and eyes. How many of us have hunched over a screen, tried small screens to obtain clarity and or large ones to cope with magnification. How many of us have struggled to read print books with powerful telescopic lenses or done battle with the environment to get the lighting just right. The ipad in your hand copes with all this and, incidentally, when you buy an electronic book for it, you can quickly choose print size, the font style of the print and actually hear the book at the same time.
The ipad revolution brings with it yet another joy. The speech output and enlargement facilities are all part of the mainstream deal out of the box. No need to pay extra for your visual disability needs. The voice is clear and the pictures and colours are stunning. As a big boy, I was very excited to trial a driving game; a fast car amongst all sorts of obstacles I could hardly make out. But because the sounds were there and the pictures right up to my eyes, I felt the thrill of the simulation. I just need a driving game slow enough and with clear and spoken labelling so that I and many like me could get started. The cost of programs or apps is also very reasonable indeed, sometimes as little as fifty nine pence. Many apps are just free of charge.
Sound remains my preference though and I liked the facility to plug in my best headphones and listen to high quality music, podcasts, masses of book titles and radio stations from all round the world and all in the living room in a comfy arm chair and not sat at a keyboard. There is just so much to listen to that I would have to give up work to get time to fully enjoy it all. Sometimes one has had to decide whether or not to be a blind or a weak-sighted operator when choosing technology kit. Here, though, you can just press the buttons and hear or see large, just as you please at the moment of need.
Of course you can email, word process, cope with spreadsheets and keep your list of contacts and your calendar too. I purchased a natty Bluetooth keyboard to go with my ipad so I can quickly write documents and notes etc. There is an onboard on screen keyboard which is very usable with little or no sight, if slow. Incidentally, if you like speaking to your mates, Skype is there and very accessible and easy to use but, beware because there is a phone charge.
So would I recommend the ipad for blind and partially sighted people? Certainly not but I think you should make a big effort to go and handle one and get to know more about it and you might end up being as delighted as I am with it. Do remember too, that I have just scratched the surface and there is much more it can do. And finally, there are lessons to learn here. There is so much choice for us these days from freebies, cheapies to high class Rolls Royces. Who should be recommending? High priced products permit a sales team to go round the country and attend costly specialist exhibitions. The web is stuffed with information if you know the right key words for your web search. Your peers with little or no sight will surely have an opinion as I have; but my views are very biased and personal to my own needs and abilities. Sadly, there are very few professional so-called experts that have no axe to grind, nothing to sell, as it were. And even these trusty few must struggle to know the whole picture. For our part, at Screenreader.net, we no longer just bang on about our own Thunder screenreader software and WebbIE browser as you can see from this Apple article. The best advice is to go, learn and enjoy the huge choice of opportunities now available to us. In the new climate of cuts and reduced spending, we have all got to do more for ourselves and that is no bad thing, maybe.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
A New Version Of The Thunder software
Oh dear!!! I am not very good at this blogging business. Margaret and I work hard every day but, well, I am sorry that it has been so long. Sorry I can’t do all I should do and thank you to the many who respond with your comments and thoughts.
Good news, however. We now have a new version of Thunder, V2, up and ready for everyone at www.screenreader.net. It is really good and I hope we get lots of feedback from you. So what is new?
Obviously, Thunder has been brought up to date and now works well with Windows 7, both 32 and 64 bit versions. Don’t be put off by wise guys telling you that Windows 7 and Office 7 are not good for blind users. Microsoft have made great efforts to improve the accessibility and it is just a case of learning a few new keystrokes and tricks of the trade.
Until now, we have relied on the WebbIE text browser for the Thunder internet experience. That is great and we have no plans to stop using WebbIE and Alasdair amazes us by constantly updating and improving his software. He is a mighty supporter of blind computer users. But now, for the first time, Thunder users can start to enjoy Internet Explorer mainstream and Sensory Software Ltd have been pretty ingenious with their keystrokes. What I mean is that you can achieve a great deal with very few and easy keystrokes. As an example; you can keep pressing the PGDN key and hear much of what is available on websites. Pressing the END key takes you through any form filling you encounter. The function keys are used to deal with other matters: F4 gives you that fantastic easy Web search facility and F2 then F3 permits you to search for a word within the webpage you are on. F7 hops between headers and F10 brings up the list of links. All very easy and works whatever the language. There are plans to develop all this so that we are well ready for when IE9 comes along. But if you find that WebbIE suits your purpose, just stick with it.
