February 21, 1994
Dear Software Evaluators:
As those of you who attended the R & D Committee meeting at
the end of January know, we will be embarking on a project to do
written evaluations of all screen review programs. Below is a
list of screen review programs and who has agreed to evaluate
them:
Programs Evaluators
1. Artic Businessvision Curtis Chong
2. ASAP Sharon Duffy
3. Flipper Brian Buhrow
4. HAL (CompuSite Reader) Harold Snider
5. IBM Screen Reader for DOS Steve Jacobson
6. IBM Screen Reader/2 for OS/2 Cathy Schroeder
7. ISOS Harold Snider
8. JAWS Emerson Foulke
9. Master Touch David Andrews
10. outSpoken Tom Wlodkowski
11. PCMASTER Tim Cranmer
12. PROVOX David Andrews
13. Screen Power Jim Willows
14. Speaqualizer Curtis Chong
15. Tiny Talk Lloyd Rasmussen
16. Vocal-Eyes John Miller
We still need reviewers for the following packages:
1. Seeklyne
2. Soft Vert
Seeklyne is a small software package that works with the
Speech Thing, a speech synthesizer that hooks to the parallel
port of a computer. I have one and can lend it to anyone who
wishes to take this one on. If you wish to volunteer to review
either or both of these packages, or if you know someone who
might be willing to do so, please let me know.
The draft reviews are due on June 1, 1994, and should be
from five to eight print pages in length. The reviews should be
written in a narrative style and should cover the following
points/criteria:
1. General description: How does the program work? How are
commands laid out? What is the logic? Description?
2. What speech synthesizers are supported? Is indexing
supported and how well does it work? Does it shut up the
synthesizer efficiently and quickly?
3. Requirements: Are there any hardware and/or software
requirements? Version of DOS, etc.?
4. Installation: How do you install it? Is it easy? Do you
need sighted assistance? Can you do it if you don't already have
some speech up?
5. Memory requirements: How much memory does it take? Can it
be moved high? Can it run in expanded or extended memory? Can
you reduce the memory footprint? Can you remove it from memory?
6. Navigation: How do you navigate around the screen? Discuss
reading units, character, word, sentence, line, paragraph,
screen, entire document, etc. Review Mode? Audio cursor? Can
you route the real cursor or the review/audio cursor?
7. Settings: How do you set things: speech rate, tone, pitch,
punctuation level, capitalization alert, etc.?
8. Configuring: Do you need to configure? How do you do it?
How difficult is it? How do you define windows, silent areas,
monitors etc.?
9. Monitoring: Can it monitor different areas of the screen and
notify you of changes? How do you set it up? How well does it
work? What options are there, beeping, chaining windows, etc.?
10. Alternative cursors: Can the program track an alternate
cursor, highlight bar, ASCII character, soft cursor, etc.? How
do you set it up? How well does it work?
11. Attributes: How do you identify attributes: background and
foreground color, extended ASCII characters, highlighted text,
bold and/or underlined text, etc.? How can you use this
information?
12. Searching: Can you search for things on the screen,
character strings, attributes, etc.? How well does it work?
What can you do with it?
13. Keyboard: How is the key response? Are there keyboard
conflicts and how can you get around them? Is there a pass-
through key? Can you tell if the caps lock key is down? Can you
find out the status of other toggle keys?
14. Macros: Does the program have built-in macro capability?
If so, describe. Is there provision for macros from an external
program?
15. Pre-defined configurations: Does the program come with pre-
defined configurations for popular software packages? If so, how
many and what? Are there other configurations available via the
company, dealers, or a BBS? How well do any available
configurations work?
16. Autoloading: Does the program autoload configurations? If
so, how does it work, and how well does it work? If not, what
other provision is there?
17. Pronunciation: Can you change how things are pronounced?
Is there an exceptions dictionary? If so, how does it work, and
how well does it work?
18. Responsiveness: How responsive is the software? Does it
require a fast machine? Does it eat up lots of CPU cycles? Does
it adversely affect other applications? Can it run with a
multitasker such as Double DOS or DESQVIEW?
19. Support for sighted people: Do the menus appear on the
screen, or just in speech? How well does it help a sighted
assistant, highlighting review cursor, etc.? Can it easily be
shut up if a sighted person must use your computer?
20. Documentation: How is the documentation? What formats does
it come in? How good is it?
21. On-line help: Is there on-line help? How does it work?
How good is it? Is it context sensitive?
22. Technical support: Is there technical support and help
available from the company? Is it toll-free? How good is it?
If I have left anything out, please let me know.
Sincerely,
David Andrews, Director
International Braille and Technology
Center for the Blind
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
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