Magnification/ reader software Supernova/ Lunarplus/Zoomtext

[michaell]

Hi there,
I'm currently trialling the above magnification /reader software, demonstration copies of which I obtained from the RNIB. You can get this through Access to Work for employment purposes , although for private purposes you need to shell out yourself. The advantage is that with this software I do not depend on the use of contact lenses to use a PC anymore. If you are in an office environment, this can be very useful since if you have one of your "lens crises", which "used to" (I don't wear them anymore) afflict me on a daily basis, you are no longer in a fix as to what you can do, given that you can't use the PC whilst you have your lenses out.
I am currently having a bit of agro with Lunar plus and wondering what might be the issue. It seems to be stalling more than a few times - this did not appear to happen with Zoomtext.
Just wondering: is anybody aware of compatability issues? with either pieces of software.

Regards to all in K-World,

Michael

[GarethB]

Hi Michael,

As you are trying different ones, can you give us a review of what each offers and how you find them, good and bad.

It would be really useful as we do get asked about this type of thing.

[Andrew MacLean]

I was going to ask if we could have a section dedicated to different reader programmes and bits of equipment. Most people here know that I work in the Mac environment, and that this comes with all sorts of "universal access" goodies. No point reviewing them; they come with the OS whether you need them or not (by the way they are excellent).

I do have a pulsedata video magnifier which is also wonderful.

Andrew

[John Smith]

On the contrary Andrew, I'd like to see reviews of the standard Mac (and now, the windows Vista) goodies; it could influence a decision to buy a mac or a PC!

[Pat A]

Agree with you both John and Andrew - I have always had PC's up to now but I had a play with my brothers new MAC last month and was very impressed. He also convinced me to switch to Firefox which I have found far more reliable than IE , which kept crashing on me. I am likely to be upgrading later this year so would be very interested to hear people's views!

I am also going to have to invest in some additional software to help me with my eyesight problems soa any info would be useful.

All I have got to do now is switch my Broadband supplier!

[Sally O'Hare]

I have Zoomtext on my computer it came as part of a DSA package the guy who came to install it and set up the other software said that zoomtext was not particulary compatible with other manification etc programs. Don't know if this still holds true it was about a year ago.

[Matthew_]

Hi guys,
Some of you may remember I asked for SuperNova and Dragon Naturally Speaking from my employer and then had the devil's own job getting them to install it. Well, I suceeded in the end and can now comment.

SuperNova is brilliant. I would say that is generally geared for those with more profound eye sight problems than mine, it has braille output and so on. But it has some excellent features which do not exist on the standard windows OS. As stated earlier it is invaluable when you can't wear lenses. I normally remove mine for a couple of hours during the middle of the day, so that I can use them for the journey home again. Without SuperNova, PC use is sometimes impossible but always difficult and tiring. SuperNova has loads of different magnification settings, you can select half screen or magnifiying glass effects from 1.2 X magnification to 60X. You can choose good colour schemes which reduce glare and double images. Also it has text-to-speech programme which allows you to listen to documents instead of getting eye-strain. I think it is great and has really helped my output at work.

Dragon is also superb. This is not visability software, just a dictation service. But again allows you to dictate documents instead of straining to type. It takes about half an hour to train the software to your voice but after this you are off. I wrote 4 page document in 15 minutes. This would normally take a couple of hours without my lenses.