Zoom Text Review

I use Zoom Text on my computer on a daily basis, making this review quite detailed as I am very familiar with it. For future reviews on other software, I will be reviewing the usability of both Magnification and Speech when using MS applications: Word, Internet & Email & Excel.

For the purpose of this review however, I have drawn on my own experience of using Zoom Text; which you may find useful if you have recently purchased this software and would like some guidance on how to get the best out of it for your own needs.

Here is a summary of the functions available on Zoom Text. For a more detailed review read further on!

Summary
Zoom Text is one of the most popular Screen Readers for visually impaired users. Zoom Text has many useful functions which will be beneficial to users with some or limited vision, such as the Zoom Window, magnification level of up to 36 xs and the option to increase the size of the mouse pointer and change the colour contrast on the screen to reduce glare.

Although Speech is also available on this program, it is difficult to navigate the computer using speech alone, and for this reason I would suggest that users choose all software carefully, and try before you buy to ensure you get the right program for your needs. In my opinion, I would say that the users who would benefit the most from using Zoom Text, would be mainly mouse users, within sight level Categories 2 and 3 (partial and changing sight levels), rather than Category 1 (no sight or no useful sight).

Speech is however extremely useful within Word, as there is the option to set the voice to one you prefer at a speed that suits you, and speech will also tell you what you are typing word by word as well as being able to follow what you type on the magnified screen. The most impressive speech function is that it can read you the whole Word document, which you can either follow by listening and following on the magnified screen at the same time, or sit back and listen. This is very easy to start, pause, move to another line, restart and stop; by using both the mouse and the keyboard commands. However, drawing on the difficulties I have personally experienced here, I would suggest that it may be of more use for the user to be a mouse user alongside using some key commands. The reason for my suggesting this is that the option to tab around dialogue boxes and screens, has not worked for me during this exercise on Zoom Text.

Rating Out of 5 Stars
The rating I award to Zoom Text as a Category 3 user is: **** 4 stars

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July’s Blog Coming Soon – CCTV Reviews from Birmingham Sight Village.

Zoom Text Review

As I mentioned before, this is the screen reading software which I prefer, and it has both Speech and Magnification functions.

Magnification
Like most Screen Reading Software, when you install the programme you can decide if you want to load up Zoom Text automatically when the computer loads or not. This is useful if it is your own computer so it will load without you having to find it manually. Alternatively, if it is a family computer you can opt not to load automatically, in which case it is easy for the user to load Zoom Text by either clicking on the yellow box with a ‘Z’ in it on the computer background, or pressing the letter ‘Z’ followed by the ‘return’ key.

There are many reasons why I prefer Zoom Text, one being that I can type a document and the screen will follow what I type, so I can see what I am typing. I have the magnification level quite high, (well actually most other people consider it to be very high) – 12x, which sometimes makes it quite difficult to navigate new screens and websites.

Zooming In and Out
It can be rather irritating when you are trying to type or click on something, and the computer will not allow you to. This is usually because the magnification level is so high that it is impossible to see the whole screen at once. For these occasions there is a simple function which I find extremely useful, as although I am unable to read any information when the screen is zoomed out, I am able to see if there is a dialogue box which is preventing me from being able to carry out any functions.

To zoom out, press the control button and roll the scroller on the mouse downwards to make the screen smaller. To zoom in and make the screen larger, press control and scroll upwards on the mouse scroller.

Split Screen
As the magnification is so high, it is very difficult when trying to receive instructions about a specific task on a computer, from someone who does not have experience of using a screen reader.
The Zoom text dialogue box is extremely useful for these occasions, click on ‘Magnifier’, and under this will appear ‘Zoom Window’, click on this, and then select ‘Window’ from the tabs at the top of the dialogue box. This will display the different ‘Window Type’ options. The default setting is to ‘Full’ screen, with some other options listed below which I will describe shortly. There is a second selection list next to this, which allows you to ‘Dock’ the screen to a certain position; for example, I always choose ‘Docked Bottom’, as this splits the screen into two horizontal sections, with the magnified section of the screen at the bottom half. The top half shows a normal view, so the person instructing me what to do, can look over my shoulder and see most of the screen at once, in a normal view while I can navigate the magnified bottom half at the same time.

