ZoomText is a
screen magnifier
A screen magnifier is software that interfaces with a computer's graphical output to present enlarged screen content. By enlarging part (or all) of a screen, people with visual impairments can better see words and images. This type of assistive te ...
for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
developed by Ai Squared which was acquired by
Freedom Scientific
Freedom Scientific is a company that makes accessibility products for computer users with low vision and blindness. The software they create enables screen magnification, screen reading, and use of refreshable braille displays with modern compute ...
in 2016. The first version was released for
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
in 1988, and the first version for Windows was released in 1991. ZoomText is available in two editions: ZoomText Magnifier and ZoomText Magnifier/Reader, which includes a built-in
screen reader
A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blindness, blind, and are useful to people who are visual impairment, visually ...
.
The latest version of ZoomText is ZoomText 2019 released by Freedom Scientific in November 2018.
Features
ZoomText is a stand-alone piece of software designed for visually impaired people. It is available for the currently released and supported versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The program allows the user to see and hear everything on the computer screen and provides access to applications, documents, email and the Internet. The software is intended to help individuals with "early vision loss, computer vision syndrome, and visual impairments such as macular degeneration and glaucoma". ZoomText has dual monitor support and is capable of magnifying the screen up to 60 times; it also allows the user to choose which part of the screen is magnified. Text definition is maintained to preserve legibility. Color controls help improve the clarity of the screen and mouse pointers can be resized. It also provides enhanced navigation capabilities to help the user to launch programs and find documents on the desktop and find the hypertext links and controls on
web pages, find words or phrases. In Windows Vista, magnification and screen reader support is enabled at the log on stage.
History
ZoomText was produced and developed by AiSquared, which is based in Vermont, USA, until 2016. Since then the development and testing was merged in with the team from Freedom Scientific who have provided JAWS since the 1990s. The product has been developed for over 25 years and is currently available in over 20 language versions.
AiSquared company website
Release history
Version 11 was released in 2017
Version 2018 was released early 2018
Version 2019 was released in late 2018
Version 2020 was released in late 2019
Version 2021 was released in late 2020
Updates on current release version are now published between 4 and 6 weeks apart.
See also
* List of screen readers
Reference
{{Reflist
External links
ZoomText homepageReview of Zoomtext 9 by AFB AccessworldThe Low Vision Computer Access List – a non-profit independent organization resource for magnification solutions information on the Internet
Screen magnifiers