Thunder is more stable than ever and the memory stick version is now as responsive as if the software were installed on the machine you are using. It is absolutely amazing that, for the price of a memory stick, around £6 in the UK, and maybe with a bit of help from a mate, you can use your Thunder on other machines, in the library, internet cafe or at your friend’s home, without installing anything at all on the host computer. Compare this with the price of commercial alternatives and, if money becomes short, well, , why spend? Keep your money for training or something else.
We have been busy in other ways too. Since before Christmas, we have been organising fifty web learning days around England for combined audiences of blind and seeing people. At each learning day, we have aimed to recruit a Thunder Champion to spread the word locally and encourage other blind people to get connected. We are pleased that all this has given work to three blind certificated IT trainers at a time when work is hard to come by as the larger blindness organisations take the cream. And we have landed a second European Commission contract to put Thunder into more languages: Greek, Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian and Spanish. In all these countries, many blind people are poor and will never be able to spend out on commercial products. We remain passionate that by right access to computers should be there for all blind people. It is taking a little while but we are not put off by lack of support from organisations with money and we continue to get great feedback from Thunder users round the world.
When we started Thunder in 2006, we were the only “nuts” to be doing something for free which others were charging an arm and a leg for. But now we are not alone. NVDA comes out of Australia and is a great product too and the Mighty innovating Apple Corporation integrates its Voiceover talking and magnifying software into all of its products, from the cheapest iPod to the most expensive 27 inch screen desktop as well as the iphone. And we already know that the iPad, shortly to be released, will also be accessible to us out of the box. We have never had so much choice or accessibility.
So thank you to everyone who supports what we do and keep the feedback and responses coming in
Good news, however. We now have a new version of Thunder, V2, up and ready for everyone at www.screenreader.net. It is really good and I hope we get lots of feedback from you. So what is new?
Obviously, Thunder has been brought up to date and now works well with Windows 7, both 32 and 64 bit versions. Don’t be put off by wise guys telling you that Windows 7 and Office 7 are not good for blind users. Microsoft have made great efforts to improve the accessibility and it is just a case of learning a few new keystrokes and tricks of the trade.
Until now, we have relied on the WebbIE text browser for the Thunder internet experience. That is great and we have no plans to stop using WebbIE and Alasdair amazes us by constantly updating and improving his software. He is a mighty supporter of blind computer users. But now, for the first time, Thunder users can start to enjoy Internet Explorer mainstream and Sensory Software Ltd have been pretty ingenious with their keystrokes. What I mean is that you can achieve a great deal with very few and easy keystrokes. As an example; you can keep pressing the PGDN key and hear much of what is available on websites. Pressing the END key takes you through any form filling you encounter. The function keys are used to deal with other matters: F4 gives you that fantastic easy Web search facility and F2 then F3 permits you to search for a word within the webpage you are on. F7 hops between headers and F10 brings up the list of links. All very easy and works whatever the language. There are plans to develop all this so that we are well ready for when IE9 comes along. But if you find that WebbIE suits your purpose, just stick with it.
Thunder is more stable than ever and the memory stick version is now as responsive as if the software were installed on the machine you are using. It is absolutely amazing that, for the price of a memory stick, around £6 in the UK, and maybe with a bit of help from a mate, you can use your Thunder on other machines, in the library, internet cafe or at your friend’s home, without installing anything at all on the host computer. Compare this with the price of commercial alternatives and, if money becomes short, well, , why spend? Keep your money for training or something else.
We have been busy in other ways too. Since before Christmas, we have been organising fifty web learning days around England for combined audiences of blind and seeing people. At each learning day, we have aimed to recruit a Thunder Champion to spread the word locally and encourage other blind people to get connected. We are pleased that all this has given work to three blind certificated IT trainers at a time when work is hard to come by as the larger blindness organisations take the cream. And we have landed a second European Commission contract to put Thunder into more languages: Greek, Turkish, Polish, Bulgarian and Spanish. In all these countries, many blind people are poor and will never be able to spend out on commercial products. We remain passionate that by right access to computers should be there for all blind people. It is taking a little while but we are not put off by lack of support from organisations with money and we continue to get great feedback from Thunder users round the world.
