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July 1-7, 2006

National Federation of the Blind National Convention

Dallas, TX

Contact: National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; phone: 410-659-9314; e-mail: <nfb@nfb.org>; web site: <www.nfb.org/convent/conven06.htm>.

July 5-7, 2006

27th Annual National Educational Computing Conference

San Diego, CA

Contact: International Society for Technology in Education, 480 Charnelton Street, Eugene, OR 97401; phone: 800-336-5191 or 541-346-3537; e-mail: <neccinfo@iste.org>; web site: <www.center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2006>.

July 8-15, 2006

American Council of the Blind National Convention

Jacksonville, FL

Contact: American Council of the Blind; phone: 202-467-5081; e-mail: <info@acb.org>; web site: <www.acb.org/convention/info2006.html>.

July 14‐22, 2006

2006 National Federation of the Blind Science Academy: Rocket On!

Baltimore, MD

The week-long camp for high school students who are blind focuses on physics, electronics, rocketry, and teamwork.

Contact: Mary Jo Thorpe, National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; phone: 410‐659‐9314, extension 2407; e‐mail: <mthorpe@nfb.org>; web site: <www.nfb.org/nfbji/science_academy.htm>.

July 18-22, 2006

2006 Association on Higher Education and Disability Conference

San Diego, CA

Contact: Association on Higher Education and Disability, P.O. Box 540666, Waltham, MA 02454; phone: 781-788-0003; e-mail: <neal@ahead.org>; web site: <www.ahead.org>.

July 29‐August 5, 2006

2006 National Federation of the Blind Science Academy: Circle of Life

Baltimore, MD

The week-long camp for middle school students who are blind focuses on the earth and life sciences.

Contact: Mary Jo Thorpe, National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; phone: 410‐659‐9314, extension 2407; e‐mail: <mthorpe@nfb.org>; web site: <www.nfb.org/nfbji/science_academy.htm>.

August 2-4, 2006

22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning

Madison, WI

Contact: Kimary Peterson, conference manager, Pyle Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department 111, 702 Langdon Street, Madison, WI 53706; phone: 608-265-4159; e-mail: <distel@education.wisc.edu>; web site: <www.uwex.edu/disted/conference>.

September 23‐28, 2006

Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students

Huntsville, AL

Contact: Dan Oates, coordinator, Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students, West Virginia School for the Blind, P.O. Box 1034, Romney, WV 26757; phone: 304‐822‐4883; e‐mail: <scivis@atlanticbb.net>; web site: <www.tsbvi.edu/space/>.

October 20-21, 2006

24th Annual Closing the Gap Conference: Computer Technology in Special Education and Rehabilitation

Minneapolis, MN

Contact: Closing the Gap, P.O. Box 68, 526 Main Street, Henderson, MN 56044; phone: 507‐248‐3294; e‐mail: <info@closingthegap.com>; web site: <www.closingthegap.com>.

November 7-10, 2006

Ninth Annual Accessing Higher Ground: Assistive Technology and Accessible Media in Higher Education

Boulder, CO

Contact: Disability Services, University of Colorado, Willard Administrative Center 322, 107 CU-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309; phone: 303‐492‐8671; e-mail: <dsinfo@spot.colorado.edu>; web site: <www.colorado.edu/ATconference>.

November 8-11, 2006

TASH (The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps) Annual Conference

Baltimore, MD

Contact: TASH, 29 West Susquehanna Avenue, Suite 210, Baltimore, MD 21204; phone: 410‐828‐8274; e‐mail: <dmarsh@tash.org>; web site: <www.tash.org>.

March 26-30, 2007

18th International Conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education

San Antonio, TX

Contact: Conference Services, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, P.O. Box 3728, Norfolk, VA 23514; phone: 757‐623‐7588; e‐mail: <conf@aace.org>; web site: <http://site.aace.org/conf>.

Product Ratings

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Product Features

Feature

Humalog

InDuo

Innovo

Novolin InnoLet

Novolog FlexPen

Novopen 3

Novopen Junior

OptiClik

Type of pen (disposable or reusable)

Disposable

Reusable

Reusable

Disposable

Disposable

Reusable

Reusable

Reusable

Type of insulin available

Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N

Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30

Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo)

Novolin N, Novolin 70/30, Novolin R

Novolog, Novolog Mix 70/30, Levemir

Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo)

Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo)

Lantis, Apidra

Cost of pen

$30.03

$99.00

$57.95

$13.60

$31.96

$24.99

$37.49

No charge

Cost of cartridges (for reusable pens)

$17.96

$17.96

$17.96

$17.96

$31.73

Dimensions (inches)

6.3 long by 0.9 diameter

4.9 by 2.1 by 1.2

4.7 by 1.6 by 0.8

4.5 by 2.2 by 1.1

6.2 by 0.6

6.4 by 0.6

6.4 by 0.6

6.8 by 0.8

Weight with full cartridge (ounces)

1.1

4.7

2.7

1.6

0.9

2.3

2.3

2.1

Electronic display screen

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

Yes

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Product Features

Feature

Kurzweil 1000

Open Book

Recognition engines

Fine Reader, ScanSoft

Fine Reader, Scan Soft

Speech Engines

VoiceText from NioSpeech, IBM ViaVoice

IBM ViaVoice

Scanners Supported

Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models)

Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models)

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Product Features

Feature: Humalog; InDuo; Innovo; Novolin InnoLet; Novolog FlexPen; Novopen 3; Novopen Junior; OptiClik

Type of pen (disposable or reusable); Humalog: Disposable; InDuo: Reusable; Innovo: Reusable; Novolin InnoLet: Disposable; Novolog FlexPen: Disposable; Novopen 3: Reusable; Novopen Junior: Reusable; OptiClik: Reusable.

Type of insulin available; Humalog: Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N; InDuo: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30; Innovo: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo); Novolin InnoLet: Novolin N, Novolin 70/30, Novolin R; Novolog Flexpen: Novolog, Novolog Mix 70/30, Levemir; Novopen 3: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo); Novopen Jr: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo); Opticlik: Lantis, Apidra.

