Talking Assistive Technology
Resources for people with low vision, compiled August 2016 by
Susan L. Gerhartslger123@gmail.com
“As Your World Changes blog at https://asyourworldchanges.wordpress.com
“Low Vision Techies Talk About Assistive Technology Catch The Vision
Screen Readers
Software that works a computer through a keyboard by announcing items on a screen and reading text in browsers and applications.
- NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) for Windows, free NV Access.org (Australia)
- VoiceOver built in to recent Apple systems
Book Readers
Acquire, download, and read books using synthetic speech
- Bookshare.org 400,000+ books $50/year, including NFB Newsline periodicals
- Victor Reader Stream from Humanware.com
- Bookport Plus from American Printing House for Blind APH.org
- BookSense (discontinued), others from Himms-Inc
- iPhone/iPad/ apps: Kindle, iBooks, VoiceDream (Bookshare), …
Apple VoiceOver for iPhone and More
IOS iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch, Triple Click Home to start, accessible settings for font/color/contrast and VoiceOver
Apps
- Money Reader
- Tap Tap See remote readers
- VoiceDream, multi-voice text and book reader
- KNFB Reader, recognize text (OCR)
- Around Me, BlindSquare navigators and location descriptors
- Twitter and other social media apps
- News articles
- iCatcher, Podcasts, DownCast podcatchers
- Notes (use external keyboard)
- SIRI speech recognizing personal assistant
Books:
- “Getting Started with IOS 9”, Anna Dressner, National Braille Press, NBP.org
- “IOS Without the Eye”, Jonathan Mosen, Mosen.org
- “Access for All”, Shelley Brisbin, iosaccessbook.com
- Fedora Outlier, remote training, fedoraoutlier.com
Tutorials and demonstrations
Podcasts are audio files retrieved and listened with a “podcatcher”
- Hadley School For Blind podcasts, hadley.edu
- AppleVis, Tutorials and Recommendations, AppleVis.com
- “Eyes On Success”, weekly interviews, EyesOnSuccess.net
Additional Information
- VRate (Vision Rehabilitation and Assistive Tech Expo), free in Phoenix
- Arizona Council for the Blind, acb.org/arizona coordinates AZ activities under the American Council for the Blind. Dues are $10/year. Anybody interested in setting up a local chapter?
- “”Living Visually Impaired in Prescott AZ”
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