The July 2004 issue of AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the
Blind's technology magazine, is now available on our web site.
Be sure to sign up to receive AccessWorld Extra, the e-mail newsletter
produced by AccessWorld staff in each of the six months when AccessWorld
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The July issue, which you can read at
http://www.afb.org/accessworld features:
The Key to the Information Age: A Review of Three Screen Readers,
Part 2
Jim Denham, Jay Leventhal, and Heather McComas
We review version 6.1 of Dolphin's Hal screen reader. We evaluate
Hal's documentation, as well as its performance in Microsoft Word,
Excel, and on the web. Find out how this United Kingdom-based
relative newcomer to the U.S. market compares with the competition.
The Ballot Ballet: The Usability of Accessible Voting Machines
Darren Burton and Mark Uslan
We provide an update on the issues surrounding accessible
electronic voting machines. Some researchers have questioned the
reliability of electronic voting and demanded that the machines
produce paper ballots as well as electronic ones. Manufacturers are
racing to add the ability to provide a paper trail to their
machines. Read our update on the machines, as well as a usability
study involving people who are blind or visually impaired.
You Can Take It With You: A Review of Three Portable CCTVs
Carol Farrenkopf
We evaluate three portable CCTVs: the Traveller (by the Tieman
Group), the Olympia (by Telesensory Corp.), and the Pico (also by
Telesensory). The Traveller and the Olympia are lightweight,
compact CCTVs, while the Pico is a handheld device that can fit in
a pocket or purse. Find out which unit will work best for
your needs.
The Signal Gets Stronger: Three Cell Phones with Speech Output
Darren Burton
We continue our coverage of cell phone accessibility by evaluating
the Owasys 22C phone developed in Spain, and the TALKS software
from Brand & Grober Communications installed on the Nokia 3650 and
3660 phones. The Owasys 22C is a screenless cell phone designed
specifically for people who are blind or visually impaired, which
provides speech access to its features. TALKS is a screen reader
that allows a person who is blind or visually impaired to access
nearly all the functions of the phone on which it is installed.
Read about two options in a small but growing group of phones worth
considering.
A Library in Your Hand: A Review of the Book Port and the
BookCourier
Jay Leventhal
We review the Book Port from American Printing House for the Blind
and the BookCourier from Springer Design, two small, hand-held e-
book readers with speech output. These products are both
descendants of the Road Runner from Ostrich software, a text file
reader that is no longer available. Both products are similar in
appearance, use the same speech synthesizer, perform many of the
same functions and both require a USB connection to your computer
to import files. This article points out the differences that will
help you decide which product to purchase.
How Do I Read Thee? Let Me Count The Ways
Deborah Kendrick
This article describes a series of five projects designed to put
new and emerging reading formats into the hands of patrons who are
blind or visually impaired, headed by Lori Bell, director of the
Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, a subregional library within the
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
(NLS) network of cooperating libraries. All of the projects focus
on formats and devices used for reading Digital Talking Books.
AccessWorld News
Calendar of Events
Contact us at [log in to unmask] and let us know what you think of the
new, web-only AccessWorld.
Jay Leventhal
Editor in Chief
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