The catch phrase is "WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader on the Go" and this is exactly what it does. Tools for the visually impaired are few and far between so nobody should begrudge Richard Ladner, a University of Washington professor of Computer Science and Engineering and his doctoral student Jeffrey Bigham from a bow. The mentor and the student developed this web tool keeping the needs of the visually impaired in mind. Blind users generally use their own computers with screen reader software installed. WebAnywhere aims to correct this through its independent platform and web based application.
WebAnywhere is not only a screen reader but its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a web-based application. That means :
- It does not need any software to be installed in the client machine. The only requirement is a browser and the ability to play sound.
- It works with any operating system - Windows, Mac, whatever
- It requires no special permissions; the computer should only be net enabled and should have audio.
- It works on any web-enabled device including any mobile that supports web access.
- With a data size of 100Kb for the home page, it has a fast loading time (less than 5 seconds).
An enthusiastic review of the many good features ends with:
An Open Source standard, the source code can also be downloaded and hosted on an independent server.Just a few cons: the application cannot access Adobe Flash objects embedded on a web page nor can it direct its speech recognition program to external applications such as PDF documents. Instead, it redirects it to the HTML version (cached on Google) of the document (if one exists).
WebAnywhere's primary goal is to provide net usability for the visually impaired on any computer. For an Alpha release, the functionalities outlined make for an ease of experience. Though many would not give up their favorite screen reader software, this application gives access to the blind in places where none is available.
Note: The WebAnywhere Project is supported by a National Science Foundation Grant.
By Saikat: a techno-adventurer in a writer's garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him on his personal blog ruminating about the positives in our world.
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Hazel's comment:
There are several sources that I read regularly where I don't go and check the actual application / book / whatever being written about. I take their word for it because I trust this source – this is one of them. If MakeUseOf says it's good then it's good.
And apologies for taking so long to bring this to you but it resides at the bottom end of my feed reader where I don't go on a daily basis as I do with the news items.
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