Hello from a new member, and some questions

[Allison Mervis]

Hi all!
My name is Allison, and I am very new to the world of Linux. I read what 
seemed like the portions of the FAQ which pertain to my situation, but I 
still have some questions.
Right now, I'm using an Acer laptop running Windows XP home SP2. What I 
would like to do is burn an image of a version of Linux bundled with a 
Screen reader onto A CD, (I think the correct term is live CD) insert it 
into the drive, restart my computer, and have Linux boot up talking. I do 
not own a hardware synth, and I understand that this limits my options. I 
then want to be able to restart the computer, and tell it to boot back up in 
windows. Is such a thing possible? Thanks!
Allison