Re: JAWS® for Windows for FREE? Lets give a try!

On Friday, August 29, 2003, at 03:13  PM, John Britsios wrote:
> Not every freelancer designer, developer, can afford buying JAWS, to 
> test the web sites they build.

Web authors don't need JAWS. The vast majority wouldn't know how to use 
it if they got it.

Web authors need the _output_ of JAWS.

Instead of asking screen reader and voice browser vendors to give away 
the farm, why not ask them to create a Web-based service to emulate 
what their tool speaks to the user? You don't need the text-to-speech 
engine or the user interface; in fact, it would probably hinder you, 
since reading is faster for most people than speech. You need a textual 
representation of what JAWS or Window-Eyes or Home Page Reader puts out.

As long as these folks don't consider what goes into their 
text-to-speech engine to be a trade secret, I think this is a 
reasonable (and minimally-invasive) request to make. But I can assure 
you none of them are going to give away thousands of copies of their 
software.

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m