- Roughly 43.3 million people were blind in 2020, and approximately 295 million people had moderate and severe vision impairment.
- Globally, 92 per cent of people who are blind and 88 per cent of those with moderate and severe vision impairment live in
low- and middle-income countries.
- Estimating the market size for screen readers or even the number of devices and users in circulation is a challenge due to
– (a) Screen reader use for convenience vs disability driven, (b) in-built and open-source software as ‘licensed’ user base,
(c) lack of standardized tracking measures of screen reader-based access of web content.
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- The market is divided into open-source offerings, commercial offerings, and in-built screen readers (for devices or browsers)
with a few major offerings/ products across each category.
- In recent years, the market has consolidated, with many previously popular screen reader offerings becoming defunct/obsolete
or inactive.
- The United States, United Kingdom and Australia are the primary manufacturing/ development locations.
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- Commercial offerings range from 1,000–1,200 dollars for lifetime licenses, but yearly licenses are available for 85-90 dollars.
- Open-source offerings are available for free, alongside built-in offerings, which are also free and included with the procurement
of devices.
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