assistive technologies: "screen reader" software
 

I saw this and thought it might be useful to some of the folks here:
>>> "Orca is a free, open source, flexible, extensible, and powerful assistive technology for people with visual impairments. Using various combinations of speech synthesis, braille, and magnification, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI (e.g., the GNOME desktop)" <<<

live(dot)gnome(dot)org/Orca

The "Gnome Desktop Environment" is reputed to be the easiest software around to learn to and to use, though many KDE fans would have differing opinion.

I have no idea what is available for APPL/MSFT users, but OSS systems are readily available, very advanced, and lemme see, oh yeah...free