JAWS

JAWS is a screen reading software designed to offer visually-impaired users the possibility of working with the computer. It includes two speech synthesizers that provide natural-sounding speech.

As soon as the installation procedure is initiated the user is given some information on the following routine and its duration; this is done with the help of the audio engine available for the application.

It may seem like a long operation compared to what a regular application requires in order to get on the system; however, everything runs smoothly without too much user intervention.

Behind a simple looking interface that offers access to the main menus of the application there is a rich collection of settings, which help adjust the program to suit your needs.

It allows the user to select a voice profile or adjust how these sound. Apart from this, the program provides Braille-related settings and dictionary and keyboard managers.

The configuration panel is an area extremely rich in options, which can modify the behavior of the program so that it fits the needs of the user.

The developer included customization possibilities touching on text processing that permit defining when and how to indicate capitalization, verbosity level or when to announce special characters.

JAWS is a comprehensive screen reading utility very versatile in terms of configuration options and the utilities it makes available. Setting it up is a bit overwhelming, especially for users that are inexperienced as far as working with such utilities is concerned.

The program can be used for browsing the Internet, reading electronic documents or books as well as for creating documents. Basically, it is suitable for reading any text that appears on the screen.