Dolphin ScreenReader

This versatile screen reader is customizable to fit individual user needs, enabling people who are blind to access a computer through natural sounding speech or a refreshable Braille display to create beautifully formatted documents, connect with colleagues and friends via social networks, plan a trip, and more.

Features

Get started quickly with Setup Wizard and CAPS+F1 Help

Highly customizable; magnification, speech and Braille settings to suit your needs

Natural sounding male and female voices speak documents and apps out loud

Intelligent screen reader allows you to control precisely what is announced

Robust Braille output and input with more than 60 different displays

Dolphin Cursor to explore the screen and control the mouse pointer from the keyboard

Get Started Quickly
ScreenReader comes with everything you need to get you up and running right away. The Setup Wizard walks you through the most commonly changed ScreenReader settings. Choose your magnification, visual, speech, Braille, start-up, control panel and keyboard preferences. You can skip steps or go back at any time. The wizard runs automatically the first time you launch ScreenReader. You can also call the Setup Wizard any time from the ScreenReader Help menu. CAPS+F1 Help menu provides convenient access to detailed descriptions of completing tasks in popular applications such as Microsoft Office and on the web. In addition CAPS+F1 includes hotkeys, links to web resources, Windows Basics, ScreenReader Manual and Notes.

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Customizable
Flexible settings make everything look, sound and feel just right. Remember or discard settings between sessions to keep only the changes you like. Ideal for multiple users sharing a public access machine, or for users who are worried they may get themselves in a muddle. Import or export settings for backup or purposes or to share settings with other users and friends. Application and situation settings alter magnification, visual, speech and/or Braille behaviors when you switch between applications or when dialogs appear.

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Natural Sounding Voices
Dozens of clear male and female voices speak aloud your: apps, documents and web pages. Thousands of built-in speech exceptions correctly say commonly mispronounced words. You can change volume and speed using your mouse or keyboard.

3 high quality multilingual text-to-speech synthesizers feature dozens of clear voices to read documents and apps out loud. ScreenReader includes: Vocalizer, Eloquence and Orpheus voices to speak text and controls with ease. SAPI4 and SAPI5 plus hardware and other legacy synthesizers can still be used for familiarity.

Thousands of speech exceptions, unique to ScreenReader, improve speech accuracy by correcting commonly mispronounced words. Alter voice preferences to suit your ear. Volume, speed and spelling speed can be finely tuned for all voices. Where the synthesizer allows, use ScreenReader to create custom voices by adjusting: Pitch, Intonation, Roughness, Breathiness, Head size and Gender.

Use one voice to speak everything, or separate voices to differentiate between: edit areas, prompt dialogs, menus, Dolphin Cursor or reading entire documents.

Speak as you type. Characters, words or both can be spoken aloud to improve confidence while writing in any text field such as a document or the Subject field of an email.

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Intelligent Screen Reader
Screen reading speaks and Brailles text and controls so a person who is blind can independently use a regular desktop or laptop computer without needing to see the screen. Create documents, schedule appointments or connect via social network sites without needing to look at the display. Choose how much information is announced automatically with Text Style settings, Verbosity schemes and Monitor Markers. Or jump to particular info with: Quick Navigation hotkeys, Item Finder and the Dolphin Launch Pad.

Type emails and reports with confidence using character or word echo. As you write ScreenReader accurately announces letters, numbers, punctuation, line breaks and thousands of other special symbols. Arrowing around or selecting text for editing, ScreenReader speaks characters, words and lines. You can also press keys to speak sentences, paragraphs and tables.

Text style information is announced so you can check your documents look great. Fonts, sizes, colors, bold, italic, underline, subscript and superscript changes can all be reported. Ensure accuracy in Microsoft Word where spelling and grammar errors are also indicated. To maximize productivity ScreenReader can be set to only report text style information when you need it most. All text style announcements can be set independently for editing, prompts, menus, document reading or while using the Dolphin Cursor.

Verbosity tells you about the types and states of over 60 kinds of control as you tab and arrow around web pages, Windows and app dialogs. For example: whether checkboxes are checked, the position of sliders and whether links have been visited. And if you are just getting started or a bit forgetful, High Verbosity can even remind you which keys to press. Choose the amount of detail from 4 built-in verbosity schemes; take ultimate control by creating your own verbosity scheme; even choose separate verbosity for speech and Braille.

Read from Here is for when you simply want to have a document or web page spoken to you in its entirety. Start and stop reading with a single keystroke or mouse click. For sighted trainers or users with some sight, As the text is spoken, the current word and line is highlighted visually.

Monitor Markers announce changes occurring elsewhere onscreen away from the cursor. Security notifications appearing in your web browser, file download progress, when the other person in an instant message conversation is typing a message, Monitor Markers will cause ScreenReader to speak automatically. If you don't want to hear these notifications you can toggle Monitor Markers with a keystroke or from the ScreenReader Control Panel.

Quick navigation keys skip forward and back through Microsoft Word documents, web pages in Internet Explorer and PDFs in AdobeReader to rapidly locate landmarks, form controls, graphics, headings, links, lists, frames and tables.

