A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT)[1] that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind,[2] and are useful to people who are visually impaired,[2] illiterate, or have a learning disability.[3] Screen readers are software applications that attempt to convey what people with normal eyesight see on a display to their users via non-visual means, like text-to-speech,[4] sound icons,[5] or a braille device.[2] They do this by applying a wide variety of techniques that include, for example, interacting with dedicated accessibility APIs, using various operating system features (like inter-process communication and querying user interface properties), and employing hooking techniques.
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