“The baby boomers are coming! The baby boomers are coming!” You can hear the cry ringing out in agencies and organizations that work with blind and low vision people throughout the country. And, just when they need more money and resources to deal with the influx of newly blind seniors, the Federal and state governments, feeling the crunch of a poor economy and a raging Federal deficit, are scaling back. Our brave, blind services militia is standing exposed, running out of ammunition, and seeing the hoard descending upon them. Wise people know that if this first line of defense fails and cannot contain the influx of newly blind seniors helping the majority of them to live independently with a high quality of life, society will feel the impact several times over with Medicare and Medicaid costs soaring and a huge demand society cannot fill for specialized housing, transportation, personal attendants, and more.
You might think that the adaptive technology industry and the vendors who have, for years, made a healthy profit selling traditional screen readers, hardware, and services to this community, would now step up to the plate and help the home team meet the challenge. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. So far it looks as if traditional screen reader vendors will simply sit back and profiteer with little concern for the social impact of failure.
Guerrilla Tactics
When conventional forces cannot prevail the only option is to use guerrilla tactics. Fortunately guerrilla tactics are what Serotek knows best. And we’ve created the tools our blind services militia can use to reach out to more people, provide them with an almost instant ability to live independently, and do it even as budgets are being squeezed.
First, Serotek has given the home team an unlimited supply of free accessibility software. That’s right. System Access To Go (SAToGo) is Serotek’s award-winning access tool available at no charge to anyone connected to the Internet. Compare that to licenses costing $1,000 or more from traditional vendors. How many more customers can you serve on your budget? As many as you can introduce to SAToGo – that’s how many. Your organization doesn’t need to spend scarce resources buying software and maintenance licenses for your clientele.
Not everyone will want to use an Internet-based accessibility tool For those who want the software resident on their machine and want the ability to interact between their home and work computers you can point them to Serotek’s software as a service offering (SAS). For less than $25 per month they can have it all: System Access Mobile, NEO speech, and four years of System Access Mobile Network. This is a cost within almost anyone’s budget (less than a cup of coffee per day).
Even with free software, though, your agencies resources will be taxed to the max. How can you physically serve the number of people who will be begging for help in the coming decade? The answer is Remote Incident Manager (RIM). RIM is Serotek’s powerful distance learning tool. Your trainers can work from the office or from home directly contacting clients at home. RIM allows the trainer and client to share the client’s “desktop.” The trainer can adjust the client’s computer, if necessary and then either using a separate voice line or Voice over Internet Protocol, teach the application in a hands-on fashion. Everything the client sees, the trainer sees. The trainer can intervene as necessary, point out errors, and gently steer the client to right process. Any application can be trained remotely including those overweight, overpriced conventional screen readers that some people insist they need.
Does it work? Joe Devine said, “In my experience, the one hour a week [remote] session was a more effective and efficient use of the instructor’s time. I was able to progress much more rapidly than in the three hour classroom session. My proficiency has greatly improved. I am happy and relieved to have improved enough to be functional on my computer.”
How about System Access? Can it handle real screen reader duties? Larry Klug of Clovernook in Cincinnati reports: “I am proud to announce that my consumer Jim Keller, who uses System Access, received the Blind Employee of the Year award last Friday at the annual Clovernook Center for the Blind Annual Banquet.”
And we just heard from a user who walked into a job interview at a company where the systems were not accessible. She accessed SAToGo, demonstrated that she could do the work, and got the job.
The fact is that thousands of users are now looking to System Access and System Access to Go for at least some of their accessibility needs. Major institutions, like Ohio State University, are making their entire network accessible using Serotek’s enterprise solutions.
If you are sitting in a state blind services organization or a vocational rehabilitation training facility and wondering how you are going to survive this imminent crush of baby boomer demand, look no further. The Serotek team is on your side with solutions that work, that are far less costly, and that allow you to do so much more with the precious resources you have.
