This software allows the user to access commercial software applications and to convert the text or graphics display into verbal output. Users can hear their keystrokes spoken aloud and can read the display on command. Once the program is loaded into the computer's memory, commands are sent by the user to the synthesizer by pressing different keys on the keyboard, the numeric keypad or a separate keypad. The commands tell the synthesizer what to read and how to read it. An important feature to consider in products of this type is whether the software has review mode as well as interactive mode.
Interactive mode allows the user to use the application at the same time as the text is read.
A user who needs to switch quickly between the screen access software and the application may prefer the interactive capability. Not all software programs offer both kinds of modes. GUIs are on Macintosh computers and IBMs and compatibles when the software MS-Windows is running. In order for the user to understand the spatial arrangement of graphics that appear on the computer screen, screen access programs decipher and direct the synthesizer to verbalize the dialog boxes, the buttons, menu bars and option lists. Choices that are made by sighted users with the click of a mouse are executed with cursor keys or special keystrokes.