This blog comes from a talk given at the 4Sight Bradbury Centre in Sussex linking up our work with open innovation and open source Assistive Technologies on the JISC funded REALISE project as well as free software to access the web and a few links related to the use of mobile phones.
Portable USB Pen drives for use with Windows operating systems can run light weight programs with an accessible menu. Examples are:
- NVDA screen reader
- Virtual Magnifying Glass
- SumatraPDF
- WebbIE with a whole collection of its own
Accessible RSS News Reader
Accessible BBC iPlayer
Accessible Podcatcher
Accessible BBC Live Radio
Clock for time and reminders
Calendar for diary and events
Accessible Gutenberg Library for free books
Accessible Internet Radio Tuner
Accessible PDF for reading PDF files.
Internet Explorer Appearance Editor
Disk Explorer for working with files and folders.
More portable apps can be found on the JISC RSC NE Scotland site
Mobile phone apps are appearing all the time for Android phones such as eyes free, talkback & Digital Talking Timer. The iPhone has built in accessibility features such as VoiceOver and Zoom but there are many more apps such as Eye Reader and Voice of Daisy etc. There are blogs about Android Access and many more about the iPhone.
Nokia and Blackberry also have their accessibility sites. Nokia phones use the Code Factory and Nuance systems of screen reading and magnification. Blackberry uses Oratio and the freely available Clarity Theme. There is also the mobile forums advice about phone option
Further Resources
AccessWatch
Screen Magnifiers
Links for Print to Audio that provide free software include
- Create&Convert – JISC RSC Scotland SE
- TAMC – Techadapt
- Save as Daisy and Pipeline – Office 2010 – Daisy Consortium
- Robobraille
Web Access options
- Firefox – Fire Vox for web page reading aloud, Readability to remove clutter,
- ATbar – a cross browser toolbar with text enlargement, colour, font and line spacing changes, text to speech, dictionary and spell checker.
- Web2Access – to learn more about which interactive and social networking sites are accessible.
- Webanywhere listen to web pages being read aloud just by adding your chosen web address to the edit box on the site.
- RNIB Accessibility toolbar for Internet Explorer
- LowBrowse for Firefox – delivers web pages in a text friendly way with text to speech options and colour, font changes etc.
- Black Window freeware – Enhance visibility and reduce distractibility of other programs
If you have any ideas for programs that you think would help your use of the computer please add them to the ideas already being discussed on the JISC funded REALISE project