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Specs

Features

Ease
of Use

Sample Screen

Sample Audio

Road
Test

Title: Home Page Reader
Company: IBM
Price: $149
Type of Computer: PC
Requirements: Pentium 233 MhZ, Windows 98, 48 MB RAM, 120 MB HD, Internet Explorer 5.0, sound card and speakers
Availability for Trial Run: 30 day trial

Features
• A "spoken on-ramp to the information highway" for blind or visually impaired computer users
• Voice prompted installation
• Utilizes IBM's ViaVoice text-to-speech synthesizer for speaking
• Uses keyboard for navigation (to start HPR, use the shortcut key combination of Ctl+Alt+H)
• Audio and visual presentations may be customized
• A new user interface: makes it easy to use without a great amount of training
• Reproduces the entire contents of a Web site including graphics descriptions, text in column format, tables and data input fields
• Contains a Fast Forward key that enable the user to quickly and efficiently scan Web pages for data Back to Top

Ease of Use

Clear, complete user documentation	A short introduction provides instruction on: (1)Learning some basic commands. (2)Starting the talking tutorial and getting online Help. (3)Changing your Home Page. To get to the Tutorial, press Alt+H+T. For simple help, press the F1 key. In the Help menu, is also Where am I? that identifies which web page the user is presently on.
Easy to set up program	A talking installation makes setup fast and easy
Easy to exit from program	File --> Exit or Ctrl Q
Audio is effective	Sound is fine with the option to make changes to the settings.
Choice of voices	Uses two voices - a male voice to read text and a female voice to read link text. Customizes voice changes

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Sample Screen

Sample Audio: click here Back to Top

Road Test: Set up was quite easy with a narration along the way. Once installed the Home Page Reader becomes the home page for the browser which is strongly suggested to be Microsoft Internet Explorer. When you install Home Page Reader 3.0 on your computer, the Getting Started page is automatically installed as your Home Page. While this page is great for learning the basics or as a reference for some HPR 3.0 commands, the user may eventually want to specify his own Home Page. Here is the process:
(1) Using the browser, connect to the Internet and choose the desired site.
(2) Press Ctrl+Alt+H to start reading.
(3) Utilize various keyboard commands to proceed through the web page. For example...

Home Page Reader Key Commands

HPR Function	Key Sequence
Start reading the Web page from the current position	Spacebar
Read the previous link	Shift + Tab or Alt +L, Left Arrow
Read the current link	Alt + L, Down Arrow
Read the next link	Tab or Alt + L, Right Arrow
Read the previous item	Alt + I, Left Arrow
Read the current item	Alt + I, Down Arrow
Stop reading	Control
Load bookmarks	Alt + A

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