@Freedom Scientific Newsletter

The StreetTalk VIP application with maps of one country on disk is priced at $1,499. A bundle that includes the application, maps on disk, a GPS receiver, and a Bluetooth® card is priced at $1,799. An upgrade for existing StreetTalk 1.0 users will be available for less than half the list price at $699. If you have a PAC Mate 4.1 or earlier, it will need to be upgraded to PAC Mate Omni to work with StreetTalk VIP.

For more information, please visit the StreetTalk VIP Web page.

T&T Consultancy Releases Say-MAGic

Next Generation Technologies, Inc. announces the North American release of T&T Consultancy’s Say-MAGic.

Say-MAGic integrates the functionality of Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Professional in conjunction with MAGic screen magnification software in a powerful way, using a unique voice-activated, keyboard, and/or mouse-driven user interface. With Say-MAGic, users can easily manage display activities like magnification, color schemes and pointer devices, using their preferred input technique, while taking full advantage of the capabilities of speech-to-text and command and control using their voice. Audible information is available the entire time.

"Say-MAGic makes things like the enrollment to NaturallySpeaking easier, while fully integrating the Dragon speech input and the MAGic user interface,” says Edward S. Rosenthal, President and CEO of Next Generation Technologies, Inc., the North American Master Distributor of T&T Consultancy's exciting T-Ware product line. “But it does so much more than that. There are innovative features like audible tones to indicate microphone status, visual highlighting of display text while it is 'spoken' upon request, helpful text selection and manipulation utilities, spelling upon request, and so many others.”

Not only is the product of substantial benefit to low vision computer users but also to those who have challenges decoding text, such as individuals with dyslexia and dysgraphia. For many inexperienced computer users, the ability to learn a simple set of voice commands can make learning to use a computer with assistive technology easier and faster.

Say-MAGic 1.0 has a price of $437.50 US. In North America, it can be ordered along with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional and MAGic directly from NextGeneration Technologies, Inc., www.ngtvoice.com.

Listen to our in-depth interview with Say-MAGic’s author Brian Hartgen in the April FSCast.

From the Technical Support Department:

More JAWS Secrets

A very powerful and yet under-used feature of our JAWS® for Windows screen reading software, going all the way back to version 7, is FS clipboard®. No other screen reader has anything like it. When you combine it with our Virtual Viewer®, it can pack quite a punch as a productivity tool.

1. Select and copy some text from anywhere to the clipboard with CTRL + C. JAWS says, “Text copied to clipboard.”
2. Now copy more text from a different Web page or document to the clipboard with WINDOWS + C. JAWS says, “Appended selection to clipboard.” You can repeat this as often as you like, appending multiple selections to the clipboard.
3. Paste the copied text selections into your document with CTRL + V. All the items will appear one below the other with one blank line between them. This is great for students doing research or anyone who needs to compile and synthesize information from several sources.

Another great feature is the ability to virtualize any window, such as a dialog box and all of its static text. You activate this with INSERT + CTRL + W. This is really useful if you encounter a long error message, for example, and you need a way to select, copy, and paste it. This feature gives you everything in the dialog in the Virtual Viewer where you just navigate and select and copy as you would in a regular document. Here's how you might use this:

1. Once you have a message on your screen that you wish to view in detail, such as an error message, press INSERT + CTRL + W.
2. Press CTRL + A to select and highlight the text of the message and then CTRL + C to copy it to the clipboard.
3. Paste it into a Word document or an e-mail, and send it off to anywhere for quick help.

Starting with JAWS 9, we added the ability to copy content from Web pages, text-based PDF files, and Word documents to the clipboard while still retaining all formatting and links. When you copy and paste content from a Web page into a program like Outlook, this is all done for you automatically. These are just a few of the great reasons why JAWS is the world’s premier screen reader.

Freedom Scientific Webinars a Big Hit

"Since we began our free training Webinars, new for 2009, the response has been overwhelmingly positive," says Dan Clark, senior trainer for the Training Department at Freedom Scientific. Training online is not only accessible, but easy to use. Once you register for one of our Webinars, you also receive a link to the recorded archive of the training after it is completed. This gives you access 24/7 for review or to further sharpen the skills learned during your training.

"Another great benefit of the new online training," says Dan "is that it gives people from around the world the opportunity to participate. For some of them, this is their first introduction to training directly from the source, and it is truly exciting to be able to offer it.

