Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Need a screen reader for Windows 7 (self.Blind)
submitted by ImOnMarijuana
My friend is completely blind. Her windows vista computer is beyond bothering with, so I'm going to give her my wife's laptop which is running Windows 7.
The issue is that she was using Jaws 10 on her last computer and while owning that computer, she has left her physically abusive husband, but I didn't see the Jaws disc when I was packing her computer things up, and asking her husband isn't really an option.
I realize Jaws is made by a company trying to make a profit, but for someone on full disability, it's a little impossible to afford. I'm willing to kick in some cash, but $1200 is out of my budget.
Is there a screen reader as good or better than Jaws 10 which isn't as expensive? I have tried NVDA, but I don't think it's going to be adequate for her since it's really hard to understand what the reader is saying.
I'm also interested if there are any programs which are to help blind people afford every day necessities like screen readers and the like. She lives in Alberta Canada.
Thanks in advance!
The issue is that she was using Jaws 10 on her last computer and while owning that computer, she has left her physically abusive husband, but I didn't see the Jaws disc when I was packing her computer things up, and asking her husband isn't really an option.
I realize Jaws is made by a company trying to make a profit, but for someone on full disability, it's a little impossible to afford. I'm willing to kick in some cash, but $1200 is out of my budget.
Is there a screen reader as good or better than Jaws 10 which isn't as expensive? I have tried NVDA, but I don't think it's going to be adequate for her since it's really hard to understand what the reader is saying.
I'm also interested if there are any programs which are to help blind people afford every day necessities like screen readers and the like. She lives in Alberta Canada.
Thanks in advance!
Vaelian 2 points 7y ago
If you don't like the eSpeak voice You can always buy the $1 which are very high quality and support a lot of languages. I use Vocalizer myself since it's bundled with MacOS and iOS. A free alternative to Vocalizer are the Windows SAPI voices which you can choose in NVDA, but don't ask me how to do it since I don't use NVDA myself; I only know this because I've been thinking about switching to Windows and have been researching my options.
ImOnMarijuana [OP] 1 points 7y ago
Thank you. I didn't realize this was an option. I commented more on this below.
Nighthawk321 2 points 7y ago
Stick with NVDA> You're able to install different addons for NVDA, and that includes the Eloquence voice (JAWS voice). Just google it, download it, and open it. It will ask you if you want to install it. Once installed, it will sound just like JAWS! Let me know if you have any questions.
ImOnMarijuana [OP] 1 points 7y ago
Awesome! This is exactly what I was hoping to find. Thank you so much. I didn't know that was possible. I hadn't yet sunk a bunch of time into the program because I couldn't get over how I couldn't understand what it was saying to me. To me, that's a deal breaker, but I hadn't even considered that there would be plugins which makes perfect sense now that you mention it.
Thanks!
Thanks!
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
The page with the plugin you want is: http://jeff.tdrealms.com/NVDA.htm
Scroll down to the "Software Speech Synthesizers" heading. The one you want, if you want it to sound like JAWS, is "Standard Eloquence Driver for NVDA". If she speaks multiple languages, get "Eloquence driver for NVDA with autolanguage switching support added" instead. However, if she only speaks English, don't bother; in order to do auto language switching, it has to run code to detect what language the text it's about to speak is in, and that introduces just a little lag before every time it starts speaking.
If she was using the premium Scansoft voices with her JAWS, you can get the same Vocalizer voices for NVDA at: http://www.vocalizer-nvda.com
However, those voices aren't free. Well, neither is eloquence...it's just that the eloquence voices haven't been updated in over 10 years, so absolutely nobody willingly pays for them. But if you do want to take the honest, and supported, option you can give these folks your money: http://codefactoryglobal.com/app-store/voices-for-nvda/
Scroll down to the "Software Speech Synthesizers" heading. The one you want, if you want it to sound like JAWS, is "Standard Eloquence Driver for NVDA". If she speaks multiple languages, get "Eloquence driver for NVDA with autolanguage switching support added" instead. However, if she only speaks English, don't bother; in order to do auto language switching, it has to run code to detect what language the text it's about to speak is in, and that introduces just a little lag before every time it starts speaking.
If she was using the premium Scansoft voices with her JAWS, you can get the same Vocalizer voices for NVDA at: http://www.vocalizer-nvda.com
However, those voices aren't free. Well, neither is eloquence...it's just that the eloquence voices haven't been updated in over 10 years, so absolutely nobody willingly pays for them. But if you do want to take the honest, and supported, option you can give these folks your money: http://codefactoryglobal.com/app-store/voices-for-nvda/
Nighthawk321 1 points 7y ago
Yeah it's a complete dealbreaker for me as well lol. Yeah no problem! There are a bunch more addons that are very useful.
Lookingforgamz 2 points 7y ago
Hello,
I know a lot of people who switched from Jaws to NVDA, a free alternative program that works very well and is updated quite often. The problem is that the program is made by volunteers, so customer service is not garanteed. A good and cheaper alternative to Jaws is Zoomtext, but still retailed at about 599$ (offers 60 days trial though).
As for programs and services in Alberta, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) offers a lot of free services and has a few local offices in Alberta. I know that they also offer training for using programs like zoomtext and NVDA. http://www.cnib.ca/en/alberta/Pages/default.aspx
Hope this helps!
I know a lot of people who switched from Jaws to NVDA, a free alternative program that works very well and is updated quite often. The problem is that the program is made by volunteers, so customer service is not garanteed. A good and cheaper alternative to Jaws is Zoomtext, but still retailed at about 599$ (offers 60 days trial though).
As for programs and services in Alberta, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) offers a lot of free services and has a few local offices in Alberta. I know that they also offer training for using programs like zoomtext and NVDA. http://www.cnib.ca/en/alberta/Pages/default.aspx
Hope this helps!
ImOnMarijuana [OP] 1 points 7y ago
That does. Thank you very much!
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