95/98/2000/XP Reader

- Windows Screen Reader -

* Abstract

95Reader is the software that enables visually impaired and blind persons to use Microsoft Windows through speech output.

Windows is the most widely used operating system that based on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and in many cases operated with pointing devices such as the computer mouse. However manipulating pointing devices requires looking closely at the computer screen, which is hard for visually impaired and blind persons.

95Reader makes it possible to use Windows without looking at the screen nor operating the mouse. It vocalizes the keyboard operations, selected menues and buttons, messages of the OS and so on. This speech output makes it possible to understand the situation of the computer screen and to use Windows only from the keyboard. By using this software, visually impaired and blind persons can use word processor, email software, spreadsheet software, CD-ROM dictionary browser, OCR software, and the Internet in the Windows environment. Braille output is also available (Version 3.5 or more).

95Reader was first put on the market in November, 1996. Since then more than 10,000 copies have been sold and widely used among visually impaired and blind persons.

------------95Reader version 1.0------------------------95Reader being used in a workplace

* Papers

Tetsuya Watanabe, Shinichi Okada and Tohru Ifukube, Barrier-free electronic media viewers using a screen reader, The Transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering D-I, Vol.J83-D-I, No.1, pp.234-242, 2000 (in Japanese).
Tetsuya Watanabe, Shinichi Okada and Tohru Ifukube, Development of a CD-ROM books vocalizing system for blind persons in a GUI environment, The Transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering D-I, Vol.J82-D-I, No.4, pp.589-592, 1999 (in Japanese).
Tetsuya Watanabe, Shinichi Okada and Tohru Ifukube, Development of a GUI screen reader for blind persons, Systems and Computers in Japan, Vol.29, No.13, pp.18-27, 1998. English Translation of the paper which appeared on the Transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering D-II, Vol.J81-D-II, No.1, pp.137-145, 1998.
Tetsuya Watanabe and Shinichi Okada, How to minimize the selecting time from auditory menus, ICCHP '96 Proceedings, pp.791, Linz, Austria, July, 1996.

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