You see, at Serotek we view the challenge differently. Conventional AT players see accessibility as their only opportunity to make money from blind folks and the current government subsidized software approach works just fine for them. But Serotek sees the opportunity as selling fun, digital lifestyle products to people who already have accessibility. And that means anything we can do to increase the number of people with accessibility makes our opportunity grow. You may be groaning when you see the hoard of newly blind seniors on your doorstep. We’re licking our chops. As soon as we can help you get these folks online, we can reach out and sell them devices that will improve their quality of life ten-fold. Your success is our opportunity.
And together we can make it happen.
Showing posts with label SAToGo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SAToGo. Show all posts
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Dining with Giants
We had an opportunity on Friday to have dinner with some folks who have made a difference in each of our lives. The occasion was the annual American Foundation for the Blind accessibility awards dinner and we were there because Serotek received the award for System Access To Go. My wife and I were in rare company and we were honored to be there. SAToGo has indeed made a difference in many people’s lives and will continue to do so for years to come. But I don’t want to talk about us today. I sat in a room full of giants – people making a difference every day and not getting a whole lot of press. I want to celebrate these people – both the recipients and the members of the American Foundation for the Blind who came together to recognize these contributions.
There were three recipients of the 2008 Accessibility Award. In addition to Serotek, the award was given to Code Factory and to Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian.
At the same event, Anita Aaron, Executive Director of the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind received the 2008 Gallagher Award.
My good friend Eduardo Sanchez Palazon, CEO of Code Factory, came from Spain to receive the accessibility award for making cell phones, smart phones, and PDAs accessible with Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier. I truthfully could not do my job without these powerful tools that let me tap into our network from my smart phone and run Serotek from wherever I am. In December, Code Factory signed an agreement with AT&T to make accessible cell phones available to the blind community at a discount. Eduardo is unique because he sees us blind folks as customers – not the agencies, not the government, but just us blind folks. And he treats us like customers, not like welfare recipients looking for a handout. Eduardo not only serves our communication needs, but he gives our self-esteem a huge shot in the arm and for that alone the man deserves all the awards and kudos that are heaped upon him.
Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian are lawyers who have been making the case for accessibility for several years. Lainey and her co counsel developed a process, called “Structured Negotiation” which replaces costly and contentious litigation with formal, structured negotiation as a means of solving accessibility issues. Her success rate is awe-inspiring. Thanks to Lainey you and I can access ATM’s and point of sale terminals at thousands of banks and stores nationwide. She has agreements with 7-11, American Express, Bank of America, Bank One, Citibank, Radio Shack, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s, Wells Fargo and many other banks and retail operations. In our litigious, contentious society it is a breath of fresh air to see a different approach – reasonable people working together to solve an issue – and actually succeed.
Anita Aaron, who received the 2008 Gallagher Award, is legendary in San Francisco where she has been Executive Director of the Lighthouse for the Blind for seventeen years. She also serves on the San Francisco Commission on Aging and Adult Services, is on the Board of Directors of the Curry Senior Center and a member of the Blind Services Advisory Committee of the State Department of Rehabilitation. California’s and specifically San Francisco’s leadership in accessibility issues is largely due to Anita’s firm hand.
The award recipients weren’t the only giants at the affair. Our host, Carl Augusto, the President and CEO of the AFB certainly has left his imprint on our lives, extending the AFB’s scope to influence corporate America to make accessible products and acting as unifying force, bringing service organizations of and for the blind together in a collaborative way to further the common objective of accessibility and independent living. Under Carl’s tutelage the AFB is promoting accessibility for seniors who are losing their vision from age-related conditions.
The room was filled with many business and community leaders, serving on the AFB’s Board of Directors, many of them blind. They come from all walks of life: banks, universities, major corporations, law firms; and a wide variety of government and NGOs serving the needs of the blind. I am sure, however, that Mike May, our emcee was the only blind individual in the room who had both set world records as a blind downhill skier and worked for the CIA. Warm and charming, Mike was entertaining and inspirational. I have his book, “Crashing Through,” written with Robert Kurson on my list of “must reads.” Blind from the age of three, Mike is one of a small group of individuals who had some vision restored with stem cell transplant surgery less than a decade ago. Most of us can imagine his emotional and intellectual struggle whether or not to go through with this life-altering and very “iffy” surgery.