Cost of pen; Humalog: $30.03; InDuo: $99.00; Innovo: $57.95; Novolin InnoLet: $13.60; Novolog FlexPen: $31.96; Novopen 3: $24.99; Novopen Junior: $37.49; OptiClik: No charge.

Cost of cartridges (for reusable pens); InDuo: $17.96; Innovo: $17.96; Novopen 3: $17.96; Novopen Junior: $17.96; OptiClik: $31.73.

Dimensions (inches); Humalog: 6.3 long by 0.9 diameter; InDuo: 4.9 by 2.1 by 1.2; Innovo: 4.7 by 1.6 by 0.8; Novolin InnoLet: 4.5 by 2.2 by 1.1; Novolog FlexPen: 6.2 by 0.6; Novopen 3: 6.4 by 0.6; Novopen Junior: 6.4 by 0.6; OptiClik: 6.8 by 0.8.

Weight with full cartridge (ounces); Humalog: 1.1; InDuo: 4.7; Innovo: 2.7; Novolin InnoLet: 1.6; Novolog FlexPen: 0.9; Novopen 3: 2.3; Novopen Junior: 2.3; OptiClik: 2.1.

Electronic display screen; Humalog: No; InDuo: Yes; Innovo: Yes; Novolin InnoLet: No; Novolog FlexPen: No; Novopen 3: No; Novopen Junior: No; OptiClik: Yes.

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Product Ratings

Feature: Playaway

Design; 4.5.

Sound quality; 4.5.

Keyboard layout; 4.5.

Ease of operation; 3.5.

Accessibility; 3.5.

Documentation; 3.0.

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Product Features

Feature: Kurzweil 1000; Open Book

Recognition engines; Kurzweil 1000: Fine Reader, ScanSoft; OpenBook: Fine Reader, Scan Soft.

Speech Engines; Kurzweil 1000: VoiceText from NioSpeech, IBM ViaVoice; OpenBook: IBM ViaVoice.

Scanners Supported; Kurzweil 1000: Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models); OpenBook: Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models).

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In June, Amazon.com launched a store for people with visual impairments. The site says that the store will offer "a diverse selection of products for those with vision difficulties, as well as for those who care for or care about them." Current items include books in large print, braille and audio, as well as some talking products and other household products, mainly from the MaxiAids catalog.

Books about blindness include several titles published by the American Foundation for the Blind. Also listed, however, are such questionable titles as Yoga For Your Eyes and The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses. This store will help make people aware of what is out there for people who are experiencing vision loss. You can visit the store at <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/14264821/104-3999956-5349515>.

In this issue, Darren Burton and Mark Uslan of AFB Tech evaluate the accessibility of insulin pens, devices that offer diabetics a delivery method that is easier, less painful, and more discreet than drawing doses from a vial using a needle and syringe. They are small, lightweight plastic handheld devices with prefilled insulin cartridges inside, and they use small microfine needles that have been shown to cause significantly less pain than conventional syringe needles. Find out how accessible these devices are for people who are blind or have low vision.

Lee Huffman of AFB TECH evaluates the MLS Student Addition from Low Vision International, a laptop-compatible CCTV. This is the second article in a series evaluating CCTVs that are compatible with laptops, weigh less than 5 pounds, have a rotating camera that allows for near and distance viewing, and have the ability to take a "picture" of an image and save it to the computer. Learn what this product has to offer.

Brad Hodges of AFB TECH evaluates Kurzweil 1000 and OpenBook, the two leading optical character recognition (OCR) systems for people who are blind. Each product was tested to determine how well it recognizes the text on a variety of printed pages, its ability to follow the formatting of printed material, and how well it handles file conversion—reading untagged PDF documents, for example. Read about how these products compare.

Janet Ingber, author and music therapist, evaluates Henter Math's Virtual Pencil, a program that allows people who are blind to solve math problems independently. Virtual Pencil offers two math programs: VP Arithmetic and VP Algebra. VP Arithmetic covers such operations as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. VP Algebra allows you to solve both simple and complicated problems and equations. Check out this handy software.

Janet Ingber also reviews music download sites. These are the sites to go to if you want to purchase and download all types of music legally. The sites include eMusic, RealPlayer, Rhapsody, Napster, Wal-Mart, and iTunes. None of these sites is a model of accessibility, but with some persistence, you can buy and play the music of your choice.

Darren Burton and Lee Huffman present the third in a three-part series investigating the accessibility of today's multifunctional copy machines. This article focuses on accessibility solutions from Canon and Xerox that have been specifically designed to make their large copy machines more accessible and usable for people who are blind or have low vision. Find out how well these accessibility solutions work.

Deborah Kendrick describes Playaway, a combination audio book and player in one. It includes simple controls and costs about the same as an audio book on CD or cassette. Find out how accessible this interesting new product is.

Anthony Candela, Deputy Director, Specialized Services Division of the California Department of Rehabilitation, presents the first in a series of articles chronicling the history of assistive technology. He interviewed more than 20 major players—inventors, company executives, and trainers—spending hours with each one. Read about how these people's innovations led to the assistive technology we use today.

Jay Leventhal
Editor in Chief

Product Ratings

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Product Ratings

Feature: MLS Student Addition

Documentation (Preliminary): 3.0.

Auto focus: 5.0.

Portability: 5.0.

Performance when moving text under the camera: 4.0.

Image capture: 4.5.

Software installation: 4.5.

Ease of setup: 5.0.

Video image adjustment: 4.0.

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Product Ratings

Feature: Canon Voice Guidance; Xerox Copier Assistant

Voice quality: Canon Voice Guidance: 4; Xerox Copier Assistant: 3.

Intuitive easy-to-learn interface: Canon Voice Guidance: 4.5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 5.

Keys easy to identify by touch: Canon Voice Guidance: 5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 5.

Software stability: Canon Voice Guidance: 4.5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 3.5.

Accessibility of electronic documentation: Canon Voice Guidance: 4.5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 4.5.

Braille quality: Canon Voice Guidance: 4; Xerox Copier Assistant: 4.5.

