“Windows Narrator, on the other hand, can be readily compared to any of the major screen readers available for the Windows operating systems. However, it can be less effective in some ways with secondary software.
In some ways it’s better because it’s built into the operating system, it has a native understanding of the core software and the operating system that provides very effective navigation of those tools.
To make a general comparison, however, it’s fair to say that VoiceOver gives comparable access on Mac to the access provided by JAWS on Windows. When making a comparison, you’re inevitably making a false comparison: VoiceOver on Mac to JAWS on Windows, for example.
The first reason this is a challenge is because there aren’t really any other choices for Mac screen readers. “It’s difficult to fairly compare VoiceOver to any other screen reader. How are they different from third-party screen readers? Apple’s is called VoiceOver and Window’s version is called Narrator. Mac and Windows both come bundled with screen readers. Single User License, JAWS Standard: $895. But here’s a rundown of the major licensed providers, and the cost: If you’re picking one of the open source or freeware screen readers, your costs will be significantly reduced, but your screen reader may not support nearly as wide a scope of your software and operating system functions. “The prices vary fairly significantly and the costs aren’t trivial when you’re looking at the major commercial products.
When you’re looking at screen readers for Mac or for mobile browsing, the number of available options dwindle significantly.” 2.
“All of these providers are specialized to the Windows operating system. Serotek’s System Access and Dolphin’s Hal are probably the last commercial readers to really have a significant presence in the marketplace. After that, the biggest commercial provider is Window-Eyes from GW Micro. On the basis of a survey by WebAIM, a site devoted to assisting Internet access to disabled consumers, the reader with the most users is JAWS (Job Access With Speech) from Freedom Scientific, at nearly two-thirds of the market. “The major brands are much easier to pin down. Sometimes a freeware project will become commercial. The exact number is hard to pin down as new readers appear periodically and older ones sometimes disappear. “If we choose to define ‘on the market’ as the set of commercially licensed screen readers, then there are approximately 15-20 screen reader software packages available. How many screen readers are on the market today, and what are the major brands? In an effort to help ecommerce merchants understand screen reader technology, we asked contributor Joseph Dolson, an assistive technology expert, eight questions about the use of that software. For an ecommerce site with 10,000 visitors per month, then, at least 300 of them are likely using some form of a screen reader. Screen reader software allows visually handicapped consumers to use Internet sites.Īs many as three percent of ecommerce consumers are visually impaired, or otherwise require the use of a screen reader to read text on a screen. Editor’s Note: The article below discusses screen readers, the software that reads aloud text on a computer screen.