I am grateful to the AFB for honoring our Serotek team by making us part of this affair. They did everything right. It was at the same time elegant and casual; people dressed to the nines, but warm and friendly. The food and company was superb. There was no competition among the industry people. Rather there was a universal appreciation for what each had brought to benefit our community. Maybe it was the never empty wine glass, but by the end of the evening I was thinking that it is a great misperception when people complain that our blind youth have no heroes – no one to look up to and see what is possible. This room was filled with heroes – everyday heroes making a difference in peoples’ lives, not in any way restricted by the fact that they are blind or have low vision. Every one of us has an opportunity to be that kind of hero. We only need to follow our passion and believe that we can.
There were three recipients of the 2008 Accessibility Award. In addition to Serotek, the award was given to Code Factory and to Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian.
At the same event, Anita Aaron, Executive Director of the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind received the 2008 Gallagher Award.
My good friend Eduardo Sanchez Palazon, CEO of Code Factory, came from Spain to receive the accessibility award for making cell phones, smart phones, and PDAs accessible with Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier. I truthfully could not do my job without these powerful tools that let me tap into our network from my smart phone and run Serotek from wherever I am. In December, Code Factory signed an agreement with AT&T to make accessible cell phones available to the blind community at a discount. Eduardo is unique because he sees us blind folks as customers – not the agencies, not the government, but just us blind folks. And he treats us like customers, not like welfare recipients looking for a handout. Eduardo not only serves our communication needs, but he gives our self-esteem a huge shot in the arm and for that alone the man deserves all the awards and kudos that are heaped upon him.
Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian are lawyers who have been making the case for accessibility for several years. Lainey and her co counsel developed a process, called “Structured Negotiation” which replaces costly and contentious litigation with formal, structured negotiation as a means of solving accessibility issues. Her success rate is awe-inspiring. Thanks to Lainey you and I can access ATM’s and point of sale terminals at thousands of banks and stores nationwide. She has agreements with 7-11, American Express, Bank of America, Bank One, Citibank, Radio Shack, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Trader Joe’s, Wells Fargo and many other banks and retail operations. In our litigious, contentious society it is a breath of fresh air to see a different approach – reasonable people working together to solve an issue – and actually succeed.
Anita Aaron, who received the 2008 Gallagher Award, is legendary in San Francisco where she has been Executive Director of the Lighthouse for the Blind for seventeen years. She also serves on the San Francisco Commission on Aging and Adult Services, is on the Board of Directors of the Curry Senior Center and a member of the Blind Services Advisory Committee of the State Department of Rehabilitation. California’s and specifically San Francisco’s leadership in accessibility issues is largely due to Anita’s firm hand.
The award recipients weren’t the only giants at the affair. Our host, Carl Augusto, the President and CEO of the AFB certainly has left his imprint on our lives, extending the AFB’s scope to influence corporate America to make accessible products and acting as unifying force, bringing service organizations of and for the blind together in a collaborative way to further the common objective of accessibility and independent living. Under Carl’s tutelage the AFB is promoting accessibility for seniors who are losing their vision from age-related conditions.
The room was filled with many business and community leaders, serving on the AFB’s Board of Directors, many of them blind. They come from all walks of life: banks, universities, major corporations, law firms; and a wide variety of government and NGOs serving the needs of the blind. I am sure, however, that Mike May, our emcee was the only blind individual in the room who had both set world records as a blind downhill skier and worked for the CIA. Warm and charming, Mike was entertaining and inspirational. I have his book, “Crashing Through,” written with Robert Kurson on my list of “must reads.” Blind from the age of three, Mike is one of a small group of individuals who had some vision restored with stem cell transplant surgery less than a decade ago. Most of us can imagine his emotional and intellectual struggle whether or not to go through with this life-altering and very “iffy” surgery.
