IBM Home Page Reader

Home Page Reader (Hpr) was a computer program, a self-voicing web browser designed for people who are blind. It was developed by IBM from the work of Chieko Asakawa at IBM Japan.

Home Page Reader
Developer(s)IBM Special System Needs (SNS)
Final release
3.04[1] / 2005 (2005)
Operating systemWindows 95/98/NT
PlatformWindows
Available inEnglish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish[2]
TypeScreen Reader
WebsiteHomepage (Archive.org)

The screen reader met World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML 4.01 specifications, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.[3]

In 2006, it was announced on the Hpr mailing list that IBM does not have plans for any further updates of HPR and the software was subsequently withdrawn from sale by IBM in December 2006.[4] IBM has given code to be used as a Firefox extension.

The program also had a peer-support mailing list.[5][note 1]

Criticism

In summer 2002 a non-scientific study concluded that Hpr did not make any distinction between the built-in keyboard shortcuts for entering different modes and the access keys available on websites. The research claimed that Hprs would do better to use links mode to cycle through a list.[6]

System requirements

Hardware

Hpr had the following hardware requirements:[7]

  • 166 MHz processor
  • 32 MB RAM Windows 95/98; 64 MB RAM for Windows NT
  • 14 MB hard disk space; 42 MB hard disk space for HPR and Netscape Communicator
  • SVGA (640 X 480, 256 colors) graphics
  • Windows compatible: modem (28.8 KBPS), sound card (16-bit), and CD ROM drive (quad-speed)
  • Integrated or separately attached numeric keypad

Software

Hpr had the following software requirements:[7]

  • Microsoft Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0
  • Internet service provider (ISP) connection
  • Netscape Navigator Version 3.01 or higher
  • For Home Page Mailer, Microsoft Personal Web Server, Version 4.02 required for Windows 95/98; Peer Web Services, Version 4.0 required for Windows NT
  • A mail program set up with preferences, or Microsoft Personal Web Server or Peer Web Services required for mailto: tags

References
Notes
  1. Its archives were available at http://www.talklist.com/forms/ibm-hpr%5B%5D
References
  1. "Home Page Reader Version 3 : Spectronics - Inclusive Learning Technologies". Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  2. "IBM relaunch browser for the blind". evolt.org. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  3. "IBM Home Page Reader 3.04". IBM. 2007. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  4. faulkner, steve (November 7, 2006). "IBM Home Page Reader is Dead". AOL Ability. Archived from the original on 7 January 2007. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  5. "BLIST: The Comprehensive Index of Blindness-Related Emailing Lists". June 20, 2002. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  6. "Using Accesskeys - Is it worth it?". wats.ca. October 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
  7. "IBM Home Page Reader". Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
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