Blind Brazilian creates software so the blind are able to navigate the Internet
A Brazilian software company has designed a program that allows blind people to use Windows and navigate the internet.
"Estado," a local news agency informed that "Virtual Vision" uses a voice synthesizer that "read" the user both the operating system's command and the options that appear on the Internet.
This software, that was designed by Micropower, a Brazilean company, "sounds out" every letter as the user presses them.
While on the Internet, Virtual Vision informs the reader which web site is being opened and "reads" what is in the pages, just as it does with on-line newspapers and magazines.
The new product entered the market in June 2001 Florianpolis, capital city of the Santa Catarina province, Southern Brazil. Its creator was Adria dos Santos, a blind athlete who won gold, silver and bronze in the Sydney 2000 Olympiads.
The program was financed through a US$ 250,000 grant from Brasil Telecom, which will distribute 90,000 cd-roms within the nine states in which it operates.
Asociación Brasilña de Oftalmoloía (Brazilean Ophthalmology Association) estimates that there are about a million people with sight impairment in Brazil, and that about ten thousand of them work.
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