I am grateful to the AFB for honoring our Serotek team by making us part of this affair. They did everything right. It was at the same time elegant and casual; people dressed to the nines, but warm and friendly. The food and company was superb. There was no competition among the industry people. Rather there was a universal appreciation for what each had brought to benefit our community. Maybe it was the never empty wine glass, but by the end of the evening I was thinking that it is a great misperception when people complain that our blind youth have no heroes – no one to look up to and see what is possible. This room was filled with heroes – everyday heroes making a difference in peoples’ lives, not in any way restricted by the fact that they are blind or have low vision. Every one of us has an opportunity to be that kind of hero. We only need to follow our passion and believe that we can.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Serotek CSUN 2008 Announcement
We cordially invite you to join us at booth 357 at the Marriott LAX for the annual CSUN conference, March 12 through March 15. We’ll be showcasing several exciting new features of System Access and the System Access Mobile Network that you won’t want to miss.
First, we are proud to announce the addition of magnification to our System Access software. Magnification ranges from 1.25X to 6X, and can be increased in increments of .25. This update is available in all paid System Access packages as System Access version 2.4, and it is also part of the free online version of System Access to Go. There is absolutely no charge for the update, and it will automatically be downloaded and installed for all current users of System Access.
Serotek continues its commitment to the accessible digital lifestyle by introducing features for portable devices that will ensure that you have access to all your favorite content from the System Access Mobile Network, even when you aren’t near a computer. Supported devices include the Victor Reader Stream from Humanware using the latest firmware update, and the Icon from LevelStar. You can send your email, news, podcasts, radio dramas, and even your favorite movies right to your portable device. Just plug in to any available USB port on your computer, and any content from the network that you’ve added to your sync list will be downloaded to your device and ready for you to take with you on the road. If you haven’t yet upgraded the firmware on your Victor Reader Stream, no problem! We’ll automatically detect which version of the firmware you’re running and initiate the update process for you. Note that you will not be able to transfer content from the SA Mobile Network to the LevelStar Icon until a few weeks after the CSUN conference, but we will be demonstrating this feature at CSUN.
We are also excited to announce that we have partnered with De Witt and Associates to produce a line of TrainingWare™ designed for use by individuals and training facilities to increase independent living skills through the use of a computer. In just a few hours, users will learn how to send and receive email, surf the Internet, participate in online shopping, utilize Microsoft Office applications such as Outlook, MS Word and Excel, and perform many other computer-related tasks for personal and business needs.
Packages including a printed teacher’s manual and student workbook, along with a CD containing these materials in MS Word and Braille-ready formats will be available both for individual use and as a site license for use in training facilities. A copy of the student workbook in Daisy format will also be available for purchase, and can be downloaded for use on a computer or portable device such as the Victor Reader Stream.
To find out more about the latest from Serotek, visit us at www.serotek.com or call us toll-free at (866) 202-0520.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Are we nuts?
People are asking that question since Serotek elected to make its AFB Access Award winning product, SAToGo, available to all, in conjunction with The AIR Foundation, for no charge.
For the record, the answer is “No. We are not crazy. This makes good sense both from a humanitarian perspective and from a business perspective.”
Stop and think a minute. Does Google charge for using its search engine or for looking up a location on Google Maps? Does Microsoft charge for Internet Explorer? How about Firefox? And wasn’t it Netscape that broke open the Internet with a free browser?
In the long run Netscape lost the battle of the browsers but they completely changed the marketplace.
I think everyone out there understands the humanitarian reasons for making SAToGo available at no charge, but let me talk about the business reasons.
Before we made the free accessibility announcement the entire market for accessibility tools was a few hundred thousand people, worldwide. But there are more than 350 million blind people and a couple hundred million low vision people who would benefit from these tools. So in a very real sense the structure of the adaptive technology marketplace was such that it could never be more than a tiny niche market – a few thousand people fortunate enough to be subsidized by their government or some charity to purchase and be trained in complex accessibility tools.
