Digital assistive technology: Screen readers

Market overview

Supplier landscape

Pricing

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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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