New Hal's Map-File Helps Blind Users Read Hundreds of Books

A few years ago, blind individuals only dreamt of accessing books that were available to sighted readers. Their choice of what to read was limited by the availability of books made in Braille. Such availability was not only costly, but limiting as Braille books were usually larger and heavier than conventional books. As a result many blind readers in the Middle East turned away from reading altogether.    The average Arabic screen reader software enabled users to read conventional digital information such as those edited by MS Word for example, but for  books developed by some publishing houses to run as an executable file such screen readers failed to access them.   Nattiq announced today that it developed a map file for its Arabic screen reader Hal, which enables blind users access hundreds of books instantly. Nattiq also reached an agreement with Ibn AlOthaimeen Library of Books to provide interested blind Hal’s users with a compact disk, CD, which includes well known titles free of charge. Hundreds of titles are available in Arabic as well as a good number of titles in English and French. English and French titles include: Essential Rights, Explaining the Fundamentals of Faith, Explanation of Ayat Alkursi and Fasting: the Great Act of Worship. “ Sighted users may purchase a CD and immediately start enjoying the material it presents. This luxury is not available to blind users even when they own a screen reader. Content developers produce materials accessed by a standard mouse. Blind users can’t use a standard mouse which results in their inability to enjoy such material. We are pleased to be able to tweak our screen reader, Hal, to enable  users access materials that were not available to them.” , said Auda Hazeem, Nattiq’s CEO.   Nattiq continues to promote privacy and independence in using information and telecommunication systems for all blind users in the Middle East. Hal screen reader continues to enhance its position as the most reliable Arabic screen reader available in the Middle East. Hal screen reader was developed by Dolphin Computer Access in the UK and localized it into Arabic with the help of Nattiq Technologies. Hal reads everything displayed on a computer screen in Arabic as well as 12 other languages.