@Freedom Scientific Newsletter
The RUBY Handheld Video Magnifier Now Shipping
The new RUBY™ handheld video magnifier helps you get things done no matter where you are. The RUBY contains a small camera and displays images on a brightly lit 4.3-inch screen. The magnification level can be varied from 2x to 14x, with none of the distortion that one experiences with traditional magnifying glasses. The compact, lightweight design with a folding handle allows the RUBY to be easily slipped into a pocket or purse ready for use at any time. Use the RUBY to verify a prescription at the pharmacy, read the menu at a restaurant, fill out a check at the bank, read item labels at the grocery store, and much more. The RUBY is extremely easy to use. Simply flip out the handle, turn it on with a push of a button, and use it as you would any glass magnifier. With the handle folded underneath, rest it directly on a document, and use the zoom button to adjust the magnification for the best reading comfort. A single button can switch between five viewing modes – full color for viewing photos and four enhanced contrast modes for reading text. For items on high shelves, a Freeze Frame button lets you capture the image and bring it close for easier reading. |
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The RUBY operates for more than two hours on its included rechargeable batteries. You can also use four AAA alkaline batteries, giving you all the power you need on the go.
“The RUBY is our smallest video magnifier yet,” said Brad Davis, Vice President of Hardware Product Management at Freedom Scientific. “It’s a great companion to our TOPAZ desktop video magnifier line and our other low vision solutions, MAGic® screen magnification software, the SARA™ scanning and reading appliance, our ONYX™ portable low vision cameras, and the OPAL™ handheld video magnifier. It reaffirms Freedom Scientific’s commitment to providing the most fully-featured line of technology solutions for the visually impaired."
Listen to the July FSCast to hear Charlie Madsen, Product Evangelist at Freedom Scientific and a low vision user himself, describe the RUBY and the ways it helps him every day.
The RUBY is priced at $745. For more information including specifications, visit www.LowVisionSolutions.com or contact Freedom Scientific at 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000.
Focus 40 Blue Braille Display Now Shipping
Freedom Scientific is now shipping the Focus 40 Blue, the latest addition to its popular Focus line of braille displays.
The Focus 40 Blue offers 40 cells of refreshable braille, Bluetooth™ 2.0 for wireless connectivity up to 30 feet, a Perkins-style braille keyboard, and USB 2.0 support that also charges the unit when connected – all in a new compact package that is 40 percent smaller than the current Focus 40.
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“The Focus 40 Blue gives you braille anywhere, on a wide range of devices,” said Jonathan Mosen, Freedom Scientific’s Vice President of Blindness Hardware Product Management. “With 40 cells of braille, it’s powerful enough to do serious work, yet its small size and handy carrying case make it easy to take with you everywhere. The Bluetooth connection, which runs for 20 hours between charges in typical use, is great for working on the move with a laptop running JAWS®. Take your Focus 40 Blue to a lectern for example, and run a PowerPoint presentation wirelessly from your braille display.” |
The Focus 40 Blue is designed to accommodate everyone’s braille preferences, with a range of navigation methods including WHIZWHEELS®, thumb keys, and rocker bars. There are 10 hot keys that can be configured to perform frequently-used functions for maximum productivity. You can even set the firmness of the braille dots to your personal taste with VariBraille.
“The Focus 40 Blue incorporates Freedom Scientific’s seamless braille cell construction, so it feels like reading braille on paper,” added Mosen. “When used with JAWS, the two rows of keys above the braille cells support Freedom Scientific’s unique Braille Study Mode, an interactive tool for teaching and learning braille.”
The new braille display is priced at $4,495 with a two-year warranty, which makes it cell for cell the best value in Bluetooth enabled refreshable braille today.
For more information including specifications, visit the Focus 40 Blue Braille Display product page on the Freedom Scientific Web site or contact Freedom Scientific at 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000. Be sure also to hear the July FSCast, where Jonathan Mosen and Ron Miller discuss their experiences with the Focus 40 Blue.
StreetTalk VIP Hits the Streets
StreetTalk™ VIP, Freedom Scientific's accessible GPS solution for our PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PC, is now shipping. Customers are already reporting improved confidence and expressing delight at finding out about places close by that they didn’t know existed.
Developed by Freedom Scientific using technology licensed from the Sendero Group, StreetTalk VIP offers GPS navigation that takes into account the unique needs of people with visual impairments.
Using intelligent routing technology, StreetTalk VIP determines the best route from point A to point B for either a vehicle or a pedestrian and presents information to the user with synthesized speech and/or refreshable braille.
Jonathan Mosen, Freedom Scientific’s Vice President of Blindness Hardware Product Management, says, “StreetTalk VIP is a powerful tool for exploring your surroundings both virtually and in real time."
Mosen adds that, “During our extensive user testing process, I’ve used StreetTalk VIP in New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. I can sit in my hotel room and find information about nearby points of interest. Using the virtual mode, I can explore the surrounding streets while I’m still in my room, and decide where I want to go before switching on my GPS receiver and venturing outside. If I’m taking a taxi, I can print out the route directions for the driver or simply monitor my PAC Mate Omni and give him directions. StreetTalk VIP gives me great real time information, whether I’m traveling on foot or in a vehicle. I love the independence I have with StreetTalk VIP and would not leave home without it.”
StreetTalk VIP is available with maps for the US and Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
For more information, including a full pricing schedule, please visit the StreetTalk VIP Web page or call 1-800-444-4443.
Be sure also to listen to the July FSCast, where Ron Miller puts StreetTalk VIP through its paces, exploring a virtual route and learning about his surroundings, all while staying out of the hot Florida sun.
