For students who are blind or have low vision, "seeing the screen" with Assistive Computer Technology (ACT) means:

  • Software tools which verbalize the text content of the screen.
  • Software tools which magnify the content of the screen.
photo of priscilla learning JAWS
Priscilla, a visually impaired student, learns JAWS, a Windows screen-reader program.

The visually impaired person utilizes special note taking devices, desktop scanners and enlarged font programs. What are also helpful are the larger monitors and the Optelec for magnification. Braille printers with optical character recognition and speech synthesizers, which translate computer keystrokes into speech, are available for people who are blind.

  • Optelec offers products that assist people with low vision to read and write again independently.
  • JAWS, developed by Henter-Joyce, Inc., is a Windows® screen-reader program.
  • ZoomText Xtra is a screen magnification software program (see the photograph below).

 

photo of julie with kathy as they work with the ZoomText sof

Julie is very happy to see what ZoomText Xtra has to offer. Kathy, a HTC Aide, is showing her the many tools that Zoom renders.