When you’re a new company like Serotek an artificially restricted market is not only frustrating but debilitating. Even with the best tools available it is not possible to attract the capital to penetrate the market and claim your rightful share. The traditional vendors have a monopolistic stranglehold that virtually protects them from innovation. And who suffers? WE DO! Blind and low vision people suffer because they are left behind.
Our intent in giving away SAToGo is not to compete for the business that traditional screen readers are getting but to blow open the market and invite in millions more blind and low vision people. Our strategy is to say: “Hey this is no longer a private party for a few elite. Accessibility is for everyone, anytime, anywhere.”
So how will we make money? Well clearly we must make money or we will go out of business. We aren’t a charity and we aren’t subsidized by any fund. We survive on the sale of our products and services, pure and simple.
If you look at our Accessible Digital Lifestyle offering you can see that we have a very attractive suite of products for people who want a bit more than screen reader-like access. We anticipate that many SAToGo users will decide they want System Access Mobile and the SAM Net service. We anticipate many public and private institutions, organizations and businesses will want Remote Access Manager and/or Remote Incident Manager. We see schools that perhaps don’t want kids on the Internet, buying site licenses for System Access, confident that the kids have the same software at home that they have at school. Those are just a start.
We anticipate many, many new products that expand the accessible digital lifestyle to every facet of life. The fun of it is we no longer have to think small about a handful of possible users. We can think huge – every blind and low vision person in the world.
To us that makes very good business sense.
What do you think? Are we nuts?
For the record, the answer is “No. We are not crazy. This makes good sense both from a humanitarian perspective and from a business perspective.”
Stop and think a minute. Does Google charge for using its search engine or for looking up a location on Google Maps? Does Microsoft charge for Internet Explorer? How about Firefox? And wasn’t it Netscape that broke open the Internet with a free browser?
In the long run Netscape lost the battle of the browsers but they completely changed the marketplace.
I think everyone out there understands the humanitarian reasons for making SAToGo available at no charge, but let me talk about the business reasons.
Before we made the free accessibility announcement the entire market for accessibility tools was a few hundred thousand people, worldwide. But there are more than 350 million blind people and a couple hundred million low vision people who would benefit from these tools. So in a very real sense the structure of the adaptive technology marketplace was such that it could never be more than a tiny niche market – a few thousand people fortunate enough to be subsidized by their government or some charity to purchase and be trained in complex accessibility tools.
When you’re a new company like Serotek an artificially restricted market is not only frustrating but debilitating. Even with the best tools available it is not possible to attract the capital to penetrate the market and claim your rightful share. The traditional vendors have a monopolistic stranglehold that virtually protects them from innovation. And who suffers? WE DO! Blind and low vision people suffer because they are left behind.
Our intent in giving away SAToGo is not to compete for the business that traditional screen readers are getting but to blow open the market and invite in millions more blind and low vision people. Our strategy is to say: “Hey this is no longer a private party for a few elite. Accessibility is for everyone, anytime, anywhere.”
So how will we make money? Well clearly we must make money or we will go out of business. We aren’t a charity and we aren’t subsidized by any fund. We survive on the sale of our products and services, pure and simple.
If you look at our Accessible Digital Lifestyle offering you can see that we have a very attractive suite of products for people who want a bit more than screen reader-like access. We anticipate that many SAToGo users will decide they want System Access Mobile and the SAM Net service. We anticipate many public and private institutions, organizations and businesses will want Remote Access Manager and/or Remote Incident Manager. We see schools that perhaps don’t want kids on the Internet, buying site licenses for System Access, confident that the kids have the same software at home that they have at school. Those are just a start.
We anticipate many, many new products that expand the accessible digital lifestyle to every facet of life. The fun of it is we no longer have to think small about a handful of possible users. We can think huge – every blind and low vision person in the world.
To us that makes very good business sense.
What do you think? Are we nuts?