Freedom Scientific Congratulates the 2009 Braille Challenge Winners
Freedom Scientific remains committed, as we have been for years, to putting more braille under the fingertips of blind people everywhere. That’s why we’ve worked hard to lower the cost of refreshable braille by 40 percent in the last five years.
It’s also why we are proud sponsors of the Braille Institute’s Braille Challenge. After all, braille power readers need a powerful device to get the job done.
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The Braille Challenge, now entering its 10th year, is a two-stage academic contest available to students in the United States and Canada, designed to promote braille competency while being fun at the same time. The top students are invited to Los Angeles for the finals of the contest, held this year on June 19 and 20. The five winners and the teacher of the year all received a PAC Mate Omni accessible Pocket PC, courtesy of Freedom Scientific. Our congratulations go to Carolyn Mason, Teacher of the Year, and the five Braille Challenge winners: Gabriella Orton, Danielle Cowan, Vejas Vasiliauskas, Megan Bening, and Desmond Delgadillo. |
Freedom Scientific Announces Free DAISY Reader
Freedom Scientific is now providing FSReader, its popular DAISY book reader, free to users of its PAC Mate™ and PAC Mate Omni accessible Pocket PCs.
FSReader is a powerful tool for efficiently navigating and reading professional, educational, and leisure material in DAISY format, and we want to make this enhanced productivity available to every PAC Mate user.
FSReader for the PAC Mate and PAC Mate Omni can be downloaded free from the Freedom Scientific Web site.
In addition, users who install Freedom Scientific’s JAWS® 11 and MAGic® 12 products later this Fall, will be pleased to discover that both products include the full desktop version of FSReader DAISY player. This will be the case with Demo versions of JAWS and MAGic as well.
Freedom Scientific Learning Systems Group & Michigan State University Receive OSEP Grant
$400,000 Steppingstones Grant Supports Development of New Writing Tools
The Learning Systems Group of Freedom Scientific is the recipient of a Steppingstones of Technology Innovation for Children With Disabilities grant awarded by the US Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Steppingstones grants are awarded to promote the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative technology tools and practices for students with disabilities. The grant was awarded in partnership with Dr. Cynthia Okolo, an educational researcher at Michigan State University. The grant will provide $400,000 over two years toward the development and evaluation of writing tools in our WYNN™ literacy software. The project will support the development of a new literacy framework titled PAL (Promoting Academic Literacy).
Project PAL Will Support Literacy in Key Content Areas
Legislation and policy in special education demand that students with disabilities participate in the general education curriculum and be held accountable for mastering the same standards as general education students. However, many students, and particularly those with mild disabilities, experience significant difficulties with the literacy activities that are core features of content-area classes, such as English literature, history, social studies and science. Cindy Okolo, the Co-principal Investigator in the project, said, "The purpose of Project PAL is to develop a suite of advanced technology-based literacy tools — that go beyond tools typically available — to support students’ literacy in content area classes.” She continued, “Unlike many generic literacy software programs, PAL offers a targeted approach to learning from text, and is organized around a content-area learning strategy. Each feature defined in PAL is keyed to a strategy for learning. The strategy will give teachers and students a framework for its use and will facilitate its integration into the curriculum." The ultimate goal for PAL is to assist students to comprehend content area information more successfully.
Free Webinars from the Training Department in August and September
Surf's Up! Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic Free Webinar Series Begins Again in August
This is a core concept Webinar. It should be taken by anyone who is interested in learning to use JAWS® or MAGic® for reading or navigating Web pages on the Internet.
- Date: August 12 - September 16, 2009
- Time: 3:00 PM Eastern Time (19:00 GMT)
- Cost: No charge
- Level: Beginner to intermediate
- Length: One hour
Visit the e-Learning page of the Training Department to read more and register for this free series of Webinars.
Accessible Tables in PDF and HTML Documents
This is a free Webinar hosted by EASI (Equal Access to Software and information), and is part two in a series on how to create accessible tables.
- Date: August 26, 2009
- Time: 2:00 PM Eastern time (18:00 GMT)
- Cost: No charge
- Level: Beginner to intermediate
- Length: One and one-half hours in length
- Host: Professor Norm Coombs of EASI
In this Webinar, you will learn how to create accessible tables for HTML pages and convert tables from Word documents or Web pages into accessible PDF. The final documents will have the information (attributes and tags) built-in for screen reader users. This enables them to read and gather information presented in tables without difficulty and without making changes to any settings on their side.
Learn some easily applied principles that increase the accessibility of documents you create. In addition, learn how users can more easily access information by knowing helpful features in their adaptive technology.
NOTE: This Webinar will be approximately ninety minutes in length to allow time for interactive practice. Participants will be given the opportunity to switch away from the presentation room (while still listening to the instructor) to use sample practice documents that will be provided. The practice documents open in Microsoft® Word, Internet Explorer, and Adobe® Reader. Participants who have Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional installed will also be able to view and manipulate the tags within the PDF documents.
Visit the EASI Web site now to register.
JAWS and MAGic Reading Commands and Cursors Used by JAWS
This is a core concept Webinar. It should be taken by anyone who is interested in learning to use JAWS® screen reading software for reading, work, or for accessibility testing purposes.
- Date: September 23, 2009
- Time: 3:00 PM Eastern Time (19:00 GMT)
- Webinar: Beginning to intermediate concepts
- Cost: No charge
- Level: Beginner to intermediate
- Length: One hour
Visit the e-Learning page of the Training Department to read more and register for this free Webinar.
August FSCast Previews JAWS 11
The August edition of FSCast, Freedom Scientific’s official podcast, will feature a preview of JAWS 11, which will be in public beta shortly.
Be sure to catch recent editions which feature Focus 40 Blue, StreetTalk VIP, RUBY, and an interview with award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer, whose latest book features a JAWS user as the main character.
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.
