Talking Calculator 3.0

Talking Calculator is a neat piece of free assisting technology specifically designed for those with a severe visual impairment. It work seamlessly with your existing screen reader or any synthetic voice installed in your system. It combines both bright colors and synthetic speech, making it a useful tool for users with or without residual sight.

Every key and edit area has an associated message that it is read aloud any time you click on it or move onto it with your tab key. The interface resembles a standard calculator, though Talking Calculator’s layout has been enhanced with high-contrast colors and large fonts. When moving around using the tab key, numbers and function keys are read aloud following a more or less logical order, rather than their position in the board. Thus, numbers are read first in their logical order (from 0 to 9), then the four basic functions, then the memory keys, following with the rest of the buttons in the interface, and finishing with the edit areas.

One of the things I like most about this cute little tool is that all the operations you perform are sequentially displayed in the “working” area, and they remain there until you “clear” the screen. To make things even more interesting, by clicking on the “Copy Work” button, you will be sending the content of the working area into your clipboard, so that you can paste it in any open document. The “Copy Total” button performs a similar function, allowing you to copy and paste complicated figures in no time.

Do not expect to find a sophisticated scientific calculator here. Far from it, you will only be able to perform simple and basic calculations with this tool but - unlike many others – this one is free, and talks!