Windows Light for the Visually Impaired (Translingual Edition)
This edition of Windows Light is a full-featured screen reading software designed to help the visually impaired use the computer and access the textual information it displays. It works by retrieving text displayed on the computer screen and reproducing it in speech and braille.
Platforms and applications Supported
This edition of Windows Light provides screen reading features and functionalities in Windows XP up to Windows 10 (both 32-bit and 64-bit). It also supports Word, Excel and Powerpoint in Office Xp onwards up to Office 2013. For internet browsing, it supports Firefox and Google Chrome in addition to Internet explorer.
Language Independency
Windows Light was designed and developed primarily with Chinese and English speakers as its target user groups. As such, its support for speech and braille has until recently been limited to Cantonese, Putonghua (also known as Mandarin) and English. In response to requests and suggestions from blind individuals with other mother tongues, the developer is pleased to release this “translingual” edition of the software. As its name indicates, this version is no longer language dependent. Instead, it works with any SAPI5 compliant text-to-speech engines (including those shipped with Windows 7 and later releases and those provided for free download from the Microsoft web site) to provide speech output. This means that any blind user may adopt Windows Light as his screen reader once he has got hold of an SAPI5 speech engine for his preferred language. With this special edition, Windows Light now becomes much more versatile in serving the needs of blind people across the globe.
Features and Functionalities
This edition of Windows Light retains the full features and functionalities of the Chinese and English edition, except that:
l it does not support the reading of imput method editors (IME);
l only one text-to-speech engine can be selected for speech output at any time. This means that mixed text in different languages cannot be spoken out separately by two speech engines as with the Chinese and English edition.
Usage
After downloading and installing Windows Light (Translingual), click on the desktop icon to start the software. Windows Light will automatically detect and identify the default text-to-speech engine installed on your Windows for speech output. It will also detect and determine whether a braille display it supports is connected to your pc and, if so, activate the braille output mode as well. If you do not hear any speech or if you wish to switch to another voice installed on your system, press the Ctrl+Win+escape keys to bring up the Settings Dialogue Box. There, you can select another voice and make changes to other speech settings and then press the OK button. For help, press the Ctrl+Alt+h keys.
Release notes:
The current version is released in November 2018. The major improvements it brings relate to enhanced compatibility with and operability in the latest release of Windows 10. This current version is also made available in 2 editions, one for Windows XP and the other for Windows 7-10.
Download
Now that you have a good idea of what this software is all about, you may now download the latest upgrade here.