Screen Reader/2

Screen Reader/2 was an early screen reader developed by IBM for the OS/2 operating system, first released in the early 1990s. It was one of the pioneering commercial screen readers, providing blind and visually impaired users with text-to-speech and audio output to access graphical user interfaces on personal computers. Screen Reader/2 could read displayed text information line by line and word by word, and supported a Profile Access Language (PAL) that allowed users to customize reading behavior for different applications. The Japanese version was particularly influential in IBM Japan's web accessibility research, including early work on making HTML tables navigable. Screen Reader/2 laid groundwork for IBM's later Home Page Reader, one of the first dedicated accessible web browsers, and influenced the development of modern screen readers.