Enabling Technology for the Visually Impared

At The Speech Centre, there are a variety of products and services that are available to help those with visual impairments. From Speech recognition software for those who are unable to use a keyboard to type, to magnifying devices which can enlarge text, change the colours of fonts and backgrounds and take snapshots of texts to work in conjunction with certain software (such as ZoomText Magnifier or ZoomText Reader Magnifier) to enable a text to talk service.

Where a standard magnifier/reader magnifier is not sufficient it is possible to use Jaws.  JAWS® is the world’s most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content. JAWS reads aloud what is on the PC screen and gives the user a unique set of intelligent tools for navigating and accesses Web pages and all screen content.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional speech recognition allows the user to dictate into the computer and have words transcribed automatically.  In the case of blindness, or instances where the magnifier is not sufficient to assist, this can be linked to Jaws using a bridge product called J-Say.  This will tell the user when the microphone is on or off and also link Jaws commands to NaturallySpeaking’s own commands for full command and control of the computer.

There are a range of magnifiers from the most basic hand held magnifiers to those that link to the computer and will scan and read text that is in hard copy.  Small sophisticated scanners/readers (such as iloview) also exist.

For more information on how The Speech Centre can assist you with any of the above products or any of our further products and services, please do not hesitate to contact us:

You can call us on: 01892 661116.

Or, alternatively, you can email: christie-lee.daniels@speechcentre.co.uk for information or to request an information pack.