VisionAware

How to use a SARA for reading.

Transcript of Video

NARRATOR: Two men using a monitor and scanner.

CHIP: Okay, Damian, this is the SARA. And this machine actually converts or turns text into speech. It has to be printed material. It does not recognize any type of graphics or pictures, and you will not be able to read any type of script or handwriting. But if you wanted to scan and read a book, even the newspaper, your mail, a lot of times it will do a very good job. Basically what you have is a flatbed scanner, and if you can lift that lid up for me, you’ll see the area where you actually place your text on to, just like a scanner or a copier machine. So you have controls on the top of the machine and controls on the front of the machine. The two most important buttons on this machine are going to be the red button and the green button. The top red button with the raised circle in it, that’s your scan button. In order for this machine to read to you, you have to scan the material, or take a picture of it. Once that material’s been scanned, it’s going to send it down to the computer, the computer’s going to figure out what’s on the page, and it’s going to read it to you. The button below that, or the green button, is your read button–kind of like the old cassette recorders. That button will start and stop the SARA from reading. So if you can go ahead and push it for me one time, it’s going to go ahead and read the text…

VOICE: “What is low vision? “Low vision means that even with regular glasses, “contact lenses, medicine or surgery, people find everyday tasks difficult to do.”

CHIP: You can go in there and change the size of the font, the color of the font, and the color of the background to your particular liking. You can also navigate around the page with the set of blue arrow keys on the top shelf in the middle. You can go backwards or forwards, word by word, or line by line. So that’s what these blue arrow keys. You have two keys to the right: a help key, which is a fantastic feature, because if you forget what a button does, you can hit that help key and then tap any other key on the machine and the SARA will tell you what that key is and how to use it.