Some of you with the required skills may be interested in this. From: Michael Curran [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hi all, Today, I have made available a free open-source screen reader for Windows. It is called Nonvisual Desktop Access, and it can be found at: http://www.kulgan.net/nvda/ NVDA is still very much in development, but I would like to start to get people trying it out, so bugs can be ironed out etc. Can I please stress though, it works on my computers at home, but I have no idea how well it will work on anyone elses. Test it out, but please be patient, and remember that things can only improve with user feedback. Its probably best that people have a bit of knowledge of the python language if they are going to try it out, though I welcome anyone to take a look, but just remember its almost just a whole jumble of code at the moment. Currently you can be paying up to $2000 for a screen reader, and as much as a lot of work goes in to the programming, it seriously does not cost, or does not have to cost, that much. In fact, I believe that if people have the time and want to collaborate on a project, we should eventually have access to a screen reader (or screen readers) for free (yes, no money at all). Currently this screen reader (NVDA) is written in the python language, and there for perhaps may be a little slow in responsiveness. But, I say to anyone with the programming no-how who does think they can do better, here's a challenge to make something better. Following is some information on NVDA Introduction Nonvisual Desktop Access (NVDA) was started because of the need for a free open-source nonvisual access solution for windows. Written entirely in python, NVDA is a functional screen reader that allows you to use Windows with out vision, by using MSAA, the windows API, and a speech synthesizer to convey what is happening. This is still very much still in its development stages, but if configured correctly and if you have all the needed packages, it should work quite alright. Features . Using MSAA, it can find out the name, role, value, description, state, help text, and index of a control . Listens for events such as focus changes, state changes, value changes etc, and reports them appropriately . Allows you to navigate around windows by object, or navigate around the current window by line and character, with out moving the system focus . Reports edit changes in documents and edit fields etc (characters being added, characters being removed) . Follows the system caret and reports the current character when moving around edit fiels . all information (such as the properties of an object, messages, window text) can be configured to have a specific rate, pitch, volume, voice, or even sound . Specific "app modules" can be written to give extra functionality to certin applications Limits . Can not access the content of console windows (such as a cmd prompt or some terminal applications . Does not yet have a graphical user interface for setting configuration options etc . The only speech synthesizers it supports at this time are sapi5 . App modules have not yet been written for MS Office or internet explorer etc . Probably only works on Windows XP and most likely Windows Vista Dependencies . Python 2.4 (The core python distrobution) . pyAA 2.2 (python library for Microsoft Active Accessibility) . pyHook 1.4 (python library for receiving keyboard events) . pyTTS 3.0 (Python library for sapi5) . pywin32-208 (Python library for windows specific functionality) License and Copyright Nonvisual Desktop Access is Copyright © 2006 Michael Curran and covered by the GNU General Public License ( < http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>)
Bugs and suggestions Please send bugs and suggestions to: Michael Curran < [EMAIL PROTECTED] < mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>. Also send me an email if you are interested in helping out with the project in any capacity. Mick Enjoy Rohan To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