When we started Thunder in 2006, we were the only “nuts” to be doing something for free which others were charging an arm and a leg for. But now we are not alone. NVDA comes out of Australia and is a great product too and the Mighty innovating Apple Corporation integrates its Voiceover talking and magnifying software into all of its products, from the cheapest iPod to the most expensive 27 inch screen desktop as well as the iphone. And we already know that the iPad, shortly to be released, will also be accessible to us out of the box. We have never had so much choice or accessibility.
So thank you to everyone who supports what we do and keep the feedback and responses coming in
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
A Dog's Diary August 26 2009
A dog’s diary
Just occasionally, something springs out at you an grabs your emotions and you just have to play your part. What follows came from a blind friend in Italy. It is wonderful that he translated it for us and just wanted the message to get round the UK too. He actually asked me to tidy the English but...I would not dream of being so picky and arrogant. Give a blind person a talking computer and, who knows, he may change the world for dogs and give us all a huge insight into human behaviour too. Enjoy and don;t be afraid to cry.
Week 1:
Today it’s one week since I was born: what a joy I have come to this world!
Month 1:
My mom takes care of me very tenderly: she is an excellent mother.
Month 2:
Today, I was parted from mom. She looked very anxious and said goodbye to me with a glance. Hopefully my new human family will take care of me as lovingly as she did.
Month 4:
I grew up quickly, everything attracts my attention. There are lots of children around, they are like “little brothers” for me. We are like rascals together, they pull my tail and I bite them for fun.
Month 5:
Today I was scolded: my master rebuked me because I peed in the house – but I had never been told where I should do it!
Month 12:
Today I turned one, I am almost an adult dog now, my masters say I have grown up even more than they expected. Ah, they must be so proud of me!
Month 13:
Today I felt very bad: my “little brother” took my ball, I never take his toys, so I wanted it back. My jaws have been to hard and I have unintentionally injured him. After that I was scared, they chained me, I can hardly see the sun now. They say they keep an eye on me, that I am ungrateful. I can’t understand anything of what is happening.
Month 15:
Everything is different now….. I live on the balcony. I feel so lonely, my family doesn’t love me anymore. Sometimes they forget I am hungry or thirsty. When it rains I have no shelter.
Month 16:
Today they took me away from the balcony. I was sure that my family had forgiven me. I was so excited that I started jumping for joy, and kept wagging all over the place. Besides, they took me for a walk. We headed for the motorway and then, suddenly, they stopped the car. They opened the door and I immediately got off with joy, believing we were going to spend the day in the countryside. Then a very strange thing happened: all of a sudden, with no apparent reason, they shut the door and went away. Hey, wait! You forgot me! I started running after the car with all my strength. My anguish was strong and increased even more when I realized I was going to faint….. and they would not stop. They forgot me.
Month 17:
In vain I have tried to find my way back home. I am cold and I feel lost. On my way I encounter kind-hearted people who look at me sadly and give me something to eat. With a glance I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I would love them to adopt me, I would be loyal and faithful like no other in the world, however they just say: “Poor little boy, you’re lost, ah?”
Month 18:
Some days ago I was roaming in front of a school when I saw a lot of children and guys just like my “little brothers”. When I got closer, a group of them scornfully started throwing stones at me so as to bet who owned the best aim. One of those stones spoilt one of my eyes, and since then I can’t see anything on that side.
Month 19:
You won’t believe that, but people showed more mercy on me when I was prettier. Now I am skinny, my aspect is quite different. I lost one eye and people now drive me away with a broom if I try to find shelter from the sun.
Month 20:
I can hardly move: today, someone ran over me. I thought I was safe in that place called “ditch”, but I will never forget the satisfaction in the eyes of that driver who intentionally drew up alongside the edge of the road in order to get into me. I wish he had killed me. Unfortunately he just broke my rear paw. The pain is terrible, my rear paws do not respond, and I desperately krept to a place with some grass on the side of the road.
