Doesn't taking a picture of the whole page at once and then having it read to you after OCR dominate this in every way, from ease of input (from the page) to flexibility of output (to the human)?
I'm not blind, but that method probably doesn't let you skip around the page - including backwards - as easily.
It also sounds like the Optacon had some fancy capability to represent non-textual data like graphs and metadata like fonts:
> The Optacon offers capabilities that no other device offers including the ability to see a printed page or computer screen as it truly appears including drawings, typefaces, and specialized text layouts.
It also sounds like the Optacon had some fancy capability to represent non-textual data like graphs and metadata like fonts:
> The Optacon offers capabilities that no other device offers including the ability to see a printed page or computer screen as it truly appears including drawings, typefaces, and specialized text layouts.