Hello Mary,
Does your father need a screen enlargement software such as Zoom Tex, or does he need a full text-to-speech (screen reader) software such as JAWS or Window Eyes??? I know that there a lot of software people who are committed to stay away from Windows 2000 or XP, but they are generally people who don't have any experience with adaptive software such as screen enlargement software and screen reader software. In reality, Windows XP Pro is very stable with adaptive software and has a lot of accessibility options built-in. Additionally, XP Pro has a feature that you'd love, it has a restore feature that allows you to restore the system back to a previous date. So, if you set up your Dad's computer on August 15, 2003 and he let's your sister's husband "fix something for him" on September 3rd and when disaster strikes and he comes running back to you. You can simply restore the system back to August 15th and all the damage is undone with out having to reformat or reload everything. By the way, this is not available in Windows XP Home and I don't feel that XP Home is all that stable with adaptive software.
Hope this helps
Terri Hedgpeth
Student Support Specialist Sr.
Disability Resources for Students
Matthews Center box 87-3202
Arizona State University
(480) 965-1232 (v)
(480) 965-0441 (fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Mary P.Blanton [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 6:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Text-To-Speech and Speech-To-Text Software
My father, who was kind enough to give me the bum genes that led to my
vision conditions, has vision FAR worse than mine. He is looking to get
a laptop so when he and my mother travel he can do his daily update of
his website. Anyway, now that it has FINALLY been decided by them that
my husband and I are the REAL geeks in the family, NOT my sister's
husband who works at a Subway, my father has asked about applications
that will help him since there is not a prayer of him being able to use
the screen and my mother is positively dangerous around computers. (She
can crash a computer by just moving the mouse. She is jinxed or
something. Actually, I think maybe she does it on purpose because she
REALLY does NOT want to "mess around" with this whole "website thing".)
So. can y'all give me a rundown on what is out there (Windows XP seems
to be what he will be getting. Although, if necessary, we can reformat
and load a different version of Windows. It would most likely keep the
number of panicky phone calls down by ditching XP. I have stayed as far
away from XP as possible.) and what you think of the various products
and the OS they run best on. If the best things for this purpose run on
Macs, I would be MORE than happy to recommend a PowerBook or iMac laptop
or whatever they are called now.)
Thanks so much in advance. If I get one more call from him about this,
I may just SCREAM!!! For the LONGEST time, even though both my husband
and I are BOTH Software Engineers with almost 20 years of experience
EACH, my sister's husband was the one they called on. Then, he screwed
up my father's desktop SO badly it would not even boot. One day, on the
way back from visiting them, the computer was taken from Peachtree City
and when we turned into the driveway, there sat my parent's car. They
had been sitting out there for several hours waiting for us. They
dumped the mess that had once been a working computer on us. We got it
fixed. (It took hardware AND software work.) From that point on, we
became mow The Phillippi FREE Help Desk. Even one of my brothers, who
lives in Colorado, has started calling us for advice and my sister and
her husband actually asked US for advice on web development software.
(God help us!)
Mary Blanton
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