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Product Ratings

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Product Ratings

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Product Features

Feature

Canon Voice Guidance

Xerox Copier Assistant

Accessible print and basic copy features

Yes

Yes

Accessible fax, scan, and e-mail features

No

No

Accessible interface for administrative tasks

Yes

Yes

Price

$750

$475

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Product Features

Feature

MLS Student Addition

Auto focus

Yes

Semicolors

Yes

Inverse mode

Yes

External light

No

Desktop viewing

Yes

Distance viewing

Yes

Self-viewing

Yes

Magnification range

1.2x to 55x (on a 15-inch monitor)

Image capture

Yes

Internal battery

No

USB 2 connections needed

One

Remote control

Yes (when connected to a VGA monitor or a television set)

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Product Features

Features: Canon Voice Guidance; Xerox Copier Assistant

Accessible print and basic copy features: Canon Voice Guidance: Yes; Xerox Copier Assistant: Yes.

Accessible fax, scan, and e-mail features: Canon Voice Guidance: No; Xerox Copier Assistant: No.

Accessible interface for administrative tasks: Canon Voice Guidance: Yes; Xerox Copier Assistant: Yes.

Price: Canon Voice Guidance: $750; Xerox Copier Assistant: $475.

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Product Features

Feature: MLS Student Addition

Auto focus: Yes.

Semicolors: Yes.

Inverse mode: Yes.

External light: No.

Desktop viewing: Yes.

Distance viewing: Yes.

Self-viewing: Yes.

Magnification range: 1.2x to 55x (on a 15-inch monitor).

Image capture: Yes.

Internal battery: No.

USB 2 connections needed: One.

Remote control: Yes (when connected to a VGA monitor or a television set).

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More on eBooks

I really enjoyed Lynn Zelvin's article on accessing commercial eBooks. I have some additional information. Another major source of accessible eBooks is Audible, at www.audible.com.

Palm documents that are not secure can be converted to text via a free program called Mini-reader, available at <www.panix.com/~kestrell/minireader.exe>. Many books sold at Fictionwise are in this format.

Bookshare.org offers all its books in DAISY format as well as BRF.

Finally, there is more information about accessing eBooks in my book, Finding eBooks on the Internet, available online at <www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/EBOOK.html>, and on the Blind Bookworm page at <www.panix.com/~kestrell/ebooks.html>.

Anna Dresner

National Braille Press

Product Ratings

Feature: Humalog; InDuo; Innovo; Novolin InnoLet; Novolog FlexPen; Novopen 3; Novopen Junior; OptiClik

Tactile/auditory feedback; Humalog: 4.5; InDuo: 4.0; Innovo: 4.0; Novolin InnoLet: 3.5; Novolog FlexPen: 4.5; Novopen 3: 3.5; Novopen Junior: 3.5; OptiClik: 4.0.

Ease of replacing needles; Humalog: 5.0; InDuo: 5.0; Innovo: 5.0; Novolin InnoLet: 5.0; Novolog FlexPen: 5.0; Novopen 3: 5.0; Novopen Junior: 5.0; OptiClik: 5.0.

Ease of replacing cartridges; Humalog: N.A.; InDuo: 4.0; Innovo: 4.0; Novolin InnoLet: N.A.; Novolog FlexPen: N.A.; Novopen 3: 3.5; Novopen Junior: 3.5; OptiClik: 4.0.

Overall ease of use: Humalog: 3.5; InDuo: 2.5; Innovo: 2.5; Novolin InnoLet: 3.0; Novolog FlexPen: 3.5; Novopen 3: 2.0; Novopen Junior: 2.0; OptiClik: 2.0.

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Product Ratings

Feature: OpenBook; Kurzweil 1000

Documentation: OpenBook: 4; Kurzweil 1000: 5.

Scanning speed: OpenBook: 5; Kurzweil 1000: 5.

Recognition speed: OpenBook: 5; Kurzweil 1000: 4.

Simple scanning: OpenBook: 5; Kurzweil 1000: 4.

Complex scanning: OpenBook: 4; Kurzweil 1000: 5.

Overall rating: OpenBook: 4; Kurzweil 1000: 5.

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New Partnership to Distribute Mobile Speak Pocket and Mobile Magnifier

Code Factory of Barcelona, Spain, has announced that HumanWare will now be the primary distributor for Code Factory's Mobile Speak Pocket and Mobile Magnifier products. These products provide access for consumers who are blind or visually impaired to off-the-shelf technology such as PDAs and mobile telephones. With Mobile Speak Pocket and Mobile Magnifier, a person who is blind or visually impaired can purchase an off-the-shelf PDA and have speech or magnification access to such applications as Pocket Word, Pocket Outlook, Pocket Excel, Pocket Messenger, the Audible Player, Pocket Skype and more.

Jonathan Mosen, who will serve as HumanWare's product marketing manager for Mobile Speak Pocket, said in a recent press release that the company will be "bundling Mobile Speak Pocket with a range of hardware, including some exciting new braille technology."

Mosen further stated that the new partnership will be particularly beneficial to blind customers of cellular networks using the CDMA standard. While text-to-speech access has been available in some mobile phone environments for some time, it will now be extended to customers of such services as Sprint, Verizon, or Telecom New Zealand. HumanWare promises to continue distributing and developing all its existing line of products. For further information, visit <www.codefactory.es> or <www.humanware.com>.

Braille, Ink, and Graphics from One Machine

ViewPlus Technologies of Corvallis, Oregon, has recently introduced the Emprint printer, which combines the embossing of braille and an HP inkjet printer in one machine. Microsoft Office files can be produced with braille and print on the same page or separately. Graphics can be produced as tactile graphics incorporating colored ink, thus providing both tactile and visual information to a student or professional with a visual or learning disability. When producing both braille and print text on one page, the print can be placed either above or beside the corresponding braille characters. The Emprint can use any weight paper, from standard office copying paper to heavier paper traditionally used for braille embossing. The unit comes with braille translation software, and sells for $5,995. For further information, visit the ViewPlus web site at: <www.ViewPlus.com> or send an e-mail to <info@ViewPlus.com>.

