@Freedom Scientific Newsletter




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July – August 2011

In This Issue

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Freedom Scientific Congratulates the 2011 Braille Challenge Winners


As part of our ongoing commitment to Braille literacy, Freedom Scientific is once again proud to sponsor the Braille Institute of America’s Braille Challenge®.

 Braille Challenge - A National Program of Braille Institute

The Braille Challenge is an academic competition unlike any other. This two-stage contest is designed to motivate blind students to advance their Braille skills, while rewarding their success with a fun-filled, but challenging, weekend of events. The Braille Institute of America works with agencies and individual teachers from across the United States and Canada to encourage their students to participate in regional preliminary rounds. Contests include reading comprehension, Braille typing speed and accuracy, proofreading, spelling, and reading tactile charts and graphs.

Contestants participate in the preliminary contest during the first two months of the year. Students gain the fullest experience by attending one of the many Braille Challenge regional events, but they may also take the Challenge individually administered by a teacher of the visually impaired. Either way, everyone can be a part of the preliminary round.

The students with the top scores are invited to Los Angeles, where they match skills against other top Braille readers in their age group at the National Braille Challenge.

On Saturday, June 25th, the festive day started with the USC Spirit of Troy marching band ushering in sixty excited finalists, in the first through twelfth grades, wearing corresponding colored T-shirts. Representing 28 states and two Canadian provinces, the contestants were seated on risers and individually introduced to the cheering crowd. They then marched off to their respective rooms to take the three to four one-hour contests, depending on their age.

After a long day of testing their Braille reading and writing skills, all contestants assembled at the Universal Hilton Hotel for the announcement of first, second, or third place honors at The 2011 Braille Challenge Awards Ceremony. Most winners have attended The Challenge as a finalist in previous years, but this year five students took home a top award on their very first time out---including one at the high school level.

Trina Britcher, a teacher for the visually impaired at Harrison County Schools in West Virginia, was presented with the "Teacher of the Year Award for Excellence in Braille Instruction." She was nominated by her peers and selected from a field of nine candidates. She received a special trophy, a cash prize, and her choice of a Freedom Scientific PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PC or Focus 40 Blue Braille Display. She joins an inspirational group of teachers for the visually impaired who have received this annual honor.

All those who participate in the Braille Challenge set an outstanding example for students everywhere. Freedom Scientific is pleased to recognize the national winners by providing them state-of-the-art tools that will enable them to apply their Braille skills every day - their choice of a PAC Mate Omni accessible Pocket PC, or Focus 40 Blue Braille Display.

Freedom Scientific congratulates the following achievers:



JAWS 12 August Update


As the Windows applications you use are updated, and we further enhance our screen reading technology, Freedom Scientific is committed to releasing regular updates of our JAWS® screen reading software to keep you on the cutting edge.

Our August update for JAWS 12 contains a number of enhancements, including restoring the accessibility of the iTunes Store after recent changes made by Apple.

By default, JAWS will alert you to the availability of this new release. If you have elected to disable update notifications, you can update by choosing the Help menu in the JAWS window, and then choosing Check for Updates.

The full download of JAWS 12 can be obtained from the JAWS What's New page.



OpenBook 9 Update Makes the PEARL Camera Even Faster


We’ve just released a free update to our OpenBook® scanning and reading software. It includes:

If you have OpenBook 9 installed, simply visit the Help Menu, and choose check for updates. You can obtain the full OpenBook 9 installation from the OpenBook Page at FreedomScientific.com.



From the Training Department

New PAC Mate DAISY Books Posted Online

The Training Department has posted new DAISY books for the PAC Mate Omni accessible Pocket PC in both text and audio format. Listen to or read the books on the PAC Mate or on your computer with FSReader™ DAISY player. You can also listen to them on the go with the PLEXTALK™ Pocket portable DAISY player, also available from Freedom Scientific. There are also separate MP3 audio files of each module for listening on other devices.

New books include:

Visit the Training Downloads page to get these new DAISY books or MP3 files today.

