Ron, What I am trying to get across is System Access is essentially a take-it-or-leave-it screen-reader. Of course, as you point out, you can configure speech preferences, display colors, etc. but you can't make it do things it won't do now as you can with Jaws and to a great extent with Win-Eyes, and certainly you will be able to do with the new version of Win-Eyes when it gets released later this spring. System Access doesn't accord the user any flexibility to adapt it to other programs. It is good, but not great, in as far as it goes, but even in some of the things it works with, it has shortcomings. Steve, K8SP ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Canazzi" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 4:07 PM Subject: Re: handihams & free screen reader Hi Steve and others, I don't want to sound argumentative, but just what do you mean when you say it's not configurable? I registered and I can do the following: 1. Save speech settings and rate; 2. Configure punctuation; 3. Use the scansoft voices available with SAPI 5 (I hate Microsoft Sam or whatever the blank they call him <g> and I like Scansoft Tom so that's cool;) 4. These settings load when I log-in (now that I am registered;) 5. If by configure, you mean make changes to scripting in programs, well that's technically true. To my knowledge (and I have downloaded the help files) you really can't do that, but depending on just how you want to describe it, even with JAWS and Window-Eyes, you can't configure everything. It suffices to say that there is considerably less configuration capability with System Access To Go, but it is not totally void (see above.) 6. There must be some sort of pre-sets (help doesn't say much about this) since in Outlook Express, Notepad and WordPad, for example, functionality is roughly equivalent to major screen readers--while in my editor of choice, NoteTab Professional, functionality is minimal. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 2:44 PM Subject: Re: handihams & free screen reader Yes, a traditional screen reader of sorts in System Acess. But, what you see is what you get; it isn't configurable in terms of scripting or set files. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Fiorello" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 10:10 AM Subject: Re: handihams & free screen reader Hi; Do these folks market a traditional screen reader? Also, do they use any type of set file script arrangement to enhance use with particular programs? Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 7:19 PM Subject: Re: handihams & free screen reader Actually, System Access To Go is pretty darned slick. Assuming a computer isn't too tightly locked down, you can just do windows-r and type iexplore http://www.satogo.com and press enter, then follow all the prompts. The program is run remotely an won't work if you have no Internet connection, but even for that, with the prvasiveness of always-on high speed networks, this is going to become a non-problem. It's a great solution if you need one in a pinch (visiting a friend, for instance; or a library; or ...) With this and Serotek's other offerings, not to mention their partnership with Lenovo, and the screen reader bundled with Mac OS X, I see the face of assistive technology changing significantly and quickly. My opinion? The traditional players in the field had better scramble to keep themselves relevant. -- Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA Phone: (814) 746-4502 or 888-75-BUDDY Harnessing the power of Online Spending and Everyday Shopping to Change Lives: See how, Together, We Can Change the World: http://www.powermall.info