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I want to add screen reader in my c# app. The screen reader should read whatever(pdf, word,txt,or website page, etc.) appears on the screen. I tried searching it but didn't got any proper solution. Please help.
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PIEBALDconsult 13-Nov-14 13:13pm    
If the user wants that, he can turn on the one in the Operating System.
Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Nov-14 13:15pm    
This is because reading screen makes little practical sense. Besides, from the standpoint of Windows API, a lot of text content on screen is not accessible as string data, it's just graphics. Therefore, accessibility assistant do different things: they pronounce message boxes, events, window titles, etc. It makes a lot more sense.
—SA
[no name] 13-Nov-14 13:21pm    
Screen Readers make a lot of sense for blind People who like to
- read an email
- chat with e.g. skype
- and a lot more...
I know it from experience.
Bruno
Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Nov-14 13:23pm    
What you listed is not reading screen. Yes, it's useful. That is my point: assistants read events, messages, etc.
—SA
PIEBALDconsult 13-Nov-14 13:30pm    
That's why it's built into the operating system. A magnifier as well.
Anything that Microsoft was unable to do, you can't do either.

1 solution

There is no Screen Reader in .NET or in Visual C# langauge itself. The screen can be however accessed as a Graphics object in your application, and then you can use some sort of OCR or OMR service to read the characters from the graphics or image you save. I can give you an example of how to get the screen shot, which would help you to get the screen's content onto a Bitmap, for saving as an Image.

Once done, you can use an OCR to read those characters as string and so on.

Read this Saving a Screenshot Using C#, A.K.A "Console Monitor"[^]. You can go and download this sample code for the Microsoft OCR libary from MSDN Gallery[^].

But if you still want to develop one, you should go and read the MSFT's Accessibility overview. They have a set of documents for you to get started in building an application that would provide you the the spoken results that appear on the screen. However, websites already include the accessibility features and ARIA[^] property is one of them.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb735024.aspx[^]
 
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Member 11120869 13-Nov-14 13:28pm    
OK sir thank you so much. But saving bitmap images continuously occupy space on hard disk. what about this issue?
Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 13-Nov-14 13:33pm    
You can delete the image once you're done working with it. :-) You shouldn't be saving the images in the storage when you don't need them. Save them, work on them, get the data and delete them. You just require the data from that image.
Member 11120869 13-Nov-14 13:43pm    
OK got it. But my question is how to use OCR I am not aware of it?
Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 13-Nov-14 13:45pm    
This is not your question, this is a second question you're asking. If this question of yours (the one you're asking above) has been solved, please mark an answer and ask a new question by starting a new thread for the question. You will get answers for that question on that post of yours.
Member 11120869 13-Nov-14 13:47pm    
OK thank you :)

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