John,

I'd be hard pressed to argue that there is *any* natural way to read
text off of a page.  Writing is, after all, a completely unnatural
system (as in artificial).

While serial reading may allow faster intake of information, it isn't
possible without modern electronics.  You can't easily archive "printed"
material in a way that allows for serial reading.  And a great deal of
the world's information is archived in printed format, and that is the
format for which a great deal of information is destined.

Denis Anson, MS, OTR/L
Assistant Professor
College Misericordia
301 Lake St.
Dallas, PA 18612



-----Original Message-----
From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Nissen
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 5:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: Press Release from GW Micro; Now: Advice to Mainstream
To ol Makers

--- Snip ---
I would also argue that serial viewing
is more natural than reading off the page, as you have
the impression that the screen is speaking to you.  That is the feeling
I have when I use WordAloud with speech synthesiser turned off.  A
demonstration of WordAloud can be downloaded from www.wordaloud.co.uk.

Note that serial display is generally helpful for people with reading
difficulties, especially dyslexics.  It avoids problems of saccadian
movement (where the focus of the eye jumps from one spot to another),
and it improves concentration.  And the fact that you can display text
in large characters with a choice of colours for text and background is
often helpful.
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