Which Technology?? Help Me Decide!! Free and Low Cost AT for students with low vision and blindness Korey Singleton, ATI Manager George Mason University Assistive Technology Initiative November 13, 2009

 Brief overview of GMU Assistive Technology Initiative  Free & low cost AT tools for students with low vision and blindness  AT solutions for the classroom that go beyond individual needs  Question & Answer

Our mission is to help provide individuals with disabilities an accessible university environment by supporting access to all technological, architectural, and educational resources available at George Mason University through the incorporation of assistive technologies, the provision of technical support, and the development of university-wide strategies for universal access.

1. Informal Assistive Technology Assessments 2. Provision of Accessible Text Services 3. Assistive Technology Labs 4. Technical Assistance for ITU and Library personnel on AT-related issues 5. Section 508/Web Accessibility Training and Support Informal Assistive Technology Assessments Provision of Accessible Text Services Assistive Technology Labs Technical Assistance for ITU and Library personnel on AT-related issues Section 508/Web Accessibility Training and Support

ATI Partnerships -  Office of Disability Services  Equity Office  Information Technology Unit  University Libraries  Kellar Institute  Environmental Health & Safety  Learning Services  OLLI ATI Office of Disability Services Equity Office ITU University Libraries Kellar Institute EHS Learning Services OLLI

Office of Disability Services Accessible Text Services for Students AT Assessments/Training for Students Community Outreach Equity Office Accessible Text Services for Staff/Faculty AT Assessments/Training for Staff/Faculty University-Wide Training Initiatives University Libraries AT Labs Training & Consultation

 Screen Enlarging Software  ZoomText Xtra  Screen Reading Software  JAWS for Windows  Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)  Optical Character Recognition  Scan & Read Pro  WYNN Photos taken from

 Dry Erase Board/Writing pad  TTY/TDD – Text Telephone Device for the Deaf  NexTalk Workplace   Assistive Listening Devices  ComTek Wireless (FM)  Area-wide/Personal   SoundChoice (IR)  DocSoft (captioning)  iCommunicator – Voice recognition software with signing capabilities  

 Document Reading/Writing/Scanning  WYNN Wizard/Reader  Premier Accessibility Suite  Voice Recognition  Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional

 Adapted/Alternative Keyboards & Mice  Microsoft Natural Keyboard  Type Matrix keyboard  Trackball Mice  Large Print keyboards  Voice Recognition  Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional Photos taken from

 Libraries (JC, Arlington (O/L), Mercer)  WYNN Wizard  JAWS for Windows  ZoomText Xtra (  Premier Accessibility Suite (  Dragon Naturally Speaking  CCTV  Helen Kellar Institute AT Lab  Training & Demonstration

 EdWord  Free talking word processor  Allows for multiple users and different levels of learning   Pros  Free  Manual, support  Speech follows keyboard and Mouse cursor  Basic word-processing  Multiple users, Different levels  Cons  No voicing through start-up menu (use Narrator) Photo taken from

 WordTalk  Free text-to-speech plug-in for MS Word  Talking Spell Check with Synonym list/replace function  Hotkeys support (must be enabled from configuration menu)  Word tracking /highlighting   Pros  Free  A lot of support ( , FAQ, documentation)  Works within MS Word 2000, XP, 2003, 2007  Cons  Designed more for individuals with LD as opposed to vision loss Photo taken from

 Desktop Zoom v3.4  Free screen magnification tool  Includes speech access (mouseover)  ySoft/DesktopZoom/Index.html ySoft/DesktopZoom/Index.html  Pros  Free  Speech support  Full access to computer system  Smoothing, some mouse cursor manipulation  Cons  Vista support with Aero turned off Photo taken from

 Virtual Magnifying Glass  Free screen magnification tool  Works with both Mac OS and Windows  Can run off of a thumb drive, provides access at any workstation   Pros  Free  Full access to computer system  No mouse in magnifier view  Cons  No speech  No mouse in magnifier view Photo taken from

 Magnification within Mac OS X  Included in every version of Mac OS X  Compatibility with over 100 different applications  Screen magnification, high-contrast settings  Smoothing settings  Focus feature  Features for users with low vision & blindness (captioning, Braille support, etc)  Pros  Free, comes with Mac OS X  Combine with VoiceOver for Reader/Magnifier solution  Only pay for computer system  Very few keystrokes to learn  Cons  No phone-based technical support/user’s forums/ Photo taken from

 VoiceOver in Mac OS X 10.5  Free screen reading application included in every version of Mac OS X  Compatibility with over 100 different applications  Clear responsive speech, lots of customization  Features for users with low vision & blindness (focus tool, captioning, Braille support)  Pros  Free, comes with Mac OS X  Great deal of customization  Mac Editor fully supported, spell checking/advanced formatting  Cons  Learning curve for Windows screen-reader users  No phone-based technical support Photo taken from

