Oratio for BlackBerry Is Now Available
By Burton, Darren; Access World,Publication Date: February 1, 2010
Article offers a brief review of Oratio for BlackBerry, the first screen reader available for the BlackBerry line of cell phone/PDAs. The Oratio software, which will initially support the BlackBerry Curve 8520, can be purchased online from http://www.oratio4bb.com/. The reviewer found Oratio to be very responsive to key commands and its text-to-speech easy to understand. It provides features and functions similar to those of other cell phone screen readers, including talking caller ID; spoken battery level and signal strength; access to instant messaging and email; accessible contact list and call log; access to the phone’s settings, ring tones, and speed dials; different verbosity levels; keyboard echo settings for text entry; and partial access to the web browser. The BlackBerry Curve, although featuring tactile buttons, was found to have a less than accessible keyboard and a track pad for navigation control that the reviewer found hard to get used to. For people with low vision, the PDA’s settings including 14 point fonts and a black and white option were found useful. A full evaluation of the screen reader will be published in an upcoming issue of AccessWorld.
Published by: AFB Press (Website:http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=46)
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) (Web Site: http://www.afb.org )
Link to text: http://www.afb.org/afbpress/Pub.asp?DocID=aw110101&Special=248
