Category: Geeks r Us
Hi.
Has anyone heard of a screen reader called Hal? My school are going to get me this screen reader and i don't know much about it. I believe it's a paid screen reader and in a way, it's a bit like jaws or window-eyes. Has anyone on here ever used it?
Thanks.
It is a British screen reader,made by dolphin, www.yourdolphin.com
It is definitely on par with Jawsor Window Eyes and it can do most of the things those screen readers can do, just as well.
It's more a matter of preference which one you choose. I am partiular to Jaws and not a huge fanof Hal, but it is definitely jut a personal preference and Hal is definitely in the same league as the other two and more powerful than NVDA,for instance, although I am impressed how far NVDA and System Access have come and I am hoping they will become ever more real alternatives to the major 3.
Cheers
=B
I've used Hal in the past and loved it. It supports many languages, along with English, including Greek, which is why I originally got it. The voice is nowhere near as good as the Acapella Dimitris one but that didn't exist when I got Hal. They also have a JFW keyboard layout if you'd prefer and Dolphin is very good with customer service etc. I'd highly recommend Cicero, for scanning, if you could get it.
Hal is made by Dolphin here in the UK and does most of the things JAWS and Window Eyes do, just I prefer jaws although I had no choice but to use Hal for 6 or 7 years when I was at school.
I am a hal user.
One of the main reasons that i use is because of the support of Greek with orpheus.
I also like a lot the virtual focus of hal which is equivalent to the jaws cursor. I feel that the one in hal works better and it only stays in the window that you are working and it doesn't go all over the place like jaws.
But hal sometimes disapoints me because it doesn't work in applications that it should work because they provide accessibility.
One example is the new live messenger that we are fourced to upgrade by microsoft. If the free nvda works with it i can't see why not hal which has got much many years of programing and it costs so much money.
Also the sendspace wizart which lets you upload files to sendspace without visiting the website also works with nvda but not with hal which is also strange to me.
When navigating through the buttons with hal hal just says button but nvda reads them fine.
Also the internet support is not very impressive. It works but not as well as jaws or nvda with firefox.
So if hal doesn't improove in the near future i see myself using nvda as a main screen reader and having hal as a backup.
I couldn't get NVDA to work with windows live messenger. I can't say for Hal though, because I didn't know what MSN was when I was using it.
Oh dear! So your saying that it doesn't work very well on the internet? Or in messenger? Those were two things I was hoping to be able to use (especially going on the internet with firefox).
I didn't say it doesn't workon the internet. I said it doesn't work as well as jaws for windows work or NVDA with firefox.
But it is usable.
Now i don't know about the latest messenger because i am using an old version which doesn't support the new messenger but i hope that in hal 11.04 it is supported so you should be ok.
But even if you don't like the support for firefox nvda is free and you can use firefox with it. It works very well.
Good luck.