June 25, 2009, 09:19:06 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

With Nuance TALKS and ZOOMS, blind and visually impaired users are able to take advantage of the many features found on todays popular mobile phones, including contact directories, caller ID, text messaging, help files, access to Web browsers, and other screen content. And TALKS and ZOOMS 4.0 enables consumers to choose the TTS software they want to use to power all updated features, including Nuance trusted Vocalizer Mobile and ETI-Eloquence.

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Apple® introduced the new iPhone™ 3G S with VoiceOver Screen Reader and Full Screen Magnifie

June 09, 2009, 08:34:17 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

iPhone 3G S provides new accessibility features including VoiceOver, a screen reader that speaks what appears on the iPhone 3G S display, enabling visually impaired users to make calls, read email, browse web pages, play music and run applications. The new universal Zoom function magnifies the entire screen, and the White on Black feature reverses the colors on screen to provide higher contrast for people with low vision. iPhone 3G S also supports Mono Audio which combines left and right audio channels so that they can be heard in both earbuds for those with hearing loss in one ear.

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Dolphin Released Version 11 of Supernova, Hal, Lunarplus and Lunar, but does not support new technology

May 19, 2009, 09:06:16 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Dolphin has released version 11 of their screen reader and screen magnifier software. In this release support for Windows 7 public beta has been added and the control panel is redesigned. What we miss in this new release, is support for new technology!

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Vibrating touchscreens allow Braille reading

April 08, 2009, 04:35:18 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Touchscreen handsets may be the talk of the town, but they are useless to the visually impaired. Software developed by Jussi Rantala and his colleagues at the University of Tampere in Finland attempts to address that by bringing Braille to touch-enabled mobile devices.

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Google shows off eyes-free touchscreen dialing

April 05, 2009, 08:14:41 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

virtually impossible for somebody who is vision-impaired to use the phone. Other touchscreen smart phones suffer from the same problem, so a few smartypants engineers at Google have come up with a clever way of dealing with the problem.

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Reading Rights Coalition Urges Authors to Allow Everyone Access to E-books

April 01, 2009, 03:42:53 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

The Reading Rights Coalition, which represents people who cannot read print, will protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 outside the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m. The coalition includes the blind, people with dyslexia, people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 245,000 books.

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Issist Releases Beta version of iZoom 3.1

March 05, 2009, 01:34:51 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Issist Assistive Technologies, manufacturer of the worlds most portable professional screen magnifier and reader is pleased to announce the availability of iZoom 3.1 Beta. After a tremendous response to iZoom 3.0 in January at ATIA 2009, iZoom now includes high quality IVONA male and female voices.

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Serotek Announces an End to Software Maintenance Agreements Industry Standard SMAs No Longer Standard

January 29, 2009, 02:36:49 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Serotek Corporation, the leading provider of internet and digital information accessibility software and services, today announced that it will no longer require a fee to upgrade or maintain any software in its product line. Software companies traditional have charged fees under a contract, commonly known as a Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA), to upgrade to newer versions of their software packages. Serotek will continue to provide regular upgrades and software improvements but will offer them free of charge to all Serotek customers.

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Windows 7 Will Include Full-Screen Magnifier

January 08, 2009, 08:32:57 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Michael Bernstein, is a Microsoft development lead on the User Interface Platform team where he focuses on accessibility.
In a Blog on MSDN he announced, that Windows 7 includes a screen magnifier supporting full-screen and lens mode.

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DesktopZoom 3.2 Free Screen Magnifier Released

January 02, 2009, 11:05:09 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

LittleGems.Admin has released version DesktopZoom 3.2.
DesktopZoom is the most popular free screen magnifier for Windows XP and Windows 200. It also seems to work on Windows Vista with Aero disabled.

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Issist Assistive Technologies Announced the Availability of iZoom 3.0 Screen Magnifier and Reader

December 21, 2008, 06:56:17 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

iZoom 3.0 represents a leap in screen magnification technology with support for 64 bit operating systems, crystal clear font smoothing at all zoom levels, SmartAlign and much more! iZoom 3.0 raises the bar in screen magnification technology, offering complete portability, ease of use and revolutionary new features not found in any other magnifier.

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Evaluation of VoiceOver, the Macintosh Screen Reader by AccessWorld

December 17, 2008, 08:28:22 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

In early 2005, Apple introduced VoiceOver, a screen reader that is built into the Macintosh operating system. The latest release of this accessibility tool, included with Apples Mac OS X 10.5, nicknamed Leopard, features refreshable braille support, vastly improved navigation commands, and an extensive help system.

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Dolphin Computer Access Release Hindi Supernova, the Worlds First and Only Combined Hindi Screen Reader and Screen Magnifier

December 16, 2008, 02:43:23 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Dolphin Computer Access today announced the release of the Worlds first and only combined Hindi screen reader and screen magnifier, with integrated Braille display support. The Hindi edition of Supernova has been developed by Dolphin Computer Access in partnership with Mumbai based disability experts BarrierBreak International. It is immediately available on portable USB pen edition, on CD, or to download as a 30-day trial.

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W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web

December 12, 2008, 08:35:52 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 improve upon W3Cs groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content.

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Optelec Announces Innovated Near and Distance Low Vision Solution with the FarView

November 28, 2008, 04:48:14 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Optelec announced the release of FarView, a portable and powerful magnification solution that redefines how low vision users are able to access, store, review and share information.

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Serotek releases System Access 3.0

November 27, 2008, 03:57:49 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Serotek released the first full-featured screen access product with support for 64-bit operating systems. This support is not only an essential breakthrough for IT professionals working in 64-bit environments in the course of their employment, but for the average consumer as well. Blind individuals can now walk in to any of the increasing number of retail stores who stock their shelves exclusively with machines running 64-bit operating systems, and purchase a new computer without wondering whether or not the machine will be accessible when they take it out of the box. From the smallest Netbook to the most powerful server, System Access delivers fast, reliable, and easy to use accessibility.

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Dolphin Computer Access Announce Their Acquisition of Software Express Distribution

November 16, 2008, 11:55:06 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Dolphin Computer Access Limited, the UK software company responsible for delivering independence to vision and print impaired people, announced its acquisition of Software Express Distribution Limited.

Full Story | | | 1142 views

Dolphin Computer Access Launch the Dolphin Scripting Zone www.YourDolphin.com/Scripts

November 13, 2008, 09:21:39 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Dolphin Computer Access announced the official launch of the Dolphin Scripting Zone at www.YourDolphin.com/Scripts. This dedicated mini-site is now available and open to all Supernova, Hal, Lunar and LunarPlus users, 30-day demo customers and budding script writers. Visitors can download and rate a free script, find a script writer, contribute to the scripting forum or learn more about Dolphin Scripting.

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Google Starts Accessible View Experiment

November 06, 2008, 08:20:41 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Google has started an experiment to improve access to Google search by visually impaired. By only using the keyboard you can navigate through search results. Google also added a magnification lens that highlights the users selected search result.

Full Story | | | 1379 views

Freedom Scientific Releases JAWS® 10

November 04, 2008, 02:53:56 AM by Peter Verhoeven in .

Freedom Scientific today announced the English release of JAWS version 10, the worlds leading screen reader for visually impaired computer users. This new release includes new features that will expand employment, training, and educational opportunities for users at all levels. These new features include AutoForms Mode, JAWS Tandem, and RealSpeak™ Direct Solo.

Full Story | | | 1168 views

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