WYNN 5 Software Released

The Learning Systems Group of Freedom Scientific has released WYNN 5, an enhancement to the popular text-enhancing software for students with learning and other print disabilities. WYNN 5 assists students with reading Internet content and gives them study tools to help them learn in a Web-based environment. WYNN 5 brings all of the support tools of a literacy program into the Internet environment. Students can have text read aloud to them, can access dictionary and thesaurus help, use spell checking, highlight text as desired, and manage notes. A patented new feature called WebMasking allows the student to highlight text by word, line, or sentence, while blocking out all advertisements and distracting material.

The program now offers the option of highlighting several areas of text and incorporating all into a single document with one mouse click. E-mail and online forms can be spoken as well as highlighted. To learn more about WYNN 5, visit <www.freedomscientific.com>.

Dolphin Releases Version 7.01

Dolphin Computer Access has announced the release of version 7.01 of their access software for screen readers and screen magnifiers, which promises to offer advanced new features for the program, providing access through braille, speech, or screen magnification. The company's Supernova, Hal, Lunar, and LunarPlus products all incorporate the new features.

Hot keys used with other screen readers have been added, so that a new Dolphin user can explore the program using familiar commands. Version 7.01 is available for use on desktops, laptops, networks, or Citrix networks. Also available is the Dolphin Pen, a USB device that provides customers with a portable tool for accessing computers anywhere. For further information, visit the Dolphin web site at <www.dolphinuk.co.uk>.

New Listserv for Blind Electronics Enthusiasts

A new listserv has been launched for the purpose of sharing information among blind users of various off-the-shelf devices. Users are invited to report on the accessibility—or lack thereof —of such devices as cell phones, cordless phones, MP3 players, DVD players and other stereo components, satellite radios, and home appliances such as microwave ovens, dishwashers, and clothes dryers. To join the list, visit <www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/electronics-talk> or send e-mail to <electronics-talk-request@nfbnet.org> and put the word "subscribe" in the subject line.

July 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of the first large public demonstration of optical character recognition (OCR) technology in front of a large group of people who were blind. Since Ray Kurzweil's first demonstration of his then-revolutionary system, the development of products that address the complexity of converting the printed word to meaningful speech has continued uninterrupted. As we enter the fourth decade of this technology, it is useful to understand exactly what products are available and how they compare with one another.

This article focuses primarily on the two most popular packages that are intended for and marketed to people who are blind or have low vision in the United States: Kurzweil 1000, version 10, and OpenBook, version 7.02. A sidebar on OCR Alternatives considers some off-the-shelf options.

How We Tested

For this evaluation, we at the AFB TECH product evaluation lab compared several important characteristics of these products. First, how well do they recognize the text on a variety of printed pages. Once text is recognized, how do these products compare in their ability to follow the formatting of printed material. We also tested several examples of file conversion. This is an increasingly important function of OCR systems, since, in many instances, it is the only way to read inaccessible electronic files, such as untagged PDF documents. We also evaluated the installation of each product and share some thoughts on customer support.

Hardware Requirements

Since these OCR systems are intended to be installed on a personal computer, the user must provide several important hardware components. OCR technology can place much higher demands on a computer's processor than some common applications, such as word processors and web browsers. Each company has established minimum specifications for computers that will support their respective products. It is essential to understand these requirements before you purchase and install this technology. In our opinion, the quality of the experience you will have will be greatly enhanced by using a computer that is substantially more powerful than the minimum that is suggested by the software vendor.

In addition to the computer, a scanner is required to capture the text page for processing by the OCR program. As with computer specifications, specific models of scanners are recommended by the OCR vendors. Because scanner technology can change suddenly, do not assume that the favorite brand of yesterday is still a good bet today, and, conversely, brands that were once off-limits may now be recommended.

Many seasoned OCR users may recall with fondness scanners of yesteryear. Several of these scanners allowed the placement of a book along the front edge of the scanner, which eliminated the need to disassemble the book to ensure a flat placement of the page on the glass. A new book-edge scanner from Plusteck, Optic Book 3600, is now available. Several technical support professionals have told us that it can provide scans in five seconds, once it is configured and installed properly. Several important steps must be followed to ensure smooth scanning, so if the Plusteck is of interest, we strongly suggest that you contact your vendor before you purchase or install it.

The final consideration that will influence your experience will be the configuration of the OCR program as the only assistive technology on the system or its inclusion as part of a larger group of assistive technology programs. Both Kurzweil and OpenBook products can operate alone—providing their own speech output—or with a screen reader.

Installation

Before installing the OCR program, you will want to ensure that your PC is ready for the software and that your scanner is properly installed and ready. Scanners typically use the conventional installation "wizard," which you may already be familiar with from other Windows installations. We understand that in some instances problems can result from installing the software and connecting the scanner in the wrong order. Check your scanner's installation instructions carefully. Some scanners also include their own software package, which may include utilities that are intended for use with Windows. If you do not wish to install these utilities, consulting with your vendor's technical support staff may be prudent.

We believe that individuals with even basic computer experience should be able to install these programs independently. Both products require that you enter a key for authorizing the product. It is a good idea to be sure that the key is available in a format that you can read easily. Kurzweil 1000 provides several registration options, including by telephone, conventional mail, or online. The product number is provided in braille and is also scanable. OpenBook provides product registration numbers in print and braille. Products purchased directly from Freedom Scientific are already registered when you receive them, according to a Freedom Scientific sales representative.

Kurzweil 1000

Kurzweil 1000, version 10, is priced at $995. The package includes the product CDs and several additional CDs that contain a variety of classic literature. Full braille documentation is available upon request, including the product guide and the installation and quick reference guides. A cassette package of the documentation is also included, along with a print directory of the included classic literature.

Installation

Installing Kurzweil is a smooth operation that begins automatically when you place the CD in the computer. Whether or not you are using a screen-access program, the voice guidance provided by the installer is excellent.

Kurzweil 1000 is a large program, and the installation may feel longer than that of other programs. One important note: IBM ViaVoice is a component of the Kurzweil package. Many individuals have reported that this component can conflict with the voice of a screen reader. For this reason, we suggest that you address this potential problem with a Kurzweil customer support representative.