However, this does take practice, it does limit further how much of the screen you can see, and is really useful for those occasions where a fully sighted person needs to see the screen as well, rather than using it like this all the time.
The plus side to this is that it shows the person who is instructing you how much more work you have to do just to see the screen, and you will probably impress them with your competence at using it, while they are completely lost!

Docking the magnification to the bottom half of the screen is my personal preference, but you may decide that you prefer something different. If you select ‘Docked Top’, the magnified half of the screen will be the top horizontal half. ‘Docked Left’, will split the screen vertically and dock the magnification to the left, while ‘Docked Right’, will magnify the vertical right side of the screen.

There are other options which a magnification user of between 2 xs and 5 xs may prefer to use the majority of the time. ‘Overlay’ will give you the bottom right corner of the screen as a magnification window. You can navigate the whole screen in this one magnified quarter, whilst seeing the remaining three quarters as a normal size. ‘Lens’, will allow you to navigate the whole screen by using the mouse, which has a small rectangle that magnifies where ever the mouse goes while the remainder of the screen is again normal size. ‘Line’, does exactly what it says on the tin, it will magnify a line strip horizontally across the screen which magnifies a line across where ever you move the mouse too, while the rest of the screen is a normal size.

Whilst using all of these functions you are still able to zoom in and out with the mouse scroller and control button. However, I would recommend that if you use Overlay, Lens or Line, that you are a user who needs between 2x and 5x magnification, as if you need to zoom in any larger than this, the magnification boxes that appear will not enlarge with the text. This means that you cannot read the text if the text is zoomed in too far. These functions will be of most benefit to you, if you are a mouse user, as you can see the whole screen by navigating with the mouse and magnifying only what you need to.

Other Magnification Options
Experiment with the Zoom Text dialogue box, there are an infinite range of options which will suit everyone. For example, you are able to change the colour contrast on the computer, which reduces glare and makes it easier to read, similar to the colour contrasts available on CCTV’s.
It is also possible to increase the size of the Pointer (Mouse Arrow) and the Curser, which again is extremely useful especially for lower magnification users, who may wish to have a Lens Window Magnifier with a larger pointer, for instance.

All of these options are excellent for someone who has changing sight levels, you can start by setting the Pointer to appear larger, and then progress to using Zoom Windows, or a low magnification level which can be increased up to 36x, (which to give you some idea of what that looks like, will show you up to 4 letters in Arial 11 on the screen at once. I use 12 xs which gives you up to around two lines of 9 letters in a word document, Arial 11).

The larger you magnify, the more you should consider using Speech, as it becomes extremely difficult and slow to navigate the screen the more you increase the magnification level; as you will limit the amount of information available to you on the screen at one time.

Speech
While I was studying at University, my preference was to use magnification only whilst carrying out internet research and checking emails, and using both magnification and speech simultaneously to read scanned documents for my assignments, such as books, chapters, articles and journals.

However, I have discovered during the process of this exercise; that Zoom Text Speech is fantastic for reading word documents, but does not seem to work very well in doing anything else. For instance, if you use the tab key on the keyboard on some other Screen Readers, (Supernova to name just one), you can navigate a dialogue box, and the Speech will tell you what is in the box. This does not work on Zoom Text.

I would really appreciate any comments from anyone who is a Zoom Text Speech user, as I am sure that there must be a way of making Speech work so it will read your emails, and describe what is on a website, but unfortunately I have been unsuccessful in discovering how to do this.

It might be worth noting here that, if this is the case, then Zoom Text is not really a viable Screen Reader option for a user who relies solely on Speech to navigate their computer.
Zoom Text is one of the most popular screen reading software’s provided by VICTA’s Grants Service, and this is a good time to re-iterate, that as always, when looking for new equipment, try before you buy to ensure that you get what is best suited to you.

So, from here we will assume that if you are a Zoom Text user, you are using magnification with Speech to reinforce some of the tasks you carry out, rather than a user who is fully reliant on Speech.

The good news is, that the voices available are not all metallic generic computer sounding voices; however they are all americanised, which I suppose is to be expected from an American based company.

To choose a voice for Speech, go to the Zoom Text dialogue box, click on the ‘Reader’ tab, and then double click on the word ‘Speech’ which will appear under the Magnification tab. This will bring up a dialogue box displaying the speech options. The first tab is ‘Synthesiser’. Under this it will have a ticked box next to ‘Enable Speech Output’, and under this is a drop down box where you can choose the options from. I prefer to use ‘Neo Speech English’, and to the right of this it will give you the name of the voice, mine is set to ‘Paul’.