 Thunder Screen Reader  Free screen-reading application  Developed by Sensory Software Ltd.   (available in other languages…German, French, Italian, etc.)  Pros  Free  Help manuals, support  Basic word-processing, , and Internet access  Can run from USB  Cons  Free  intermittent crashes/freezes Photo taken from

 System Access To Go  Free web-resident version of System Access screen reader   Also visit, for standalone and mobile versions of System Access. Standalone and Mobile versions inexpensive compared to Jaws/WindowEyes (~$1200). $399 and $449, respectively.  Offers full access to computer system after installation of plug-in.  Pros  Free  Very responsive  Works on virtually any machine connected to Internet  No longer required to purchase SMAs for paid versions; upgrades and updates are free  Cons  Must be connected to Internet

 Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA)  Open source screen reading application  Developed by two blind developers   Offers full access to computer system – word processing, , Internet access  Pros  Free  Has been around for 3-4 years and it continues to gain support  Online documentation, support  Keyboard help feature  Supports Refreshable Braille displays  Partnership with Mozilla Foundation (Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.)  Can run from USB  Cons  Open-source, which means that it may not always work as intended  Weak support for IE at this time  Slow growth

 WebAnywhere  Non-visual interface to web that requires no software or downloads.  Enables individuals with blindness and low vision to access the web with speech from any workstation with access to Internet.   YouTube video demonstration:  Pros  Free  Easy to use  Works on virtually any machine (PC or Mac) connected to Internet  Cons  Slow  Still an alpha release  Digitized voice synthesizer cannot be changed

 WebbIE Web Browser  Web browser for individuals with blindness and low vision  Comes with the accessible programs, letting you access news and audio on the Internet in a simple and accessible way, allowing you to use podcasts, listen to the radio (all over world) and read RSS and news with your screen reader or other access solution.   Pros  Free  Phone, support  Some low vision support as well  Other apps (accessible radio player, PDF reader, podcast app, etc.)  Cons  Must switch to IE for images Photos taken from

 Firefox Browser – N-Abled Web Accessibility Toolbar Add-on  Mozilla browser toolbar extension  Allows for background color and font size changes  Mouseover text-to-speech can be activated by clicking speaker button   Pros  Free  Designed for individuals with low vision  Cons  Speech announces everything under cursor Photo taken from

 IE/Firefox/Opera/Google Chrome Web Browsers – Zoom feature  Resizes entire web page including images and layout, not just text  Pros  Built into most web browsers  Designed for individuals with low vision  Access at virtually any computer (PC or Mac)  Cons  Some browsers do not have word wrap feature  No speech Photo taken from

 Firefox Browser – GlaZoom Add-on  Accessibility tool allowing the user to right-click on a block of text or image and adapt the full-zoom factor so the whole block/image fits into the browser's viewport  Works by right-clicking on element and selecting “Zoom on Element”  Pros  Free, Add-on to Firefox browser  Designed for individuals with low vision  Depending on set up, access at virtually any Windows computer  Cons  Mozilla Firefox needs to be installed and updated on system

 Firefox Browser v3.0 – MozBraille  It is an extension to transform Mozilla or Firefox to a stand alone accessible Internet browser designed for blind or partially sighted users.  Don’t need a screenreader, offers three displays of output:  A Braille output on a Braille terminal  A text to speech output  A big characters view  MozBraille is a part of the VICKIE project. The main goal of this project is to create an electronic school bag for visually impaired children. So the main output is the Braille and the less important is the text to speech because students have to listen their teacher. Photo taken from

 Firefox Browser v3.0 – MozBraille  Pros  Free  Supports SAPI 5 speech and over 30 Braille displays  “Fake “ Terminal for developers/teachers  Manages caret movements and selection on the Braille view  Cons  Beta version – software cannot be used alone at this time  Promising start, but a long way to go Photo taken from

 Text Cloner Pro  Scanning package designed to work with user’s existing screen reader (i.e. Jaws, WindowEyes, ZT)  Less than $100  oducts/TextClonerPro.html oducts/TextClonerPro.html  Pros  Low cost  Student can use their own screen reader to access scanned documents  Supports multiple languages  Recognizes columns  Works with ADFs  Basic word processing  Output in MS Word or RTF formats  Scan & Read Pro  Less than $150  roducts/ScanReadPro.html roducts/ScanReadPro.html  Pros  Low cost  Low vision features (Zoom, word tracking)  Supports multiple languages  Can create audio files (*.mp3)

 Louis – Mac Braille Translator  Full-featured Braille translator for Apple Macintosh  Full Mac GUI with VoiceOver.  Full online and local documentation.documentation.  Translation of MS Word, text, XML, HTML DocBook, DAISY/NIMAS, NewsML, rtf.  Ability to learn new XML based formats.  Support for a wide range of languages.  Support for MathML to nemeth translation.   Pros  Free  Online support  Compatible with VoiceOver

