Abstract
A reading system was developed to aid adventitiously blind people in reading and writing English documents by themselves. The system is made up of three subsystems, i.e. pattern recognition, construction of character data base and speech output. This system has following features.
(1) Verbal guidance and confirmation are provided to enable blind users to operate the system by themselves.
(2) The users can build their own personal reading system by recording features of fonts through the subsystem of constructing character data base, though the help from the sighted is essential in this process.
(3) Since a simple editing function is embeded in the system, it can be used as a typewriter, as well as a text reversion system.
An evaluation of the system was made by a blind person, and a good result was obtained in his overall acceptance of the system.
