What should a device demonstration program stock for blind and low-vision users?

Screen readers such as JAWS and NVDA, screen magnification, refreshable braille displays and notetakers, OCR and document-reading tools, and AI assistants that work alongside a screen reader. The categories answer different questions, so a demonstration is most useful when it compares across them rather than within one.

Guide for AT programs · Updated August 2026

What to put in an AT device demonstration program for blind users

Written for the people who run device demonstration and short-term loan services at a state AT Act program, a university disability office, or a vocational rehabilitation agency.

The quick answer

A demonstration shelf for blind and low-vision users should let someone compare across five categories, not just within one:

Screen readers — JAWS, NVDA, Narrator. The baseline. Reads the interface aloud and drives it from the keyboard.
Magnification — ZoomText, Windows Magnifier, and desktop or handheld video magnifiers, for people with usable residual vision.
Refreshable braille — a display and, separately, a notetaker. Different jobs; people often assume one covers the other.
OCR and document reading — for the paper and the scanned PDF that no screen reader can help with.
AI assistants — the newest category, and the one most demonstration shelves have not caught up with. Runs alongside a screen reader rather than replacing it.

The single most useful thing a demonstration can do is show why a device someone expected to solve their problem does not, and which category actually does.

Where demonstration sits in the AT Act

Every state and territory AT Act program runs the same four state-level activities:

Device demonstration — guided, hands-on comparison of the features of two or more devices, so someone can tell them apart before spending money.
Short-term device loan — the device goes home with the person, into their own environment, for a limited period.
Device reutilization — equipment no longer needed by its original owner is refurbished and reassigned at a fraction of the cost.
State financing — loans and other programs that help people acquire AT, or reduce what they pay.

Demonstration and loan do different jobs and are worth keeping distinct. A demonstration answers which of these is the right kind of tool. A loan answers does this specific tool survive contact with my actual work. Software is unusual in that it can do both at once, because a trial installs on the person's own machine.

What each category is actually for

Screen readers

A screen reader reads what is on the screen and lets the user drive the interface from the keyboard. It is the foundation and nothing replaces it. Its limit is structural: it can read what is on the screen but it cannot understand it. Give it an untagged PDF, a scanned document, or a table whose markup does not describe its rows and columns, and there is nothing for it to read correctly. That is not a flaw in JAWS or NVDA — it is a flaw in the document, and it is why the other categories exist.

Worth demonstrating both a commercial and a free option side by side. See the JAWS comparison and the NVDA comparison for how they differ in practice, and what JAWS actually costs over three and five years.

Magnification

Frequently under-demonstrated, because programs default to assuming a blind user needs speech. A large share of people served have usable residual vision and will get further with magnification, contrast inversion, and a video magnifier than with a screen reader they will not persist with. Ask before assuming.

Refreshable braille

A braille display and a braille notetaker answer different questions. The display gives silent, precise access to text alongside a computer — indispensable for proofreading, code, and mathematics, where hearing a string of characters is not enough. A notetaker is a standalone device for capture. People shopping for one often need the other.

OCR and document reading

The category that handles paper, and the scanned PDF that arrived as an image of a page. Traditional OCR converts pixels to characters. It does not recover structure — a scanned table generally comes out as a run of numbers with no indication of which column they belonged to.

AI assistants

The category most demonstration shelves have not yet added. These run alongside a screen reader and are asked questions in plain language rather than driven by shortcut keys. The relevant capability is not speech — screen readers already speak. It is understanding: reconstructing the reading order of a document that was never tagged, keeping a table's rows and columns intact, speaking mathematics as mathematics, and describing a chart rather than skipping it.

Demonstrate this category against the same failing document you use to show the limits of a screen reader. That contrast is the whole point, and it is the fastest way to show a client why a tool they have never heard of is worth their attention.

Choosing what to stock

Prefer things that can be loaned as well as demonstrated. Software with a genuine no-payment trial does both, and costs the program nothing to lend.
Stock at least one option per category, not three per category. Comparing across categories teaches more than comparing within one.
Keep a deliberately broken document on hand — an untagged PDF, a scanned table, a page of equations. It is the most informative object on the shelf.
Check what it costs the client, not what it costs you. A tool that requires a purchase order will not be tried by the person who most needs it.
Ask what the client is actually trying to finish. A job application portal, a Canvas assignment, and a utility bill fail in different ways and are solved by different categories.

Where Darvy fits

Darvy is in the fifth category. It is a voice-activated AI assistant that runs on the user's own Windows machine, alongside JAWS, NVDA, or Narrator rather than instead of them. The user holds a key and asks.

It reads PDFs and Word files that were never made accessible, including scanned ones; keeps tables in their rows and columns; speaks mathematics properly; describes charts and diagrams; and helps with browsing.

For a demonstration or loan program specifically: it is free for 7 days, needs only an email address, and has no license keys to manage and nothing to purchase. It runs on Windows 10 and 11. It is not a replacement for a screen reader and results vary when an application exposes incomplete accessibility information — both worth saying out loud during a demonstration.

See what it does, how to evaluate it, or institutional details.

Frequently asked

What are the four AT Act state-level activities?

Device demonstration, short-term device loan, device reutilization, and state financing activities. Every state and territory AT Act program provides all four.

What is the difference between demonstration and loan?

A demonstration is a guided, hands-on comparison of two or more devices so someone can see how the features differ. A loan puts one device in the person's own hands, in their own environment, for a limited period, before they decide whether to buy.

Do we need to buy software to demonstrate it?

Not if it has a real trial. Software with a no-payment trial can be demonstrated on your machine and loaned by pointing the client at the download, which costs the program nothing and removes the purchase order from the conversation entirely.