Getting Started

Kurzweil 1000 has a well-developed user interface that is based on many years of development. The beginner can listen to prompts that describe the steps involved in using the product, as well as information on how to learn about the functions of the keys that are required to scan and read a document.

Kurzweil reading products were developed 30 years ago, before the advent of the PC. In the early products, a specialized keypad provided navigation of the products' functions. This approach of a simple keypad layout is still available to the beginner. The advanced user can gain full access to the system with the conventional Windows keyboard and commands.

The Scanning and Reading Experience

After spending only a few minutes with Kurzweil, it becomes apparent that this is a powerful program with an appropriately comprehensive interface that provides a seemingly infinite array of configuration options. When installed and launched for the first time, Kurzweil 1000 will assume that you want to scan, process, and read each page as it is scanned.

Kurzweil 1000 worked reasonably well in its default mode when it was called upon to read simple documents, such as memos, reports, and other text on white paper. It produced highly accurate and understandable results.

Moving to more complex document formats, such as magazines, proved more challenging to the technology. Many factors will affect the accuracy of scanning. Complex or unusual formats; shaded or half-tone backgrounds; and poorly printed material, such as magazines or paperback books, will require your attention. Kurzweil 1000 includes important tools such as a choice of recognition engines, brightness control of the scanner, settings for removal of speckles, and many more options. It is in the use of the tools that Kurzweil 1000 and other programs provide that the differences emerged.

Version 10 of this highly sophisticated product is perhaps the most powerful and advanced assistive technology product that is available. Many important controls have been developed over the past several years and are at your fingertips. One example is the Optimize feature. This utility will try various settings for a particular page that you have placed on the scanner. Our first try, using the default settings, produced results that were less than ideal. After we used the Optimize function, a useful, if not 100 percent accurate, document emerged.

Kurzweil 1000 allows you to select one of two recognition engines. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and the results are dependent on the kind of material that you are recognizing. The reading process can also be tailored to your liking, with headings or other visually important material announced in a distinct voice. A cornucopia of options for converting and saving documents and settings is also available. Kurzweil 1000 can access some online information as well.

Several other tests—a paperback book and magazine page—demonstrated the importance of coming to terms with the controls and settings of this program. We noted that a simple change in the scanner setup, selecting dynamic threshold, produced an immediate increase in accuracy on several formats of text that we tested. We recommend that Kurzweil change the default setting from static to dynamic thresholding, taking advantage of today's scanner technology.

OpenBook 7.02

OpenBook is priced at $995. Version 7.02 is currently shipping. Included in each new purchase is the product CD, a Getting Started cassette, a braille Quick Start guide, and a print Quick Start guide.

Installation

Whether installed alone or with the assistance of a screen reader, OpenBook provided an easy-to-follow installation process that began automatically when the CD was placed in the computer.

OpenBook includes Connect Outloud, a basic screen reader. On the basis of the information that was provided by the prompts from the installation program, it was not clear how to proceed if you did not choose to install Connect Outloud and were not using an existing screen reader. We suggest that you consult with a technical support representative before you install the program to clarify this part of the procedure.

Getting Started

OpenBook opens like other Windows programs. If you are already familiar with using Microsoft Office and similar programs, then OpenBook will feel like an old friend.

This product did not provide prompting or descriptions of shortcuts to options. OpenBook also has a heritage that includes a small specialized keypad. A simple set of keys on the keypad can provide navigation and basic operations.

The Scanning and Reading Experience

The most striking feature of OpenBook was its successful recognition and formatting of both our basic memo as well as more complex formats such as the CD liner notes, using only the default settings. After installation, the product is ready to go without further tweaking. The behavior for both scanning and recognizing was snappy and responsive. The responsiveness of the product was especially noticeable when OpenBook was used with JAWS.

A wide variety of tools and configurations are easy to reach and understand, especially for those who grasp the concepts of the Windows operating system. Selecting and navigating the settings is as simple as pressing the Alt key and moving among the standard menus. In all instances, we found OpenBook to be responsive and well behaved.

OpenBook was not as responsive as Kurzweil 1000 in the self-voicing default mode. In one instance, the voice stopped responding when focus moved to an error dialogue box caused by an empty drive. In instances in which the system produced subpar recognition results, the program lacked some of the more advanced controls found in Kurzweil 1000. Using gray-scale scanning in Kurzweil can make the difference between success and failure with some difficult images.

Dealing with PDF Documents

PDF (portable document format) is a hot-button topic for many computer users who are blind or have low vision. For a variety of reasons, which space does not permit us to explore here, these documents can defy all attempts to read them using a screen reader and the Adobe Reader. In fact, this situation can become such a problem that for many, the term PDF means "problem document format." The most effective solution in these situations is to use an OCR program to recognize the PDF file.

PDF files can be of several varieties. Some contain no text; they can be thought of as a picture of a page of text. Other PDF files may contain text, which the computer could recognize were it not for other technical issues.

Both Kurzweil and OpenBook facilitate the conversion of PDF documents. Each program takes a different approach to the process. Kurzweil needs to be open to manipulate PDF files. Use the File Open dialogue to locate and load the file, as you would any other document. OpenBook offers a Print-to option in the File menu from the Adobe reader. If you are browsing PDF documents from a network drive or the Web, this is a particularly useful feature, since clicking on the PDF file will usually trigger the Adobe Reader on your system.

Both programs did well with a standard untagged PDF test document supplied by Adobe. The one-page letter was recognized with 100-percent accuracy by both applications. We also tested an interesting, more difficult file, a simple one-page channel guide, found at <www.xmradio.com>. This document could not be formatted by either of the programs, demonstrating that PDF documents, while usable in some instances, are not always accessible.

Technical Support

OCR systems are among the most expensive in the assistive technology arena. For this reason alone, customer service is an obvious and important consideration. In our experience, both Freedom Scientific's and Kurzweil's technical support representatives provided accurate, prompt, and courteous answers to both basic and complex questions.

Kurzweil provides toll-free support Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM eastern time. OpenBook support is available from 8:30 AM to 7:00 PM eastern time.