Month 21:
I had been exposed to the sun and the rain for ten days, with no food. I couldn’t move anymore, the pain was unbearable, I felt very sick. It was a wet place where I lay, I believed my hair was dropping out. People passed by, some didn’t even spot me, some said “Watch out!” I was almost unconscious, but an unexpected power made me open my eyes. The sweetness of her voice made me react. She said “Poor little dog, how did they trash you this way?” On her side stood a man in a white suit, who touched me, then said “I’m sorry madam, there is nothing we can do for this dog, we’d better put an end to its suffering.” The kind lady started crying but eventually approved.
I wander how it happened, but I slightly moved my tail and looked at him, in order to thank him for helping me find rest at last. I just felt the injection and then fell asleep forever, asking myself why I had been born if nobody loved me.
In my country the problem of dogs being abandoned, most frequently on motorways, is still a relevant issue, in spite of aggressive campaigns promoting respect for dogs and pets.
This message is not just meant to break the hearts of dog lovers, but its aim is rather to affect those who have a dirty conscience, to cause in them a sense of guilt, shame and regret. This way, through a chain of unpredictable events, if just one dog were saved from a hostile fate, then this message will have been worth writing and circulating.
Please forward this message to as many people as you can, it’s just as challenging as sending out a joke or a picture, but you will have dedicated a fraction of your time to an animal, one of those who love us without asking anything in return. The animals will be grateful to you and your heart will be serene!
Just occasionally, something springs out at you an grabs your emotions and you just have to play your part. What follows came from a blind friend in Italy. It is wonderful that he translated it for us and just wanted the message to get round the UK too. He actually asked me to tidy the English but...I would not dream of being so picky and arrogant. Give a blind person a talking computer and, who knows, he may change the world for dogs and give us all a huge insight into human behaviour too. Enjoy and don;t be afraid to cry.
Week 1:
Today it’s one week since I was born: what a joy I have come to this world!
Month 1:
My mom takes care of me very tenderly: she is an excellent mother.
Month 2:
Today, I was parted from mom. She looked very anxious and said goodbye to me with a glance. Hopefully my new human family will take care of me as lovingly as she did.
Month 4:
I grew up quickly, everything attracts my attention. There are lots of children around, they are like “little brothers” for me. We are like rascals together, they pull my tail and I bite them for fun.
Month 5:
Today I was scolded: my master rebuked me because I peed in the house – but I had never been told where I should do it!
Month 12:
Today I turned one, I am almost an adult dog now, my masters say I have grown up even more than they expected. Ah, they must be so proud of me!
Month 13:
Today I felt very bad: my “little brother” took my ball, I never take his toys, so I wanted it back. My jaws have been to hard and I have unintentionally injured him. After that I was scared, they chained me, I can hardly see the sun now. They say they keep an eye on me, that I am ungrateful. I can’t understand anything of what is happening.
Month 15:
Everything is different now….. I live on the balcony. I feel so lonely, my family doesn’t love me anymore. Sometimes they forget I am hungry or thirsty. When it rains I have no shelter.
Month 16:
Today they took me away from the balcony. I was sure that my family had forgiven me. I was so excited that I started jumping for joy, and kept wagging all over the place. Besides, they took me for a walk. We headed for the motorway and then, suddenly, they stopped the car. They opened the door and I immediately got off with joy, believing we were going to spend the day in the countryside. Then a very strange thing happened: all of a sudden, with no apparent reason, they shut the door and went away. Hey, wait! You forgot me! I started running after the car with all my strength. My anguish was strong and increased even more when I realized I was going to faint….. and they would not stop. They forgot me.
Month 17:
In vain I have tried to find my way back home. I am cold and I feel lost. On my way I encounter kind-hearted people who look at me sadly and give me something to eat. With a glance I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I would love them to adopt me, I would be loyal and faithful like no other in the world, however they just say: “Poor little boy, you’re lost, ah?”
Month 18:
Some days ago I was roaming in front of a school when I saw a lot of children and guys just like my “little brothers”. When I got closer, a group of them scornfully started throwing stones at me so as to bet who owned the best aim. One of those stones spoilt one of my eyes, and since then I can’t see anything on that side.
Month 19:
You won’t believe that, but people showed more mercy on me when I was prettier. Now I am skinny, my aspect is quite different. I lost one eye and people now drive me away with a broom if I try to find shelter from the sun.
