Hello All:

Once again, I want to thank all of you who provided valuable input to
the document I have compiled for my boss on scanner readers.  I have
pasted the final version which I submitted to him below my signature.
He hasn't read it yet, but when he does I'll share any comments he may
have on it with you.  If anyone would prefer this document as an MS Word
attachment, please let me know.

Read and enjoy.



Ray Campbell, Help Desk Technician
Adaptive Technology Center
Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
1850 W. Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL  60608
312-997-3651 (Voice/Relay) or
888-825-0080 (voice/Relay)
[log in to unmask] 
AIM Screen Name: tclhelp
=====start of document=====
SCANNING AND READING SOFTWARE
WHICH ONE IS BEST?

Submitted by: Ray Campbell, Adaptive Technology Help Desk Technician
The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired


One of the biggest barriers to independence people who are totally blind
face is access to printed material.  Today's software and adaptive
technology market offers several solutions to help break down this
barrier.  These solutions can be broken down into three levels based on
price.  At the high-end price wise are Kurzweil 1000 from Kurzweil
Educational Systems, www.kurzweiledu.com and Open Book from Freedom
Scientific, www.freedomscientific.com.  These two products cost about
$1,000 each not including a scanner.  The mid level product is the
PlusTech costing about $600.  At the low end are scanners which can run
with Abby Fine Reader, Omni Page Pro or Text Cloner Pro, along with Scan
and Read Pro(c) and the Freedom Scan service on the Freedom Box Network.
These cost about $100 to $200.

With all of these solutions, how can a consumer, adaptive technology
specialist or rehabilitation professional determine which will work
best.  It would be easy to say, well, get the least expensive solution.
That is not the way to do it though.  This document discusses the
advantages and disadvantages of each solution.  Thanks goes to members
of Blind Information Technology Specialists, the Visually Impaired
Computer User's Group e-mail list and others for their input.

Let us first talk about the high end products, Kurzweil 1000 and Open
Book.  The biggest advantage of these products is they have been
designed with people who are blind in mind.  They are self-voicing, so
no additional screen reading software is needed.  They use a specific,
simple to remember set of keyboard commands to perform basic functions
such as scanning, reading and saving documents.  Documents can be
converted directly into Grade 2 Braille, avoiding the extra step of
going through another product like Duxbury.  They can open documents
written in PDF format, including those scanned and stored as an image.
They can also do OCR on faxed documents, making them accessible.

Several individuals pointed out that these products are simple for a
consumer to learn.  They can save documents into a variety of formats
such as Microsoft Word, the afore-mentioned Grade 2 Braille, plain text,
and rich text formats.  They have features that allow users to scan U.S.
Currency.  Moreover, they can do such things as automatically rotate a
page if it scanned upside down and de-columnize text so that a person
who is totally blind does not either have to worry about these things or
get sighted assistance to help him or her prepare documents for
scanning.  These products provide an individual who is blind important
information about the page layout such as number of columns which can
aid in discussing documents with sighted colleagues.

Additionally, Kurzweil and Open Book are not just scanning and reading
applications.  Kurzweil allows users to search for and download books
from bookshare.org and web Braille.  There are also built in dictionary
and encyclopedia applications with these products which have been found
to be quite important for students who are blind or visually impaired
and educators who work with them.  Kurzweil and Open Book have the
ability to convert scanned text into MP3 or WAV audio files.  One parent
told me she found this feature indispensable because she can scan and
prepare materials for her five-year-old child to listen to very easily.

Disadvantages besides the cost of these products are that they are
limited as to which scanners and scanning software they will work with,
although according to the input I got this is changing.  In addition, if
a user is collaborating with sighted individuals, they and the sighted
individuals will be using different commands to scan documents, making
it more difficult to help each other.  They use default, proprietary
formats which make it impossible to share scanned documents if a user
does not know how to convert to more mainstream formats such as
Microsoft Word.

Let us look at the mid range solution, the PlusTech.  It is a fast,
accurate scanner for the price.  It incorporates design features such as
some Brailed controls that are designed with people who are blind in
mind.  In addition, it is the one solution which makes reading books
easy since its glass flatbed surface extends to the edge of the scanner
so you do not have to either scrunch down the binding or take a book
apart in order to scan it.

Disadvantages of the PlusTech are that it does not support a scanner
with an automatic document feeder.  It doesn't do OCR on PDF documents.
It saves one page of data per file, requiring that you cut and paste to
put a full document together in a single file.  This makes it difficult
to share documents.

Besides cost, the lower level solutions offer a number of advantages.
First, they scan into a format most computer users know, Microsoft Word.
This makes it very easy to save and share documents.  Accuracy is not
sacrificed with these solutions; in fact, Abby Fine Reader and Omni Page
Pro are engines used by the higher-level solutions such as Kurzweil and
Open Book.  With the lower end solutions, you have a wider choice of
scanners you can work with, including all in one devices that scan, fax,
print and copy documents.  You still have the ability to do OCR on PDF s
which are scanned and stored as images.  Products such as Premier
Assistive Technology's Scan and Read Pro(c) can convert scanned text to
mp3 and wav audio formats.  One low-end solution, the Freedom Scan
service on the Freedom Box Network offers a convenient, menu driven
interface that makes it easy for users to scan and store documents.

AS for disadvantages, you run the risk of a given software package not
being as speech friendly as the higher end products.  You do need to
have a screen reader, since these applications are not self-voicing with
the exception of Scan and Read Pro(c) and Freedom Scan.  The keyboard
commands are more windows like which could be harder for people not as
adept at working with computers.  An extra step of importing the
document into Duxbury and formatting it is needed before it can be
produced in Braille.

So, how should one choose an appropriate solution for scanning and
reading documents?  First and foremost, the skill level of the consumer
needs to be considered.  Someone who is pretty adept at using computer
technology would be able to handle one of the lower end solutions.
Consumers who are less adept at computers such as Senior citizens and
individuals with disabilities other than blindness would have a much
easier time working with the keyboard commands of a Kurzweil or Open
Book.  Secondly, individuals I talked and e-mailed with indicated that
if someone has a lot of scanning and reading to do, the higher end
products make doing this much easier.  It is important when discussing a
scanning and reading solution with someone to understand the kinds of
material they are going to scan, what computer skills they have and what
resources are available to help them get the equipment.  Some people
will need a higher end product like Open Book or Kurzweil 1000 and that
is what they should get.  Some will be fine with a lower cost solution
and there is nothing wrong with that.  Some agencies such as the New
Jersey Commission for the Blind won't even buy Kurzweil or Open Book
unless a compelling need for one of these products can be demonstrated.
Illinois' blind vendors that use screen readers are being encouraged to
go with Omni Page Pro since they already have JAWS or Window-Eyes.  On
the other hand, a couple of individuals pointed out that for older
individuals products like Kurzweil and Open Book are simple for them to
learn and use.


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