Many blind and visually impaired indeviduals in Harrisburg, PA are successfully using of the shelf scanning software along with speech synthesizers to scan mail, read memos and other printed materials.  Text Bridge and Omni Page Pro are two such OCR programs that work for us at a fraction of the cost of blind speciffic scanning programs.  The cost is under $200 as apposed to Open Book and others that cost more like $1000!

This is my first response to items on the list, but I must say that I am finding this a wonderful resource of ideas and information!  Glad to be a part of this list!!!

Don Schreiber
Access Technology Program
Tri-County, PAB



-----Original Message-----
From:   Dan Tevelde [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Thursday, December 10, 1998 9:03 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Hello

I am writing with two questions.  1. Does anyone on the list use any ocr
package with Windows?  At work I am using Open Book but this is through a
dos window.  I have a demo of Omni but it timed out before I could get it
to work.  I am still debating whether to use a standard ocr package, or
one designed for the blind.  I am still waiting for Arkenstone's new
product which is supposed to be a true windows application.
2. I would like to hear other peoples thoughts on various notetakers.  I
am writing reviews of them for our newsletter.  So far I have reviewed
the Aria from Robotron, and have evaluated the Keynote Companion.  I
would like to test the Artic products, and any other notetakers that may
be on the market.  I use a Braille Lite which i like very much except for
the poor quality of the speech.  I don't buy Blazie's arguments against
upgrading the speech chip.  I would be willing to pay more for better
speech.  With all the changes in this technology there should be some new
options for Blazie to try.  Let me know what you think of these ideas.
Dan
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html