Sao Mai Education Fund

Screen readers are software programs that allow blind or visually impaired users to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer.

A screen reader is the interface between the computer’s operating system, its applications, and the user.

The user sends commands by pressing different combinations of keys on the computer keyboard to instruct the speech synthesizer what to say and to speak automatically when changes occur on the computer screen.

A Braille Display is a technology that replaces the screen. It allows the blind to read the screen in another way.

A Braille Display

 The computer screen is organized into lines and columns. The Displays at Sao Mai Computer Center can “translate” (in Braille that can be touched-read on a bar) 40 characters at a time of the selected line.

With navigation buttons (arrow keys) you can read the rest of the line or scroll up and down.

Another kind of Braille Display (in the picture above) also implements keys by which you can write in Braille code.

It is equipped with Function keys so that it may be used instead of the keyboard.

A Braille Display can be also used in conjunction with a screen reader software.