Item Finder speeds up navigating complex documents and web pages by listing: Links, Headings, Objects, Tables, Revisions, Comments, Spelling Errors, Controls and ARIA Landmarks. Each list of items can be sorted alphabetically and you can jump directly to any of the listed items.

Launch Pad provides instant access to audio, weather and book search. Press a couple of keys and you can listen to popular radio stations, the latest podcasts or read RSS News feeds. You can even use Launch Pad to lookup the dictionary definition of a word, find out the local weather forecast, search for books, and find walking directions.

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Robust Braille Output and Input
Read and write literary Braille in almost any Windows application. Instantly translate to and from Braille using dozens of included Braille translation tables. Works with majority of popular Braille displays. Understand screen layout with Physical Braille. Choose how much detail is shown in Braille with powerful Verbosity settings. Show Braille on screen. Control screen reader and perform many Windows commands using buttons on the Braille display. Use Braille to keep watch on parts of the screen away from the cursor with Tracking and Hooked Area options.

Read documents applications and web pages in Braille instantly. Simply press the buttons on your Braille display and ScreenReader will move forward and back through text accurately translating it to Braille in real-time. Braille is brilliant for: proofing documents, delivering presentations or reviewing customer details while on the phone.

Over 50 literary and computer Braille translation tables included for Braille beginners, language students and computer programmers. Also includes the new Unified English Braille Code alongside traditional Grade I Uncontracted and Grade II Contracted codes.

Over 60 Braille displays supported from the leading Braille manufacturers. Connect with a cable via USB or serial, or go wireless with Bluetooth.

Routing buttons above or below cells on your Braille display are recognized by ScreenReader for positioning the cursor precisely, clicking on links and controls or even describing font styles. You can also use the routing buttons with the SHIFT key for selecting text to be used with the clipboard.

Input keys can be used to compose email or write documents in Braille. ScreenReader accurately back-translates to standard text which appears in your mainstream application. Reduces the need to keep moving your hands between the Braille display and computer keyboard. Speeds up productivity for users confident writing in Braille.

Enhanced Braille helps you spot style changes in your documents by using dots 7 and 8 to indicate: underline, bold, italics, spelling and grammar errors, subscript and superscript, headings and links.

Switch to Physical Layout to get a Braille representation of how text is tabulated on your computer screen. Ideal for understanding the context of cells in a table or spread sheet.

Braille verbosity tells you about the types and states of over 60 kinds of control as you tab and arrow around web pages, windows and dialogs. For example, whether checkboxes are checked, the position of sliders and whether links have been visited. Choose the amount of detail from 4 built-in verbosity schemes; take ultimate control by creating your own verbosity scheme; even choose separate verbosity schemes for speech and Braille.

Display Braille on screen. Sighted trainers and teachers can follow what is happening on the actual Braille display with a fully synchronized on-screen equivalent. You can choose the position and size of On Screen Braille, so it remains visible but never gets in your way. On Screen Braille can also be used to learn Braille visually when no physical Braille display is available.

Control ScreenReader direct from the Braille display. Whether you want to change a ScreenReader setting, read a particular part of the screen or simulate a keystroke, ScreenReader's Hotkeys settings let you customize the function of buttons on your Braille display.

Control ScreenReader direct from the Braille display. Whether you want to change a ScreenReader setting, read a particular part of the screen or simulate a keystroke, ScreenReader's Hotkeys settings let you customize the function of buttons on your Braille display.

Braille Tracking and Hooked Areas allow you to keep your finger on what's happening in your application away from the active cursor. These tools allow the Braille display to show what you need when you need it.

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Dolphin Cursor
Explores the screen and controls the mouse from the keyboard. Perfect for people who cannot see the screen or find using the mouse difficult.

Automatic Dolphin Cursor switches on in situations where Dolphin Cursor is needed most. Such as in Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader and in Windows Help. Mouse users can easily switch off the Dolphin Cursor from the ScreenReader Speech Advance dialog.

Standard Windows keys such as arrows and TAB are used to logically move the Dolphin Cursor, minimising any learning curve. Quick navigation keys to jump instantly to the next control, heading, list, table etc. are available on the web or in PDFs. Physical movement keys are also available for when you need to understand visual layout.

Restricted Dolphin Cursor stays in the current area to keep you focused on the task in hand. Simple hotkeys are available to move away to the next or previous Window or Dialog.

Forms mode switches off the Dolphin Cursor when you need to type. Simply TAB through a form on a web site and Forms mode takes the guesswork out of when to switch the Dolphin Cursor On and off.

F3 Find locates text on screen for those times when you know exactly what you're looking for but not where to find it. F2 and F4 instantly jump the Dolphin Cursor to the previous and next match.

Simulate mouse actions from your keyboard. Press a key to move the mouse to the Dolphin Cursor, and then use keystrokes to: left and right click, drag and drop, even control the mouse wheel and middle click.

Text selection with the Dolphin Cursor can copy most messages displayed on your computer screen to the Windows Clipboard for later use in an email or document. Simply hold the shift key and cursor over the text you wish to select then press CONTROL+C to copy it direct to the Windows clipboard. Ideal for quoting web pages or help content, plus copying messages from your applications.