JAWS (screen reader)

JAWS ( Job Access With Speech of, English for " work access with language" ) is a paid screen reader, the text output from the computer screen enables via Braille display and / or speech output. The software is the market leader in the field of screen readers. JAWS can be customized by scripts on the user's needs or the requirements of a particular program and also allows to deal with applications that only offer a low level of accessibility.

History

JAWS was originally a product of the U.S. Henter - Joyce Inc. Since the merger with Blazie Engineering and Arkenstone the project from the Freedom Scientific newly formed therefrom, is being supervised Inc., one in Saint Petersburg, Florida-based company, the various hardware developed and software for blind and visually impaired people. JAWS was released in 1989 for MS- DOS by Ted Henter. The sequel to JAWS for Windows, who supported the now increasingly widespread Windows platform, appeared in 1993. Besides numerous so-called hotfixes about every year an update, the latest version will appear 14 was first released in September 2012. There is both a 32 -bit version and a 64 - bit variant.

JAWS is one of the few really popular screen reader programs. Even if the software is not ideal in all cases, it is considered as one of the best products in their field. In order to operate programs and / or browser, in all cases, the parallel installation of different versions of the program is common.

JAWS is in Germany an approved aid that can be taken or subsidized by the determination of the medical necessity of the statutory health insurance. In the resource directory of the statutory health insurance, it is registered under number 07.99.03.2001.