Suggestions for Web Readers?

lawndart asks: "A co-worker of mine recently had a stroke that removed his ability to read. More accurately he has no shape recognition abilities anymore. Before the accident he was a serious web addict, and is a little depressed that he can't surf anymore. He wants to use web reader software, but obviously needs someone else to find/install it, which is where I come in. I was hoping for some ideas on the best ones out there, with an emphasis on accuracy, and price. It needs to run on a Wintel type box and be relatively easy to use." I would suspect there are such programs already in the market for the blind, so if any of you have tried then and would be willing to pass on recommendations, please feel free.

Comments

Hmmmmm...

[terpia]

I can understand how text to speech programs work...
But how about Ascii Art?

I mean...as I scroll through slashdot, the goatse.cx ascii art and the apparently forgotten penis birds are semi aggravating...although still a bit funny. How can Ascii art (for better or worse) be translated into something the blind can enjoy? It sure would suck to be listening to a page of comments and then have to sit through a gigantor ascii pic of natalie portman (pants full of hot grits of course) being interpreted and pronounced by the software. The only solution I can think of is maybe some sort of braille printer, but it might be hard to grasp (I know,bad pun). Any insight?