Hi Peter,

I have posted messages about ProdWorks to the list before, but, no one has
seemed to pay it much mind.

Productivity Works makes a browser called PW WebSpeak.  I have been using
it for several months now, and I love it.  It does not use or need a screen
reader like Jaws.  It has its own speech support built in.  I use it with
its software synthesizer which sends the voice through my sound card, and I
find it quite fine.  I just have set Jaws to sleep when I load WebSpeak,
and they don't interfere at all.

For those who have some vision, it has nice large print capabilities and
good color sets.  A sighted person could use it though it does not show
graphics.  At least I don't think it does.  I am totally blind, so I might
be in error on that point.

The other nice thing about WebSpeak is you never have to scroll, for it
reads either by line, or the whole page with out stopping.  You can select
a mode on familiar pages where it only reads the jumps and links and skips
all the extra text and puffery.  You also never have to use the mouse
pointer to get to a button.  This saves me a lot of time on unfamiliar pages.

Another nice thing about WebSpeak, is all the plug ins like real audio, and
video/audio support are built in.  I have only one significant complaint
about the product...it does not currently support the particular type of
security protocol that Consumers Reports web page uses.  That protocol is
uncommon though.

Its controls are a little unusual, not Windows standard, but easy to learn.
 I have found it much much easier to use in general than NetScape.  I have
never used Internet Explorer, so I can't compare that one.

It is smaller than NetScape and easy to download and install.  It is at
least worth a try.

Bill Pasco


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