 HTML2Braille Online  Converts English web pages to English Grade 2 Braille  User inserts URL, name of file, 2 checkboxes (show links as footnotes, no output for images without alt tags)  File is saved as.brl  Pros  Free service  Also a html2Braille Mac OSX version, raille/html2braille.php raille/html2braille.php Photo taken from

 Perky Duck  Simple Braille Editor  Free  roducts.asp#freeware roducts.asp#freeware  Pros  Free  Easy to use. Good building block application for Duxbury.  QuickTac  Simple Braille Graphics software  products.asp#freeware products.asp#freeware  Pros  Free  Can create simple shapes and designs  Images can be imported into Dux 10.7 and MegaDots

 WinBraille  WinBraille translates, formats and automatically adjusts your text for your braille embosser. Supports contracted and uncontracted braille in more than 40 languages.  Free to use with Index Braille Embosser  Handles many file types - MS Office, PDF,  Also supports structured documents in WinBraille Pro; tables, adjustable line spacing, hyphenation, Braille Mathematics using MS Equation Editor, Header/Footer, Bullet lists, Tactile graphics 0.5 mm resolution (coming in May 2009)  Pros  Free  User-friendly  iBraille, Mac version  Cons  Costly, if you do not have an Index Embosser  Structured document support (Pro version) Photo taken from

 MS “Save as DAISY” Plug-In (Authoring Tool)  Plug-in allows the user to create DAISY DTBooks from MS Word documents. You can select to generate the DAISY XML for further processing, or you can generate a fully conforming DAISY file set with full navigation and full text synchronized with audio.  The audio is generated by the default text-to-speech (TTS) engine on your Windows computer.  Pros  Free  Allows the user to create their own DAISY DTBook out of one document or several documents  Very easy to use  Can manage abbreviations/acronyms  Cons  Confusing, creates DAISY v2.02 file and a v3.0 file  Not much information on which players to use Photo taken from

 “AMIS” DAISY Player  ‘AMIS’ stands for Adaptive Multimedia Information System  AMIS is a software program that you can use to read DAISY books. It is self- voicing, meaning that no specialized screen-reading software is needed in order for it to be used by visually impaired people.  AMIS is open source software and is provided free of charge.   Pros  Works with Jaws, WindowEyes, Hal and Supernova screen readers  Supports several formats: DAISY 2.02, DAISY/NISO 2005, Full text + full audio, Audio + NCX, Text-only  Several languages (Chinese, French, Norwegian, etc.)  Actively supported (latest update is May 2009)  Easy to use  Bookmarking capability  High Contrast settings

 Premier Accessibility Suite  Offer free education grants. Free for first year, maintenance costs each additional year.  Collection of reading and writing tools  E-text reader (low vision)  Talking Calculator  Talking Dictionary  Talking Word Processor  Scan & Read Pro  Etc….   Premier AT Home  Student has access to same tools at home as at school  Cost: $ for entire suite if purchased individually Photo taken from

 Zoom-Twix (low vision)  Portable CCTV/Scanning solution  Software has its own speech synthesizer  Scans multiple languages  Purchase one or two units for a school system and several software licenses (5-10). Use the device to quickly scan textbooks, testing materials, etc to provide to students in text, LP, electronic formats  Distance camera allows students to follow along on whiteboard, take snapshots of whiteboard and save them to computer for review later   Pros  Weighs 1 lb, easy to transport  Base is 8.5” x 11”  Cons  Cost: $2500-$2800 per unit + software licenses Photo taken from

 LiveScribe Pulse Pen  Smartpen records and links audio to what you write, so you never miss a word during lectures or meetings.  Pen can be docked to computer and notes downloaded to computer (“LiveScribe Desktop”)   MyScript software converts handwritten notes into digital text  Possible solution for note-takers…audio and digital notes could be made available to students with low vision and blindness  Pros  1GB and 2 GB models  Paper can now be printed on LaserJet printers  Cost: $150 (1GB), $200 (2GB)  Cons  Not for everyone, will only benefit certain students  Using note-takers still only solution for blind students with this solution Photo taken from

 Zoom-Twix CCTV  Premier Accessibility Suite &  Premier free education grant  Livescribe Pulse Pen  Duxbury Systems freeware  html2Braille online  Louis Mac Braille Translator  Text Cloner Pro  Scan & Read Pro  Firefox Browser Full Page Zoom  Firefox Browser – N-Abled Web Accessibility Toolbar  WebbIE browser  WebAnywhere  Non Visual Desktop Access  VoiceOver for Mac OSX  System Access To Go  Thunder Screenreader  Desktop Zoom  iZoom screen magnification  EdWord software  Glazoom  AMIS DAISY Player  Microsoft “Save As DAISY” plug-in.

Korey Singleton Assistive Technology Initiative (ATI) Manager George Mason University Office Phone: Web: