I understand that the American Society for the blind has numerous aids. I am not blind but have heard of such tools. There have screen readers and other tools. I have now told more then all I know about that. You do have the read aloud feature in Logos which you can use.
I don't know how easy it is to navigate Logos despite vision loss, but two features that might interest you are program scaling, and read aloud. Program scaling is an option under Settings and lets you enlarge everything in the program - buttons, labels, guides, resources, everything, all at once. Read Aloud makes use of your operating system's text-to-speech capability and will read any resource for you. Start Read Aloud by typing control-r while one of your resources is active.
There have been others in the forums who are legally blind. I hope one of them will see your post and tell you how they are making out. They were clearly using Logos so I am sure there is a way.
Mac OS X has Universal Access system preferences.
Keep Smiling [:)]
CJ,
I don't keep up well with the Logos forums. I see that you got a reply; however, I wonder whether you were able to get info that was helpful to you. How are you doing and how are you accessing Logos now? I am evaluating Logos 4 now and would be willing to talk with you about how to prepare yourself for your future needs if you still need this. There are several ways to plan for computer access (not just Logos but other applications as well).
C.J., I am also VI, and like you, I'm currently making the best of things with the largest font choices Logos allows on a couple of truly gigantic monitors. Keep Smiling has also mentioned Microsoft Windows accessibility options. Neither of these choices are optimal when we both transition from VI to Totally Blind. I've been periodically poking at Logos to do something about the incredibly bad Read Aloud option (which at least works, but makes you want to scream as your ears begin to bleed after a very few minutes), but no response from Logos at all, and precious little response from sympathetic users on USERVOICE where I've tried to elevate awareness of the issue.
All that being said, you do have options. Perhaps the best screen reader for the blind is JAWS, and the price reflects it's Best-In-Class designation. Another decent "screen scraper" is ZoomText which also converts anything on the screen to spoken word. In the short term, to preserve your investment in Logos, you're almost certainly going to want to begin with something free such as "Thunder" which you can get at http://www.screenreader.net/ at absolutely no cost. I recommend it because you need to begin getting acclimated to a screen reader while you still have some sight left, and can make intelligent decisions as to the direction that best suits you for accessing your Logos library, and the myriad of other computing abilities that will become increasingly more important to you as your vision fails.
Take heart my brother (or, um, sister!), loss of vision need not cripple your ability to enjoy "reading" and getting the most from God's word!
I've been periodically poking at Logos to do something about the incredibly bad Read Aloud option (which at least works, but makes you want to scream as your ears begin to bleed after a very few minutes), but no response from Logos at all, and precious little response from sympathetic users on USERVOICE where I've tried to elevate awareness of the issue.
Have you seen the Logos comment at http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-4/suggestions/860717-improve-reading-aloud?ref=title
I've been periodically poking at Logos to do something about the incredibly bad Read Aloud option (which at least works, but makes you want to scream as your ears begin to bleed after a very few minutes), but no response from Logos at all, and precious little response from sympathetic users on USERVOICE where I've tried to elevate awareness of the issue. Have you seen the Logos comment at http://logos.uservoice.com/forums/42823-logos-bible-software-4/suggestions/860717-improve-reading-aloud?ref=title
Thanks for reminding me Dave... I had seen that rather ambiguous response, but really consider it to be a non-response. It certainly isn't "responsive" since a future version isn't so much a commitment as a deferment, or more accurately, a deflection. So, let me ask you, if you were either totally blind or quickly going blind, how would you view (sorry, bad pun in even worse taste) a cavalier response with no time frame, no commitment to which future version, and no recommendation for an intermediate solution?
Perhaps I'm just not seeing Logos' response in the clear light of day.... but then again, I'm not seeing much at all these days.
I had seen that rather ambiguous response, but really consider it to be a non-response.
The comment from Bradley Grainger (Logos), which I missed first time, is:-
"Logos will not be developing or bundling additional voices with Logos 4, but will continue to support all installable voices that use Microsoft's speech API. Nextup.com has a wide variety of voices, many of which claim to be SAPI4 and SAPI5 compatible so they should work with Logos 4."
He also said:
"Logos 4 will use whichever voice is selected in "Text to Speech" settings in Control Panel; if Neospeech voices are available there, you can select them for Logos 4 to use."
So these appear to be options available now.
It certainly isn't "responsive" since a future version isn't so much a commitment as a deferment, or more accurately, a deflection.
The "future version" is a standard response regarding time frame for the requested improvements, which have nothing to do with voices.
I'm working with someone Visually Impaired in my church to upgrade them from Logos 2 to Logos 4. I think there are two issues related to helping the VI. The first would be for those whose sight is impaired to the degree that they can't see anything comfortably. That's where the screen scrapers and Windows voice control would help. I don't have any experience with that ... especially with Logos.
I'm working with someone who is legally blind, but with changes to the computer environment can comfortably study .... visually. We're using Windows 7 Ease of Access Center. If you want totest, Windows 7 allows you to do ALT + SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN to toggle theaccessibility option on and off. Or go to Control Panel, Ease of Access Center,Setup High Contrast, and check the toggle option to use the high contrasttoggle. Then you have to set Logos' "Resource Panel Background" inProgram Settings (Tools --> Program Settings) to use the Windows Default. From the same Logos screen you can changed Default Text Size, Default Notes Text Size, and Program Scaling. You'll just have to play with those options to find out what is best. Outside of that I can't findanything else to change the Logos 4 environment, which still leaves us with several issues.
Because of these issues, the Program Settings window keeps the Logos Default rather than the Windows default, so the VI may need help from a friend even to configure these settings to make best use of Logos.
I'm really hoping Logos hears some of these issues. This brother in my church is a diligent Bible student. Books are not an option for him. It would be great to get him off Logos 2 (and Windows 2000!) but I'm not sure of the practicality of that right now.
Option: Libronix 3.0g is a free upgrade from Logos 2 (with IE 9 fix, runs on 64 bit Windows 7). Thankful Libronix 3.0g and Logos 4 can peacefully co-exist on same computer (does duplicate resources). Libronix 3.0g uses Internet Explorer (IE) display engine, may work better with screen scrapers.
anyone know if logos works with this:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp
