| April, 2003 |
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Products
Batcanes
Reprinted from the December 2002 ITTATC newsletter
Developed by Sound Foresight Ltd. (http://www.soundforesight.co.uk/)
The Batcane, as it is nicknamed has been designed to help blind and partially sighted people build a mind map of their environment and so aid independent mobility. It looks like a conventional white cane, but is much safer as it enables the user to detect obstacles in front of, around and - virtually - above or at the user's head height. The concept behind its development is based on the way a bat sees. Through a process known as Echolocation, the cane emits ultrasound pulses and then listens to the echo to determine the location of objects in the immediate vicinity. The Batcane requires no programming and runs on only a set of AA batteries. Further details of how the Batcane works remains confidential at this time.
Sound Foresight has been conducting a number of trials in the UK, US, Canada and Germany in conjunction with established bodies such as Guide Dogs for the Blind (UK), the American Council for the Blind (US) and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Results of the tests are currently being analyzed and fed into product development.
Graham Cooper, Chairman of Sound Foresight, said The tireless efforts of Sound Foresight over the past eighteen months have produced something to which all involved with the project are justifiably proud. The potential to help the lives of so many visually impaired people has been the driving factor throughout the development period. We anticipate the Batcane could be available sometime towards the end of the year.
Browsealoud - making websites accessible through speech technology
From Access Ingenuity News, Views and Product Updates
http://www.accessingenuity.com/Product%20Pages/browsealoud.htm
Santa Rosa, CA. Tuesday, November 26, 2002: Browsealoud is a brand new product to the market designed and developed by textHELP! Systems Ltd., a software house based in Northern Ireland who specialize in interface design and multimedia development. Access Ingenuity is pleased to have been asked to represent browsealoud here in the U.S.
With the browsealoud service, websites are instantly speech-enabled, reading the text that users require with the hover of a mouse. browsealoud is the easiest way to make websites more accessible to those with reading difficulties.
Approximately 44 million people*, in the U.S have a reading difficulty which mean they find it hard to fill out an application, read a food label or read a simple story to a child. This means that up to 21% of the US population cannot effectively use websites because they have difficulty reading.
What makes browsealoud unique to the market is that it widens the accessibility of the Internet to people with reading difficulties at no cost to themselves.
Free to download, easy to use with control over the voice, pitch and speed, browsealoud allows visitors to an enabled web site to have the option of having text read aloud rather than reading it themselves. When the individual is on a web site that has been speech enabled they are able to listen to text being spoken as their cursor moves over it.
The browsealoud service is one of the easiest ways to make a site more accessible. With the service's low entry cost, no ongoing management overhead, and merely the addition of a link to the browsealoud program download page required, the service is designed so that a website can be speech enabled in minutes.
Implementation to a website is straightforward, often requiring no technical changes to be made to the website. The process of making the site speech enabled is also seamless and handled remotely, there doesn't have to be any downtime on the website.
Are you a company involved in web hosting and development services? A charitable organization that has an interest in having an accessible website? An education provider or the administrator of an educational website? Or a company that has an interest in having a more accessible website?
Either way browsealoud is the easiest way to make websites more accessible to those with reading difficulties.
For additional information access the URL or contact Michael Parker, Access Ingenuity, LLC.
3635 Montgomery Drive,
Santa Rosa, CA 95405.
Office Tel: 877 579 4380
Fax: 707 579 4273
Email: access@accessingenuity.com.
* according to the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992
Super Shakers
Lite N Serv Technologies introduces Salt and Pepper shakers with large print and Braille for the blind and visually impaired. This product, Super Shakers, eliminates current inconveniences and improves hygiene.
To learn more about this product or about Lite N Serv Technologies, visit
www.litenserv.com
or email
order@litenserv.com.
BrailleNote / Bookshare Collaboration
Pulse Data and Benetech Announce BrailleNote/Bookshare.org Collaboration
Pulse Data International, the world's leading manufacturer of products designed for people who are blind and visually impaired, and Benetech, the Silicon Valley technology nonprofit formerly known as Arkenstone, today announced a formal collaboration integrating Benetech's Bookshare.org initiative with Pulse Data's BrailleNote family of products. Bookshare.org is a subscription service that provides an extensive online library of accessible digital books to U.S. residents with severe visual, reading and mobility disabilities. The BrailleNote Family is the first suite of Personal Data (Assistants designed for persons who are blind. Since last September, the Windows-CE based KeyWeb Internet Browser has been integrated into the entire range of BrailleNote products.
This collaboration allows BrailleNote users with a Bookshare.org subscription to browse the Bookshare.org website using the BrailleNote, select one of the 12,000 books already available from this site and download it directly to the device. The user can then press enter on the downloaded book, and will be prompted for his Bookshare.org user name and password. The BrailleNote will then seamlessly unpack the downloaded book to the BrailleNote's bookreader to be read off-line. This unpacking scheme preserves the book's copyright protection.
This functionality was debuted by Pulse Data HumanWare CEO Jim Halliday on February 21 at the Vision Loss In the 21st Century Conference, which is sponsored by the American Foundation For the Blind. In his speech, Halliday stated, "Because of this new development by Pulse Data International and the tremendous service Benetech is providing with its Bookshare.org project, BrailleNote users can now have 12,000 Braille books available to them instantly. This is a long time dream come true for Braille readers." Jim Fruchterman, founder and CEO of Benetech, said, "Lowering barriers to book access is the core objective of Bookshare.org. By building access to our collection directly into a device like the BrailleNote, we make it possible for a blind person to carry around their own personal library in Braille!"
"This effort further illustrates Pulse Data's commitment to promote Braille literacy via portable, independent, seamless acquisition of electronic text by persons who are blind," states Larry Lewis, Product Marketing Manager for the BrailleNote. And Bookshare.org Senior Product Manager Alison Lingane notes, "Our goal is to make access to the wide collection of books from Bookshare.org as seamless as possible for our members. This collaboration is a dramatic move to support Braille readers."
In celebration of the partnership, Pulse Data HumanWare is offering a $100 discount to all Bookshare.org subscribers who purchase a BrailleNote or a VoiceNote, while Benetech is offering new Bookshare.org members who purchase a new BrailleNote/VoiceNote or upgrade $25 off the purchase of an annual subscription to Bookshare.org's rapidly growing collection of accessible digital books.