Freedom Scientific's technical support professionals are generalists who, in addition to supporting JAWS, the company's flagship product, answer OpenBook support questions. In every instance, we found their assistance to be of the highest quality. If you regularly integrate an OCR product with other Windows applications, the Freedom Scientific representatives are in an excellent position to assist you with all your questions.

The Kurzweil 1000 technical support staff specialize in the Kurzweil product. Their knowledge of the intricacies of their product is obvious, and their ability to explain complex issues is especially welcome.

The Bottom Line

Both OpenBook, version 7.02, and Kurzweil 1000, version 10, performed well in our tests of optical character recognition. We encourage you to view and compare the samples that we have included with this article to judge the relative performance on the limited number of scans that space permits us to include.

Deciding on which product is worthy of your first consideration, then, comes down to what kind of user you are and in what context you will use the product. For the novice user, Kurzweil 1000 version 10 may be better. For users with little exposure to a computer with speech output, the excellent prompts, reminder messages, and generally friendly feel of the process make for a successful introduction to assistive technology. When questions need to be answered or trouble needs to be resolved, customer service is available 14 hours a day from Monday to Friday toll-free. Furthermore, the ability to choose from several speech-output options, including Neo Speech, provides the best chance that you will find a voice that suits your listening preferences.

For those who want to integrate OCR functionality into a work pattern in which Microsoft Office is the centerpiece, OpenBook provides a responsive, intuitive, and well-organized approach to scanning and reading many kinds of documents. It also performs well out of the box for recognizing and formatting printed matter of both basic and some intermediate complexity.

We were disappointed in the overall performance of the speech of OpenBook in its self-voicing mode. The limited choices of voices, their more computer-like sound, and a bug that was revealed when selecting drive options suggest that this product works best with a screen reader, such as JAWS, OpenBook's sister product, that controls speech functions.

For the advanced user who requires precise control of the OCR process and the widest range of tools to meet the most demanding OCR challenges, we believe that Kurzweil 1000, version 10, is worthy of first consideration. The Optimize feature enables settings to be automatically adjusted for a particular job or text document. The highly granular control of the most obscure functions of the scanning and recognition is unsurpassed. This advanced control and user configurability demands that those who perform intermediate and advanced scanning tasks with Kurzweil 1000 orient themselves to the controls and idiosyncrasies of this powerful and complex product.

Demonstration versions of both products can be obtained from the respective companies. If you have a computer and scanner available, installing and comparing these powerful and costly applications for yourself may be the best way to go.

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Product Information

Product: Kurzweil 1000, Version 10.0.

Manufacturer: Kurzweil Educational Systems, 100 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730; phone: 800-894-5374 or 781-276-0600; e-mail: <info@kurzweiledu.com>; web site: <www.kurzweiledu.com>.

Price: $995.

Product: OpenBook 7.02.

Manufacturer: Freedom Scientific, Blindness and Low Vision Group, 11800 31st Court North, St. Petersburg, FL 33716; phone: 800-444-4443; e-mail: <Sales@freedomscientific.com>; web site: <www.FreedomScientific.com>.

Price: $995.

OCR Alternatives

So you like the idea of a system that will control a scanner and allow you to read the text that you have placed on it. You may also be thinking that you would like an alternative to the Adobe Reader to handle that in-box full of PDF files. Despite your interest, you still suffer from a case of sticker shock. Several alternatives may be of interest.

People who are blind or have low vision are not the only ones who use OCR technology on a PC. Many business applications and processes rely on this technology. Two competing off-the-shelf products vie for the bulk of the OCR business. These products also make use of the internal OCR processors that are within both OpenBook and Kurzweil.

In instances in which a sighted person will be scanning and preparing materials for a blind person, an off-the-shelf solution is not only significantly less expensive, but allows the sighted person to use the familiar visual cues and conventions of Windows programs. Be forewarned, however: These programs are not always fully accessible and require intermediate to advanced Windows skills.

OmniPage, with a street price of $349, is an off-the-shelf, Windows-based OCR program. Many individuals, most with intermediate to advanced screen-reader skills, report that they have been successful using OmniPage as an alternative to the programs we have reviewed here. They caution, and our experience confirms, that using the program is a challenge in comparison to OpenBook or Kurzweil 1000.

The second alternative is FineReader. Generally distributed online, it is priced competitively with Omnipage. It also offers a powerful OCR engine and includes some of the challenging design limitations of programs that are only partially accessible.

An alternative strategy for recognizing inaccessible or poorly tagged PDF documents may be found in Adobe Acrobat, the $149 big sister of the Adobe Reader. We have included an example of this strategy with the unsuccessful conversions of the XM Radio Channel Guide. We did not conduct in-depth comparison tests of Acrobat with other recalcitrant PDF documents. Adobe's own information suggests that the process that is used in Acrobat is less rigorous than the processes that are available in either of the blindness-specific OCR products.

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In August 2001, I attended "2001: A Technology Odyssey," a conference co-hosted by the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). The conference was devoted to instructing professionals who work with people who are blind or have low vision to use the assistive technology they will eventually teach their students. Little did I know that the banquet luncheon would be professionally altering for me. By the time the luncheon ended, I was convinced that I would undertake the project described in this article.

Two speakers stood out. The first, Richard Chandler, an industry leader, spoke about his vision for the future of blindness assistive technology. The head of Freedom Scientific, a recently formed conglomerate of three well-known blindness technology companies, Chandler (who was replaced by Lee Hamilton in 2002) represented an ever-growing phenomenon on the world corporate landscape. Despite worries about the demise of small businesses at the hands of "mega-giants" in many industries, several of these small blindness technology companies merged in the early 2000s for competitive advantage. In the case of Freedom Scientific, three mainstays of the blindness technology industry (Arkenstone Blindness Products, Blazie Engineering, and Henter-Joyce)—companies that had occupied their own specialty niches—had suddenly disappeared.

