When I tell people that I use software on my computer that reads text out loud, perhaps that comes across as abstract information. I think that many people think about screen reading in terms of reading books or email text. Text to speech apps exist that allow a person to paste text into the app and have it read aloud. The speech on these apps is often poor in quality, and the app requires the use of sight in order to retrieve the text and manage the controls to have it read aloud. These apps are not genuine screen readers.
A screen reader gives me as a person who is blind the ability to do the same kinds of things with my computer that a sighted person can do. From this point forward, I will address my comments to “you” with the assumption that readers of this page are sighted–my blind visitors know what a screen reader is, though I hope they will find this page useful and share it if so.
When you look at the screen, it is very busy and you choose what information to focus on. Most of this choice-making is subconscious but also deliberate. The eyes take in a lot of information quickly, much of which is based on images, and this makes it hard for a sighted person to understand how a blind person can operate in the same environment in a different manner and make the same choices.
My software does a lot of this work for me. For instance, it focuses attention on the window where my cursor is located and will not read things outside this window unless I give it a command to move to another window. In this way, some of the “screen clutter” is already filtered away from me. If I need to know what other windows are open, I have the ability to check; but this is not something I need to know at all times.
In case this seems like my screen reader is censoring me, consider your own habits. You are not constantly looking at all of your windows. In fact, you may even minimize them so that they don’t get in your way.
My screen reader also interprets common icons. The envelope is spoken as “mail,” the trash can as “recycle bin,” etc. Part of the work of accessible design is ot give names to new icons so that the screen reader knows wht to say. This is also why you will read posts from blind people asking for “alt text” in images and photos.
Screen reading software is complex software that includes features that allow it to recognize when certain things are very important and need to be read immediately (e.g. the highlighted field where the cursor is located when I am installing a new piece of software). It also enables the user to find certain types of things easily using specific keystrokes, such as headings on webpages or in documents, items in menus or ribbons, or other controls that allow for interaction with apps. Some of this choice-making ability is enhanced or limited by things that software developers do. Labeling controls is an enhancement. Using programming techniques that render the software difficult to use with screen readers is limiting. This is why people who are blind become very aggravated about accessibility.
If allowed, a screen reader program will read out the entire contents of a window. This can be quite overwhelming. It would be to you as well–after all, do you pay attention to all of the information on a web page, or do you look for specific types of items? Chances are that you are looking for something specific, or at least some type of information. For example, when you visit Facebook, you might be looking for the place to post your status update, and you know exactly where it is. You also probably know where not to look if you want to avoid the ads.
Fortunately, I am not stuck listening to the entire web page until it is finished reading! Screen-reading software includes features that allow me to tell it to be quiet and to look for things, like the field to post my Facebook status. I can also tell it to read certain portions of the screen (for example, the title bar, the status bar at the bottom of the screen, etc.) I can choose to have the letters spoken as I type them, or to have words spoken after I press the spacebar, or to have no input while I type. There are numerous ways that I can tell the screen reading software how to give me information about what is on my screen.
A note about braille displays is important here. Screen reading software and braille displays work hand in hand. It is not possible to run a braille display with a computer without running screen reading software. The screen reading software feeds information to the braille display and also tells it how I want that information displayed. “Translation” of print characters to braille, including (if necessary) the appropriate characters that represent another language in braille, is all handled by the screen reader. Please understand that braille itself is not a language. It is a writing system that can represent many languages; but the rules for use of dot patterns in the writing system in any given language are not stored in the computer. They are stored in the screen reading application. (Mac and other IOS devices include an on-board application called Voiceover.)OS.
Several screen reading software packages exist, and some are even free. The choice of which package to use is something a person makes based on preference and on the features included and the way the software interacts with the programs the person needs to use. I use advanced features of Microsoft Office and need Hebrew support. I also need to be able to add characters to the braille table since I study ancient languages. This means that some of the software packages were not the best options for me. I continue to follow the development of Greek and Hebrew support in the Mac and IPhone, which shows promise.
If you have questions about how sccreen readers work, please post them in the comments. I will address them in future posts if I can.