Screen Reader Mode

Background

A screen reader is a program capable of audiblizing the text appearing on a computer screen for the benefit of visually impaired computer users. Microsoft's Narrator program is an example of a basic screen reader built into Windows. There are other more advanced screen reader program's available including the free NVDA program and the popular JAWS program.

Jarte's Screen Reader Mode

Jarte runs in a special screen reader mode if a recognized screen reader program is already running on the computer when Jarte is started. Jarte uses a special screen reader friendly interface while in screen reader mode. A number of Jarte's visually oriented features are removed from the interface while in screen reader mode (e.g., color related features, interface panels that require visual interaction, etc) to make use of Jarte more efficient for visually impaired users. The interfaces for other features are modified to make them more readable to a screen reader.

Note that this Help document does not describe Jarte's features as they appear when running in screen reader mode. It is a goal to eventually create an edition of this document that describes Jarte's features as they appear in screen reader mode.

Issues

Jarte will only enter screen reader mode if a recognized screen reader is running. Jarte's title bar will display the phrase "screen reader mode" when Jarte is running in screen reader mode.

If Jarte does not recognize your screen reader program then you can force Jarte to switch to screen reader mode by copying the phrase "enable screen reader mode" to the Windows clipboard before starting Jarte. This only needs to be done one time.

Note to JAWS users: Jarte is currently unable to recognize the presence of the JAWS screen reader. If you are using JAWS then you will need to use the method described in the preceeding paragraph to force Jarte into screen reader mode.

If Jarte is running in screen reader mode, but it should not be, then you can turn off screen reader mode by copying the phrase "disable screen reader mode" to the Windows clipboard and then restarting Jarte. This only needs to be done one time.