New Training Webinars and Workshops Posted for the Fourth Quarter of 2011

The Freedom Scientific Training Department has posted the following new Webinars and workshops:

New Low-cost Paid Webinars

We are offering these special reduced price Webinars at 45 percent less than our normal paid Webinars. If you have not yet participated in our paid Webinars, this is your chance to do so at a greatly reduced price.

To register for these Webinars just go to the Freedom Scientific paid Webinar page and choose the register button for your desired Webinar. You will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to purchase the Webinar.

In addition to these new low-cost paid Webinars, the Training Department has added several new FREE Webinars to the schedule.

FREE Webinars

Visit the free Webinars page for more information or to register for the Webinars listed above.

Paid Webinars

Visit the paid Webinars page for more information or to register for the Webinars listed above.

Hands-on Workshops

There is still plenty of time to register for the following workshops held at Freedom Scientific’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida:

Visit the Training Workshops page for more information or to register for the hands-on workshops listed above.

Tips from the Training Department

Did you know there is a quick and easy way to access many of the most commonly used sections of the Freedom Scientific Web site? Simply open the Web Resources submenu in the JAWS or MAGic Help menu and choose from one of the items in the list. You can quickly access technical support information, training information, and even download RealSpeak™ Solo Direct voices for use with JAWS, MAGic, or OpenBook. Each item in the submenu opens a new window in your default Web browser.



Contacting Freedom Scientific Technical Support


Freedom Scientific understands the important role assistive technology fulfills for our customers at work, at school, and at home. Our commitment to our customers includes providing easily accessible, free, expert technical support to registered users of Freedom Scientific products.

You can reach Technical Support using the following options:

When you call, please be at your computer or other Freedom Scientific device, have your documentation in hand, and be prepared to provide the following information for the most prompt service:

We are available Monday through Friday, 8:30 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Eastern Time (USA). Freedom Scientific support services are subject to Freedom Scientific terms and conditions in place at the time the service is used.



WYNN 6 OCR Enhancement Released


WYNN™ 6 includes support for the PEARL camera which connects to a USB port on your computer and provides instant OCR (optical character recognition) of your documents. Simply position a document under the PEARL camera, and then click WYNN's Scan button. The PEARL's portability, combined with WYNN 6 on a laptop, makes it ideal for students and teachers on the go. WYNN 6 also includes Skim Read, Book Search to easily find and download books from Bookshare and Gutenberg, and support for MathML.

An update has just been released that adds a multiple-OCR-engine approach to scanning and produces an even more accurate scan. WYNN 6 now includes the latest versions of both ABBYY FineReader® and Nuance OmniPage® OCR engines to provide the most accurate text recognition available.

To try out WYNN 6 free of charge, visit our demo download page.

See WYNN 6 and PEARL Provide Portable Solution for Learning to read the press release.



FSCast Features PLEXTALK Pocket and PRS Pro


The July and August editions of FSCast feature comprehensive demonstrations by Jonathan Mosen of the PLEXTALK Pocket portable DAISY player. You’ll learn how to play a wide range of content on the device, download and listen to podcasts, stream Internet radio, and make high quality recordings.

In August, Jonathan focuses exclusively on the recording features offered by the combination of the PLEXTALK Pocket and the PRS Pro software for Windows. The PLEXTALK Pocket offers top quality recording in WAV or MP3, including stereo recording from microphone or line in sources. It’s a great tool for podcasting, or for digitizing that old vinyl or cassette collection, even automatically creating a separate file for each track.

Moreover, the PLEXTALK Pocket is a powerful DAISY recorder, making it ideal for students who wish to record lectures and easily jump to specific points when playing them back later. Freedom Scientific is the only company bundling the powerful PRS Pro software with each PLEXTALK Pocket sold. This software facilitates easy creation and editing of DAISY content, either by recording directly onto your PC, or by modifying existing DAISY projects or standard audio files. It is this powerful combination that is the focus of the August FSCast.

Remember that the PLEXTALK Pocket is available to our US customers at the low introductory price of $275 until the end of October. Buy online for additional savings - FREE shipping.

These FSCasts, coupled with the forthcoming Webinars from our training department, will ensure that you’ll be able to make the most of your PLEXTALK Pocket.

You won’t want to miss an episode, 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.

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.