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Serotek Honored with AFB Access Award
Technology company earns prestigious award for SA To Go software
MINNEAPOLIS – January 24, 2008 – Serotek Corporation, the leading provider of Internet and digital information accessibility software and services, is pleased to announce they have been chosen as a recipient of the 2008 Access Award. Presented by the American Foundation for the Blind, the Access Awards recognize individuals, corporations and organizations that are eliminating or substantially reducing inequities faced by people who are blind or visually impaired. One of only three companies chosen to receive the Access Award, Serotek Corporation is being honored for providing access to screen reading software from any computer at any time through its System Access To Go (SA To Go) product.
A Web 2.0 software offering, SA To Go is available at www.satogo.com to anyone interested in having their computer screen content read aloud to them. From the blind to novice users to multi-taskers, this accessibility option is operational from any computer with Internet access.
“From macular degeneration to diabetes and more, the world’s aging population will have a growing incidence of visual impairment, low vision and vision loss, making this technology more mainstream than ever,” said Mike Calvo, CEO, Serotek Corporation, “And we expect the world to demand accessibility from any computer while traveling, working or at home, without toting hardware or software along.”
Serotek Corporation will be presented with the AFB Access Award at the 2008 JLTLI National Conference (Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute). The ceremony will be held on April 4, 2008 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott in Burlingame, California at 5:00 pm (PDT). Previous Access Award winning companies include Google™, Blockbuster, The IBM Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Pitney Bowes Inc.
“We appreciate and accept this recognition on behalf of all those who have been and will be benefiting from an accessible digital lifestyle through SA To Go,” said Mike Calvo, CEO, Serotek Corporation. “Serotek is committed to accessibility anywhere, and will continue to develop innovative products and services that level the playing field for all.”
Since the company was formed, Serotek Corporation has been developing technology solutions that allow anyone, regardless of physical limitations, disabilities, lack of Internet savvy or computer ownership, the ability to access and command all of the resources of the Internet and an accessible digital lifestyle. For more information about Serotek Corporation or its product and service offering, visit http://www.serotek.com/.
Serotek Corporation
Serotek Corporation is a leading technology company that develops software and manufactures accessibility solutions. Committed to the mission of providing accessibility anywhere, Serotek launched an online community specifically designed to meet the needs of people with disabilities. Since then, Serotek has introduced several powerful, affordable solutions that require minimal training and investment. For more information, visit http://www.serotek.com/.
JLTLI
The purpose of the Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute (JLTLI) is to improve the quality of programming and services to blind and visually impaired children, adults, and their families. The Institute is designed to provide a forum in which leadership personnel and emerging leaders from the blindness field can come together to increase and share their knowledge and expertise. In addition, the JLTLI affords opportunities to network, share common concerns and innovative strategies, as well as learn about what projects AFB personnel and others in the field have undertaken to improve quality of life for people with visual impairments. It is through the Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute that the American Foundation for the Blind not only recognizes Dr. Taylor's lifetime service but also hopes to perpetuate her philosophies.
Monday, November 5, 2007
New Pricing Explained
We have received several calls and emails that indicate some confusion about one of our new pricing packages. Let me take a second to explain it.
If you choose to pay $24.95 per month for 48 months, you are actually buying System Access Mobile and network access on forty-eight month terms. You are paying for:
1. System Access Mobile – a $499 retail value.
2. Neo Speech -- a $49.95 retail value
3. And four years of System Access Mobile Network complete with all software updates at a cost of $129 per year, retail value.
Note: We do not offer this package without network access. Because users would not have access to features like SAToGo and remote computer access. Not to mention our tons of content.
After your fourth year of service, you have completed the purchase of System Access Mobile and Neo Speech. That means starting in year five, you have the option to continue with product updates with no SA Mobile Network services for $60 per year for life or to purchase System Access Mobile Network Services complete with product updates for $129 per year for life.
What do we mean by “for life?” These prices continue for you as long as you maintain an ongoing business relationship with Serotek. If your account misses more than one 30 day billing period, your per year pricing reverts to whatever current users of Serotek products are paying for SA Mobile Network or product updates. If you should decide, after four years, that you don't want System Access Mobile Network or updates, but later decide you do want them, we will only charge you what a current user pays for SA Mobile Network and/or updates. You will not be required to pay in any way for updates you have missed or chosen to skip.