The next speaker was Harvey Lauer, one of the early pioneers and inventors of blindness technology. Now retired and despite his advancing age, Lauer impressed me with his clarity and wit. While he took the audience back in time, relating adventures in his laboratory from a career that spanned more than 30 years, it became clear why he is considered such a prominent figure in blindness technology that AER's Information Services and Technology division named its professional award in his honor. As I listened, I realized that, as is the case for many of his era, Lauer's career has been, at best, only lightly chronicled.

After Lauer's speech, the award named in his honor was presented to Jim Allan of the Texas School for the Blind. Allan is a highly accomplished technology trainer and educator. His acceptance speech included a paraphrase of a quote from Albert Einstein, attributing his achievements to the "giants" (Lauer among them) upon whose shoulders he stood. I began to think, wouldn't it be wonderful to hear the first-person account of the history of blindness assistive technology directly from the mouths of the legends and pioneers themselves? My imagination began to race, and when Jay Stiteley, a techno-wizard in his own right and a former employee of both the Texas School for the Blind and AFB, broke into tears while presenting the award to his old friend Allan, I was hooked.

There is a lot of passion in the assistive technology community. Not only the legends and pioneers, but the business owners, salespeople, trainers, and technologists, have always been and continue to be committed to a labor of love. Money, although important, has rarely been a primary motive. Instead, the men and women who developed and purveyed the technologies that enable people who are blind or have low vision to use computers, operate personal digital assistants, scan and read printed documents, use their residual vision to read books, convert electronic files to hard-copy braille, and more, did their work to enable us who are visually impaired to function in the world on a level playing field.

Thus, I was inspired to preserve the memories of the giants—the legends and pioneers—upon whose shoulders we stand today. In doing so, I hoped not only to illuminate the history of this specialized technology industry, but to do so in a personal way.

They Don't Live Forever

Heightening the urgency for this project, Tim Cranmer, one of the "grandparents of the business," died on November 15, 2001. The immediate reaction from blindness technology buffs appeared to be shock; only a few eulogies were posted on the most popular blindness electronic discussion groups. I worried that we had lost a great deal by not having recorded Cranmer's story. Fortunately, shortly before Cranmer died, a historian, Harold Schneider, who was working on an unrelated project for the National Federation of the Blind, and a reporter, AccessWorld's own Deborah Kendrick, spent several hours with him, recording pearls of wisdom from the man who invented the talking calculator, the personal braille printer, and a special abacus for people who are blind. Kendrick's article appeared in the January 2002 issue of AccessWorld.

While working for the Kentucky Services for the Blind in the 1980s, Cranmer helped inspire Fred Gissoni to develop a precursor to a portable notetaker. Later, Deane Blazie, who as a teenager worked for Cranmer running errands as his "Saturday boy," was inspired to earn his engineering degree and enter the blindness assistive technology business. Blazie took Cranmer's and Gissoni's open-source specifications for the PortaBraille and developed them into the Braille 'n Speak and the long line of talking portable notetakers that followed.

Hearing It from the Source

Oral history is a great way to obtain and preserve firsthand accounts of events that took place during an individual's lifetime. Even though personal points of view may be slanted or memories may be incomplete or altered by time, listening to the stories of those who lived the events in question provides a flavor that is hard to get from more sterile and removed third-party renditions.

During the interviews, the oral historian can interact with the interviewees, asking questions that help direct them to a topic, clarify a particular point, or explore an angle they may not be thinking about at the moment. Next, using the stories as a rich source of information, the oral historian attempts to put together a history. Putting a few stories together can lead to the discovery of either a great deal of consensus or genuine disagreement about what actually happened. If you listen closely enough, you can even understand why the various persons may disagree and from this insight arrive at the "truth." Here is where secondary sources (such as time lines and histories written by others) come in. Ultimately, the challenge for the historian is to put several chunks of information together and create a well-rounded and comprehensive picture of the events as they actually occurred.

My primary goal in conducting the oral history project was not to write a comprehensive history (I am not a historian), but to audiotape extended interviews with as many legends and pioneers of blindness assistive technology as possible and to make them available for public consumption. I have done so through the generosity of AFB, which has archived the digitized interviews under the auspices of its M. C. Migel Library at the AFB headquarters in New York. Historians of technology and others who are interested in these fascinating stories can listen to all or parts of the interviews there.

A Long and Winding Road

To determine whom to interview, I asked people who might be interested and knowledgeable about the field to tell me whom they considered to be "legends" or "pioneers" in the field. I contacted currently practicing assistive technology specialists, as well as consumers who are blind or have low vision. The response to my inquiry was a daunting list of luminaries—far more than I thought I would ever be able to interview on my own. Thinking that the best course of action was simply to begin, I read a few books on oral history protocol, consulted a few professors of oral history, dusted off my interviewing skills (I am a counselor by training), and began making telephone calls. No one whom I asked refused to be interviewed. Even the extremely busy Ray Kurzweil, whom I literally accosted by running onto the stage after he received an M. C. Migel Award from AFB, said yes.

In May 2002, I began traveling around the country in my spare time, conducting three- and four-hour interviews. (AFB, for which I worked at the time, permitted me to piggyback a few of my interviews on trips made in its behalf and began funding the project in 2004.) By December 2004, when I arbitrarily decided to end my trek and begin analyzing what I had heard, I had completed 25 interviews.

The Telesensory Line

My first interview, in May 2002, was with Jim Bliss, who, along with John Linvill (whom I interviewed by telephone the following August), developed the Optacon and Telesensory Systems. Bliss recently retired from his latest company, JBliss Imaging Systems (which focused on easy-to-use PCs for older people who are visually impaired), and Linvill (now in his late 80s) lives with his wife Marjorie not far from Stanford University, where he headed the Optacon project at the Stanford Research Institute. It was Linvill's daughter Candy's blindness that inspired the creation in the 1960s of what is arguably the first electronic device for blind people. Marjorie Linvill helped create the Sensory Access Foundation to use money from the Federal Bureau for Education of the Handicapped (now the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services) to provide training to people who are blind in the use of the device. Under Telesensory, the Optacon hit the market in the early 1970s, marking, in my opinion, the beginning of the blindness assistive technology era.