“In just the first four months, we have reached hundreds of our customers not only in the United States but from countries around the world, including Australia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Zaire.”

The free Surf's Up! Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic Webinar series was originally scheduled to be a five-part online training. However, we recently added a sixth lesson. Log on to the e-Learning Page to receive the archives for the entire series of Surf’s Up! lessons.

Glen Gordon to Give Free ARIA Webinar

What is ARIA and why is it important? Why is ARIA necessary? What challenges do ARIA and Web 2.0 sites present to screen reader developers and users?

Join Glenn Gordon, Freedom Scientific’s Chief Technology Officer for a free Webinar called Understanding ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) on Tuesday May 26th from 2 to 3 PM Eastern time to hear how Freedom Scientific is preparing JAWS for this new wave of the future. Learn about ARIA features and how JAWS users will interact with these dynamic Web-based applications.

The Webinar is co-hosted by Dan Clark of Freedom Scientific and Norm Coombs of EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information). Visit the EASI Web site to register.

WYNNing at Australia's University of Ballarat and Beyond

“An initiative of the Disability Liaison Unit of the University of Ballarat over the past two years has been the universal provision of the WYNN™ literacy software to all students across Technical Education, Technology and Further Education and Higher Education Programs,” states Debra Hormann, Coordinator, Disability Liaison University of Ballarat, Australia.

Debra first began using WYNN with students with learning disabilities at the University of Ballarat. She was so impressed with the success her students were having with WYNN that she felt the program should be available to more of the student body as well as to the faculty.

The intuitiveness of WYNN - that it could be used immediately by any student at any literacy level - most influenced the decision of the staff. They concluded, “It is the immediacy of its usability that contributes to an exponential increase in confidence and motivation.”

The staff credits the following WYNN features for the wonderful ease of learning the product

• Bimodal access to written information
• Highlighting of text as it is spoken
• Four color-coded, rotating toolbars – no pull-down menus that would require higher reading skills
• Individual customized settings to suit visual and auditory processing needs

At the university, WYNN Reader is available to all students on the computer network. This means that students with learning disabilities, students with low educational backgrounds, and students from non-English-speaking backgrounds all benefit from the software. The Disabilities Liaison Unit services go beyond the walls of the six campuses of the university. “An initiative of the Disability Liaison Unit of the University of Ballarat over the past two years has been the universal provision of the WYNN software to all students across Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and Higher Education Programs. Included in this plan are student groups in correctional facilities enrolled in prison education programs,” states Debra.

According to the Victorian Corrections Act 1986, every prisoner in Australia is entitled to take part in an educational program. The University of Ballarat TAFE Division is responsible for providing these accredited programs at the HM Prison Ararat. The university understands that in order for most of the students to be successful in completing these courses, their literacy inadequacies need to be addressed. These inadequacies can arise from such problems as learning disabilities, educational disadvantages, environmental situations, and now more often, English as a second language. While knowing the causes of illiteracy are important, Ballarat’s Disability Liaison Unit understands “accurate assessment of cause is of less importance than the response to the functional disadvantage experienced by the individual.”

Over the past two years, the unit has chosen WYNN as the literacy software for the university’s students, including those in HM Prison Ararat. It has been an important initiative to reduce the burden of assessment and to provide significant learning support for students and inmates who may not be classified with any learning disability.

FSCast Highlights MAGic 11 Update, Say-MAGic, and JAWS with Skype 4.0

The April edition of FSCast, Freedom Scientific’s free podcast, features an interview with Dusty Voorhees about the recently-released MAGic update. Then Brian Hartgen talks about Say-MAGic and discusses strategies for using the computer with your voice, rather than your keyboard.

Finally, Doug Lee, who has written powerful JAWS scripts for the Skype™ Internet telephony software, discusses the new features of Skype 4.0, and whether upgrading at this time is right for you.

You won’t want to miss any of these interviews, and you won’t if you subscribe to FSCast. The subscription is free, and delivers notification right to your computer when new FSCasts are released. If you did miss a previous FSCast, catch up by visiting the FSCast archives to download FSCast episodes in MP3.

Reminder: With JAWS now providing excellent support for iTunes, you can subscribe to FSCast through the iTunes Store.

Freedom Scientific's Mission

To develop, manufacture, and market technology-based products that provide equal access to information and computing for those with vision impairments or learning disabilities.