In addition to changing the voice options, you can also increase or decrease the rate at which the speech will talk.
Again, it is best to experiment with the options, to find the best setting for you.

Word Documents
This is the most impressive part about using Zoom Text. As I type now, the Magnification follows my typing, and the Speech reads each word after I press the space bar. This reinforces to me that I am typing accurately, to avoid as many typing and spelling mistakes as possible. Having this instant recall of what you type, places you on an equal with fully sighted users who can spot their mistake at a glance.

Speech will automatically tell you what you are typing, and if you use the arrow keys to move up and down, it will read you a line at a time. If you click, or point the mouse arrow over menu options, it will tell you what it is. For example, if I hover over the Office Button (using Windows 7), Speech will tell me a whole list of information: “Tool tip Office button click here to Open, Save or Print, or to see everything else you can do with your document. Press F1 for more help.” If I click on this Office Button, speech will tell me, “Menu Open, Dialogue Box”. If you arrow up and down through this list or navigate with the mouse, it will tell you the available options and their short cuts. For instance, ‘New’ is the first on the list, to get to it quickly once this Menu Dialogue Box is open, press ‘N’. Alternatively, if you know your hotkeys, you will know that by pressing Control and ‘N’ simultaneously, that this will make a New word Document available. This is the same for Open, Save and Print (Control ‘O’ to Open an existing file, Control ‘S’ to save an existing file, or Control ‘P’ to print a file).

By returning to the speech dialogue box I described previously, you can click on the tab ‘Text Processing’, which is the next option along from ‘Synthesiser’ and choose to change the settings for what Speech will read. I have changed the Punctuation option to read all punctuation, as I prefer to know if punctuation has been used or not, although it will be quite obvious from the intonation of the voice if a question mark or an exclamation mark appears at the end of a sentence.

To read back an entire document, open the Zoom Text dialogue box, and click on the option ‘Actions’ which appears to the right of File at the top of the box. There are two similar options in this drop down menu, ‘Doc Reader’ and ‘App Reader’, which I will now explain.

‘Start App Reader’ will place a pink rectangle around the word that your curser is nearest to at the time. To operate this function, you can either use the mouse or the keyboard keys. To use the mouse, left click on the word you want to start from and Speech will read you the whole document, unless you left click with the mouse, which will pause the speech. To cancel App Reader, right click the mouse. This function will follow each word on the screen with the pink rectangle, and read the whole document, so you can either follow what its reading, or sit back and listen.

To use the keys, press the ‘enter’ key to start reading the document, and when you want to pause, press the enter key again. If the word which appears highlighted in the pink rectangle is not where you want to start from, you can use the arrow keys to find the right place. By pressing the space bar, speech will read the word; press the space bar a second time and it will spell out the word, a third time will spell out the word phonetically. To cancel App Reader, press the ‘escape’ key.

This is my preference, as you can see the screen in the magnification level you usually use, and it is easy to pause and move to a different line.

All of these functions apply when using ‘Start Doc Reader’. There are however a few main differences between these two options within the layout appearance and contrast of the screen. For example, the screen is shrunk to a normal size; all of the text within the document is highlighted; so the writing appears as white on a black background, and highlights each word being read in blue. It also changes the layout of the document while it reads it, so that where there may be a line space in the document, there is not within the Doc Reader function.

‘Speak It Tool’ is another option within this drop down menu, and is quite self explanatory. Whatever you click the mouse on; speech will speak it to you. However it will only speak the individual words that you click the mouse onto, rather than a whole line.

By opening the Zoom Text dialogue box, clicking on ‘Actions’ and then pressing the letter ‘i’ on the keyboard, this will start the ‘Speak It Tool’. A small white box will appear next to the mouse arrow, and you can click on what you want to hear the function of. Once you have finished, press ‘escape’ to exit.

Please note: that unlike before, when using the shortcuts for the Office Button, for Save, Open and Print, if you click Control ‘I’ this will not start the Speak It Tool. It will however italicise any text you then type afterwards. This is because the hotkeys are meant for use with Windows Packages, rather than being designed for Specialist Software.

There are a few limitations to this Speak It Tool, firstly be aware that you can not open any menus or carry out any other functions while this tool is in use. It will tell you menu headings and some information on web pages and emails, but does not seem to work within word documents.