Central Access Reader

Central Access Reader (CAR) is a free, open-source screen reader software application aimed at providing computer access for blind and visually impaired users. It works by identifying and interpreting what is displayed on the computer screen, then representing it to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a refreshable Braille display.

CAR include:

• Text-to-speech engine that reads aloud text, unicode characters, punctuation marks, keyboard shortcuts, menus, and more from any application running on the computer.
• Support for over 30 languages for text-to-speech.
• Customizable voices, speaking rate, pitch, volume and more for the text-to-speech functionality.
• Interactive navigation with keyboard shortcuts to review screen content line-by-line, by sentences, paragraphs or other textual units.
• Hierarchical review of headings, links, tables, lists, text input fields, buttons and other structural elements.
• Screen magnification from 1x to 60x to make screen content larger and easier to see for low vision users.
• Global configuration options to control general speech and interaction preferences.
• Scripting to automate common tasks.
• Ability to output text content to refreshable Braille displays.

CAR is designed to provide complete on-screen access optimized for blind and visually impaired users on Windows-based computers. It aims to make the power and access of information technology available for computer users facing vision loss challenges.