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Re: IBM Home Page Reader

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Oct 16, 2001 3:05PM

Kynn's right when he says HPR isn't a screenreader. HPR is slightly more
than "a browser that talks" though. Not only does it read web pages, but it
can also read Notepad (e.g. when you view the source of web pages) and email
(it has a built-in email program, which I've never used personally). Maybe
you could call it an "Disability-Accessible Internet Connectivity Software
Suite" or something else equally grand and overly verbose <smile/>.
I want to echo Kynn's recommendation of HPR for Web developers. It is an
excellent piece of software, in some ways superior to JAWS, but in most ways
comparable. I use if often when testing web pages. It's definitely less
expensive than JAWS. HPR is abot $120 and JAWS is about $800 or
$1200(Win95/98/Me versus NT/200 price).
You can, however, download the trial version of JAWS which has a half-hour
time limit on usage. You can use it for up to half an hour, then you have to
reboot your computer to get it to work again. Sometimes this is sufficient
for Web developers. As far as I know, you can keep rebooting your computer
as long as you want. I don't think there is an expiration date on the trial
version.
There is also a scaled-down version of JAWS called Connect Outloud, which
retails for about $250. This is similar to HPR in that it is limited to
browsing the web and accessing email--but Connect Outloud does read the
desktop and Windows Explorer, which HPR does not. You can't read Word files,
or anything else like that with Connect Outloud. Only the full version of
JAWS can access Adobe PDF files (and this is only feasible in Adobe Acrobat
5.0, the latest version, and only if the PDF file was created accessibly;
see http://access.adobe.com for more info). [but that's another topic
entirely]
Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Utah State University
www.usu.edu

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