IBM Home Page Reader explained

Home Page Reader
Developer:	IBM Special System Needs (SNS)
Discontinued:	yes
Latest Release Version:	3.04^[1]
Operating System:	Windows 95/98/NT
Platform:	Windows
Language:	English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish^[2]
Genre:	Screen Reader
Website:	Homepage (Archive.org)

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.

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on the Hpr mailing list that IBM does not have plans for any further updates of HPR and the software was subsequently withdrawn from sale by IBM in December 2006.^[4] IBM has given code to be used as a Firefox extension.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] [6]}

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.^[7]

System requirements

Hardware

Hpr had the following hardware requirements:^[8]

• 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:

• 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

References

External links

• • • HomePage reader @ evolt.
• [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/sns/hpr/ HPR ftp directory], IBM
• IBM Home Page Reader Keyboard Shortcuts, WebAIM
• IBM Home Page Reader Tutorial, WebAIM

Notes and References

1. Web site: Home Page Reader Version 3 : Spectronics - Inclusive Learning Technologies . 10 August 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100729142234/http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/product/home-page-reader-version-3 . July 29, 2010 .
2. Web site: IBM relaunch browser for the blind. evolt.org. 10 August 2010. 27 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161027173620/http://evolt.org/node/3685. dead.
3. Web site: IBM Home Page Reader 3.04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061230154446/http://www-03.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr4_demo_text.html . dead . 30 December 2006 . 2007 . IBM . 10 August 2010 .
4. Web site: IBM Home Page Reader is Dead. faulkner. steve. November 7, 2006. AOL Ability. 10 August 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070107032258/http://ability.aol.com/ability/index.php?ID=118&catID=7 . 7 January 2007.
5. Web site: BLIST: The Comprehensive Index of Blindness-Related Emailing Lists. June 20, 2002. 10 August 2010.
6. Its archives were available at http://www.talklist.com/forms/ibm-hpr
7. Web site: Using Accesskeys - Is it worth it? . https://web.archive.org/web/20070630132627/http://www.wats.ca/show.php?contentid=32 . dead . 2007-06-30 . . 7 January 2011 . October 2006 .
8. Web site: IBM Home Page Reader. 10 August 2010. dead. https://archive.today/20130203072419/http://www.synapseadaptive.com/wynn/IBM_Home_Page_Reader.htm. 3 February 2013.