Seeking Tips for Visually Impaired

[mlm-dd]

Hi - My mother, who is quite computer savvy, has lost most of her sight to macular degeneration. She can still see enough to operate a mouse, but cannot read text. She is using Windows Narrator, but it reads every single thing on the screen, but won't read IM. Very frustrating! She has Ultra HAL Assistant and is considering the Text-To-Speech addition. Are there any visually impaired users out there who might share some tips and experience? She wants something that will read her instant messages in MSN Messenger, read her email headers in GMail, enable her to search on Google and "skim" the links. She looked at Window Eyes, but it seems more targeted to braille users. Any guidance would be most appreciated!

[One]

mlm-dd,
about the only thing that covers all the list is the magnifier in the accessibility settings , also their is the option for enlarging text.

Hope this helps...

[DarcyEdwards]

Mim,

The Hal Text to Speech reader from Zabaware is ideal for what you are looking for.  All you have to do is highlight the text copy it to the clip board and it will speak the text.  I use it a lot I have vision problems.  I would suggest downloading it and try it out then buy it if you like it.  Another one to try is TextAloud it works almost the same but it has a tool bar that comes with it for the Fire Fox browser where it will read the entire web page.

Hope this helps

[Art]

Darcy,

The latest version of Opera (10 beta) has speech ability to allow it to read selected portions of web pages in either a male or female voice. The voices actually don't sound too bad! Opera is a free download as well as a pretty streamlined, fairly fast browser!

[DarcyEdwards]

Thank you Art[:I]