Hi all,
Over the last few years, I've heard vague mentions of a Windows screen reader called ZDSR. However, when I try and google it, nothing really comes up. I've found mentions of it on various lists, and when I did eventually find a website, it was all in Chinese. Even when I translated the page, there was a table with a load of download links, but no other links giving information about the screen reader, features and so on. I wasn't even sure if it was the ZDSR I wanted or something totally different in that case. Are lots of blind people actually using this? If so, how has it managed to get any sort of international recognition if their literature is all in Chinese? What are the benefits of this screen reader? How is it better than NVDA or JAWS? Why is there no concrete info about this screen reader in English? I saw there are several different teers, a free one, and a couple of paid options. Just wondering how it compares to JAWS and NVDA, and why on earth there's no decent info about this online.
Thanks.
By Tara, 29 January, 2025
Forum
Windows
Comments
Sky voice
How good is it? I tried searching for a sample but no luck.
@brian the brain.
Hmm, I can pay you in cirial, or perhaps some lovely floor wipes? They're awesome! They're big and cover a huge space and you can just get things clean with them, no more small wipes!
Any English-only users switched then?
Yo .
I am quite curious to try ZDSR, but the official Github links for dl are broken. Not a good first impression for potentially paid software if someone uses something other than the Public Welfare edition. I'm already against having a billion paid tiers for software and imposing false limitations. Unfortunately I can understand both sides.
So some questions: And yes I read the thread first :)
1. I run an offline machine mostly. I activate music software / plugins on that machine online, but immediately turn Airplane mode back on. Is a ZDSR license persistent between launches of the screen reader, and does it only query the internet when you activate it? In other words: If I boot my pc in airplane mode will ZDSR still be activated, or is it naggy and checking every five minutes whenever it runs? That will not work for me on an offline audio machine.
2. TTS. Is there only this SkyVoice or whatever thing, or can you use SAPI or other voices? Is there even an English voice, or is this strictly Chinese with no proper localization yet?
3. Braille displays. Working or no? What is supported? The manual goes into detail about just about everything else.
4. If this Sr is so magical, how come more people aren't talking about it? And what's up with the broken dl links? Again, you can't tell me this thing's super fast and does all this great stuff NVDA is hopeless and useless at, then not have a working download. Have I just wasted 30 mins trying to learn about a potentially amazing piece of software, or am I chasing a red herring?
Thx for any help
Your guess is as good as ours
I can't seem to find any relevant information on ZDSR these days. If it is still in development, I'm thinking it's for it's native market only. If you happen to find anything out, do let us know. 🙂