In late August and early September 2004, I interviewed Larry Israel and Jim Halliday. Both live in Danville, California; were integral parts of the history of Telesensory systems; and, coincidentally, are interested in viticulture (the growing of grapes) and enology (wine making). Israel is a pilot and an excellent business investor, and Halliday is an accomplished piano player who has a plethora of musical instruments from all over the world in his home.

Israel founded VisualTek (closed-circuit televisions) in 1971 to market Sam Genensky's creation (closed-circuit televisions, to be described in Part 2 of this series) and to compete against Apollo Lasers. Telesensory purchased Apollo Lasers in the early 1980s and three years later bought VisualTek (then called VTek) from him. Five years later, after Bliss had been forcibly replaced as chairman and CEO by Jim Morrell, Israel took over from Morrell and became chairman and CEO of Telesensory.

In 1986, Israel earned his law degree. He still practices law. Resigning from Telesensory in 1999, Israel returned to the board in the early 2000s. He was on the board when Telesensory went out of business in 2005, about eight months after our interview.

Halliday (Telesensory, HumanWare, Pulse Data–HumanWare, and now the HumanWare Group) began his professional life as a Mormon missionary; got into media production in the California community college system; and found his way from there to Telesensory, where he headed its sales force. In 1987, he left Telesensory to pursue a new venture, one that would emphasize the human-factors aspect of assistive technology. It was then that he received a call from Russell Smith, who was managing the buyout from the Wormald International Group that led to the creation of Pulse Data in 1988. Smith hired Halliday to develop Pulse Data's American affiliate, the company called HumanWare. HumanWare was eventually purchased by the Tieman Group and, a few years later, repurchased by Pulse Data.

In June 2002, I spent a delightful morning in my home town of Haverstraw, New York, interviewing Bob Keenan, one of a small group of industry observers whom I included in this series. Keenan is a great storyteller with a wonderful sense of humor. He has been a sales representative for Telesensory and HumanWare, and was working as an assistive technology specialist for Lighthouse International at the time of our interview. Keenan had plenty to say about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Telesensory's product development and marketing approach. His conclusion: Telesensory's ultimate downfall would come from its engineering culture, which often supplanted a more customer-oriented approach. (It was a similar feeling that led Halliday to seek a new venture.) Little did Keenan and I realize how much our interview portended the eventual demise of this giant just three years later.

Still Others Leave Us Far Too Soon

In September 2004, I took a one-hour flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Christchurch to interview Russell Smith, the head of Pulse Data International, now part of the HumanWare Group. Just two days earlier, I had interviewed Leslie Kay in Auckland, another pioneer of blindness assistive technology and the inventor of the Sonic Guide, one of a series of sonar-based mobility and environmental scanning devices developed in the 1960s. Smith was one of only two of Kay's graduate students at Canterbury University (the other being John Brabyn, now with the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Institute in San Francisco) to remain in the blindness assistive technology business after he earned his Ph.D. On August 7, 2005, Smith and his wife died when their small Cessna 182 crashed into the sea between New Zealand's north and south islands. He was 61. The legacy he left includes one of the most prolific and enduring assistive technology companies in history.

Kay acquired his knowledge of specialized sonar in the British Royal Navy after World War II. Observing blind children enjoying themselves in a community swimming pool in Birmingham, England, and studying the use of sonar by bats, Kay (whose degree is in engineering) decided to combine concepts of airborne sonar with human learning and to develop devices for people who are blind. By the mid-1960s, he had developed the Sonic Torch. The Sonic Guide (a headborne device) and the Mowatt sensor are offshoots of the original Sonic Torch. These devices, which sold for more than $2,000 in the 1960s and 1970s and required a great deal of training to interpret accurately the audible signals generated from sonar that were designed to bounce off objects in the environment and return to receivers on the device, were not well received by the American market. Today's KSONAR device mounts on a cane, is easier to learn, and is somewhat less expensive.

Boasting one of the largest research and development teams of any similar company in the world, Pulse Data emerged in 1988 from the Wormald International Group, which Smith headed, to develop and market Kay's sonar-based devices. By the late 1980s, Pulse Data's "blind-friendly" portable notetakers, driven by the specially designed KeySoft suite of programs, had begun to revolutionize the market of products for people who are blind. Like his main competitor, Blazie, Smith's philosophy of creating technology for blind people that operates according to their unique needs captured the loyalty of many consumers. Two well-known devices from that period included the Viewscan and KeyNote series of portable devices. The legacy of the KeyNote is the BrailleNote.

Smith's most recent gifts to consumers who are blind or have low vision include the BrailleNote PK, the Brailliant braille display, the myReader digitally based electronic magnification system, and the merging of Pulse Data International with VisuAide of Canada to form the HumanWare Group.

The Roads Not Taken

I do have a few regrets. I wish I could have interviewed representatives of several blindness assistive technology companies that have made a big splash. Among these companies are Quantum Technologies of Australia, Dolphin Computer Access of the United Kingdom, Optelec, ALVA, Enabling Technologies, Papenmeier, and VisuAide (now part of the HumanWare Group).

More individuals were recommended to me than I could possibly have interviewed. Among them (in no particular order) are Larry Skutchan (ASAP, ASAW, Book Port, Book Wizard), Ron Hutchinson (Votalker synthesizer and Enhanced PC Talking Program screen reader), Tom Benham (Science for the Blind Products), Vito Proscia (an early braille embosser, IRTI), Noel Runyan (IBM talking typewriter, Telesensory), Peter Duran (early machine-based speech, Braille, Inc.), Franz Tieman (braille cells and more), Steve Brugler (Optacon, Telesensory), Greg Vanderheiden (Trace Center), Doug Wakefield (tutorials, technology advocacy), Oleg Tretiakov (ELINFA cassette-based portable notetaker, piezo-electric braille cell), George Dalrimple (an early braille embosser), and Gayle Yarnall (Telesensory).

In Part 2 of this series, I will continue my trek down the long and winding road. I will outline the remaining 18 interviews in the series, which took me from Hawaii to Boston and northern California to Florida. Although, with the possible exception of Hawaii, none was as exotic as New Zealand's north and south islands, all were fun places to visit, and the people I interviewed were even more fascinating.