Month 20:
I can hardly move: today, someone ran over me. I thought I was safe in that place called “ditch”, but I will never forget the satisfaction in the eyes of that driver who intentionally drew up alongside the edge of the road in order to get into me. I wish he had killed me. Unfortunately he just broke my rear paw. The pain is terrible, my rear paws do not respond, and I desperately krept to a place with some grass on the side of the road.
Month 21:
I had been exposed to the sun and the rain for ten days, with no food. I couldn’t move anymore, the pain was unbearable, I felt very sick. It was a wet place where I lay, I believed my hair was dropping out. People passed by, some didn’t even spot me, some said “Watch out!” I was almost unconscious, but an unexpected power made me open my eyes. The sweetness of her voice made me react. She said “Poor little dog, how did they trash you this way?” On her side stood a man in a white suit, who touched me, then said “I’m sorry madam, there is nothing we can do for this dog, we’d better put an end to its suffering.” The kind lady started crying but eventually approved.
I wander how it happened, but I slightly moved my tail and looked at him, in order to thank him for helping me find rest at last. I just felt the injection and then fell asleep forever, asking myself why I had been born if nobody loved me.
In my country the problem of dogs being abandoned, most frequently on motorways, is still a relevant issue, in spite of aggressive campaigns promoting respect for dogs and pets.
This message is not just meant to break the hearts of dog lovers, but its aim is rather to affect those who have a dirty conscience, to cause in them a sense of guilt, shame and regret. This way, through a chain of unpredictable events, if just one dog were saved from a hostile fate, then this message will have been worth writing and circulating.
Please forward this message to as many people as you can, it’s just as challenging as sending out a joke or a picture, but you will have dedicated a fraction of your time to an animal, one of those who love us without asking anything in return. The animals will be grateful to you and your heart will be serene!
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
IT and Accessit July 2009
Roger Wilson-Hinds
I am replying to a June AccessIT article, reprinted from Braille Monitor which compared four low cost screenreader software talking packages.
I am responsible for distributing the thunder screenreader software round the world so at first I was cross and very disappointed. Thunder got short shrift. Rated the poorest Low cost screenreader.
My first reaction was to get on the phone and scream and shout about the inaccuracies and the briefness of the Thunder description. But at nearly seventy, I had the wisdom to engage brain before opening my big mouth. So how could such misinformation come to be in a professionally produced and widely respected specialist Braille magazine?
My granddaughter gave me the hint when I showed her the magazine I was reading. It was the cover. “What are floppy disks and what was life like before the internet? This was the drift of the discussion.
Don’t get me wrong. I love reading a Braille magazine on the train and there is no criticism implied or intended. But follow two chains of events:
The June article was written some time ago by a professional team well briefed in accessibility issues. It would then be approved and published and time marched on. Permissions were sought by RNIB and granted and the same article was reprinted in Braille and time marched on. I did not get round to reading the magazine until late July.
Now consider the second chain of events. I read the article on 22 July and am furious. I write this article on 22nd July and immediately pop it up as a blog on my company website also on 22nd July. I ask for it to be published as my right of reply on the same day and it may or may not get into the Braille magazine until September or possibly October, depending on the level of suitable material coming in to the Editor and it might not, of course, be deemed suitable anyway.
What my grand daughter does at the age of ten when she wants some information is to Google it. There is no waiting for her and her mates. So if readers want information about Thunder or much else for that matter, they should Google it and get the latest there is.
So now to the point: If you care to Google “screenreader” you will indeed find www.screenreader.net once or twice in the first five results. You will see clearly that Thunder is totally free to everyone, individuals and organisations. You will see that it comes in three forms: An installation .exe file so you can put it on your PC or laptop within a couple of minutes. There is a zipped file so you can copy it over to media, a pen drive, a disk or a card and run it on any modern Windows PC or laptop running XP or Vista, or very soon, Windows7 too. And there is also an MSI version for techies wanting Thunder on the college or school network etc.
We do indeed use WebbIE as our text browser and many people find WebbIE a most useful way to enjoy the internet and gather information quickly. But it does not suit everyone and we are working currently on an innovative way to get the best out of Internet Explorer 8. If you want an alternative browser such as Firefox, then Google NVDA and you will get to a pretty good option.
Thunder gives access to many Windows applications: MS Word, Outlook Express, Outlook, Notepad, Wordpad, Calc, LastFM, BBC iPlayer, and I could go on and on. If you find something you need access to, by all means ask us to create a script to make it work and we will do our best.
