Since information is frequently lost in the translation of graphics to speech, assistive technology browsers never seem to capture the full information. But now, there may be help. PW WebSpeak, created by Productivity Works, is designed specifically for the visually impaired. It's a browser that reads and voice synthesizes all the contents instead of displaying the text on the screen. The user can navigate based on the paragraphs, headers and links instead of relying on the formatted page that appears on the screen.
Navigation control is possible through a variety of ways.
In addition to relying on traditional keyboard or mouse navigation, paraplegic and visually impaired users can move around the Web sites through speech recognition, special pointers or switches controlled by puffing into a control mechanism, none of which require the use of hands. And this new technology is not limited to the visually impaired. The voice navigation control offers the opportunity to free all users to move away from the computer while still accessing the Internet. I'm Joan Silvi for Internet On The Air. There was no interview recorded for this show.