There is a moral to this story and I think it is about moving with the times and not doing things the way we used to in the dark ages of five years ago. Braille mags have their place and long should continue. What they can’t do is give you, the reader, the very latest information and they do you a disservice by conveying old hat stuff. I stress my commitment to Braille magazines and enjoy reading AccessIT.
Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds run Screenreader.net from their home in Peterborough. They supply a range of low cost and no cost products including free Thunder, the Lightning magnifier software package, a range of electronic magnifiers and a scanning software package. The company has over one hundred thousand users worldwide and is committed to serving the needs of those not able to afford commercially priced screenreader products.
Contact Details:
E: roger”screenreader.net
T: 01733 234441
W: www.screenreader.net
Blogs at www.screenreader.net
Roger Wilson-Hinds
I am replying to a June AccessIT article, reprinted from Braille Monitor which compared four low cost screenreader software talking packages.
I am responsible for distributing the thunder screenreader software round the world so at first I was cross and very disappointed. Thunder got short shrift. Rated the poorest Low cost screenreader.
My first reaction was to get on the phone and scream and shout about the inaccuracies and the briefness of the Thunder description. But at nearly seventy, I had the wisdom to engage brain before opening my big mouth. So how could such misinformation come to be in a professionally produced and widely respected specialist Braille magazine?
My granddaughter gave me the hint when I showed her the magazine I was reading. It was the cover. “What are floppy disks and what was life like before the internet? This was the drift of the discussion.
Don’t get me wrong. I love reading a Braille magazine on the train and there is no criticism implied or intended. But follow two chains of events:
The June article was written some time ago by a professional team well briefed in accessibility issues. It would then be approved and published and time marched on. Permissions were sought by RNIB and granted and the same article was reprinted in Braille and time marched on. I did not get round to reading the magazine until late July.
Now consider the second chain of events. I read the article on 22 July and am furious. I write this article on 22nd July and immediately pop it up as a blog on my company website also on 22nd July. I ask for it to be published as my right of reply on the same day and it may or may not get into the Braille magazine until September or possibly October, depending on the level of suitable material coming in to the Editor and it might not, of course, be deemed suitable anyway.
What my grand daughter does at the age of ten when she wants some information is to Google it. There is no waiting for her and her mates. So if readers want information about Thunder or much else for that matter, they should Google it and get the latest there is.
So now to the point: If you care to Google “screenreader” you will indeed find www.screenreader.net once or twice in the first five results. You will see clearly that Thunder is totally free to everyone, individuals and organisations. You will see that it comes in three forms: An installation .exe file so you can put it on your PC or laptop within a couple of minutes. There is a zipped file so you can copy it over to media, a pen drive, a disk or a card and run it on any modern Windows PC or laptop running XP or Vista, or very soon, Windows7 too. And there is also an MSI version for techies wanting Thunder on the college or school network etc.
We do indeed use WebbIE as our text browser and many people find WebbIE a most useful way to enjoy the internet and gather information quickly. But it does not suit everyone and we are working currently on an innovative way to get the best out of Internet Explorer 8. If you want an alternative browser such as Firefox, then Google NVDA and you will get to a pretty good option.
Thunder gives access to many Windows applications: MS Word, Outlook Express, Outlook, Notepad, Wordpad, Calc, LastFM, BBC iPlayer, and I could go on and on. If you find something you need access to, by all means ask us to create a script to make it work and we will do our best.
There is a moral to this story and I think it is about moving with the times and not doing things the way we used to in the dark ages of five years ago. Braille mags have their place and long should continue. What they can’t do is give you, the reader, the very latest information and they do you a disservice by conveying old hat stuff. I stress my commitment to Braille magazines and enjoy reading AccessIT.
Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds run Screenreader.net from their home in Peterborough. They supply a range of low cost and no cost products including free Thunder, the Lightning magnifier software package, a range of electronic magnifiers and a scanning software package. The company has over one hundred thousand users worldwide and is committed to serving the needs of those not able to afford commercially priced screenreader products.
Contact Details:
E: roger”screenreader.net
T: 01733 234441
W: www.screenreader.net
Blogs at www.screenreader.net
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