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings you might have about our new pricing option. As always please feel free to call our customer service department at (866) 202-0520 if you have any other questions about this exciting new way to own System Access Mobile with Neo Speech.
If you choose to pay $24.95 per month for 48 months, you are actually buying System Access Mobile and network access on forty-eight month terms. You are paying for:
1. System Access Mobile – a $499 retail value.
2. Neo Speech -- a $49.95 retail value
3. And four years of System Access Mobile Network complete with all software updates at a cost of $129 per year, retail value.
Note: We do not offer this package without network access. Because users would not have access to features like SAToGo and remote computer access. Not to mention our tons of content.
After your fourth year of service, you have completed the purchase of System Access Mobile and Neo Speech. That means starting in year five, you have the option to continue with product updates with no SA Mobile Network services for $60 per year for life or to purchase System Access Mobile Network Services complete with product updates for $129 per year for life.
What do we mean by “for life?” These prices continue for you as long as you maintain an ongoing business relationship with Serotek. If your account misses more than one 30 day billing period, your per year pricing reverts to whatever current users of Serotek products are paying for SA Mobile Network or product updates. If you should decide, after four years, that you don't want System Access Mobile Network or updates, but later decide you do want them, we will only charge you what a current user pays for SA Mobile Network and/or updates. You will not be required to pay in any way for updates you have missed or chosen to skip.
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings you might have about our new pricing option. As always please feel free to call our customer service department at (866) 202-0520 if you have any other questions about this exciting new way to own System Access Mobile with Neo Speech.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Living the Digital Lifestyle
This week I am in our Minneapolis office and was able to work with my computer at home, my Serotek intranet, and even hear music. I did all this without even plugging in a thumbdrive. Using SAToGo I did it all. I got to thinking about this digital lifestyle.
We’ve been seduced into it, often without even knowing that it is happening to us. In our pocket we have a cell phone that does an amazing number of things besides make voice calls. Quite likely we have some sort of music-playing device – an I-pod or MP3 player. We have a computer or two or three, probably wired together (or today, connected via a wireless network). Maybe we have a personal digital assistant or other type of note-taker. It’s a lot of gear, but we don’t think of any of these as gadgets anymore. They are necessities. We can’t imagine functioning without them.
Welcome to the digital lifestyle. But it’s more than devices.
We are also members of a variety of online services for social networking, entertainment, education, information. We order our movies and music online and maybe pizza. We “Google” anything we need to know. We are “wired” into any number of online communities and exchange information on our blog or podcast or comment on other people’s blogs or podcasts. We have a Website where people can view our family or do business with us. When something goes wrong they can log on and follow our progress in the hospital or say nice things about us in our obituary.
And then there are our software tools – word processors, picture editors, Web page editing tools, browsers, screen readers or other accessibility tools – whatever we need to be involved and stay involved.
It doesn’t look very much like the Jetsons or any other futuristic conception from the last century. It’s a whole lot more practical and common place than that and yet, if you look, much of the gee whiz stuff is in everyday use – picture phones, tracking devices, robots.
The future snuck up on us and we didn’t even notice.
For a blind guy this is sort of heaven. Today I can do a hundred things without thinking about them each of which would have been a major production ten years ago. Think about it: shop, fill out a government or business form, write my congressman, text or talk to my wife while I’m standing in line ready to board my plane, get the plane ticket, reserve the hotel room, pick up the information off of my home computer that I forgot to load onto my laptop, listen to ten tunes my best-buddy told me I’d like, scan a dozen articles, order groceries, amuse myself playing an online game, pay my bills, get paid, invest in stocks, find out why my guide dog Jacksan is scratching himself silly. I can make this list as long as you’d like. I do it all using my computer, cell phone, or Personal digital assistant and I do it wherever I am.
I’m no longer dependent. I’m in charge. I am completely blind but my blindness is rarely more than a minor inconvenience. How did that happen? It’s the digital lifestyle. It makes molehills out of mountains and the impossible pretty simple. It puts an entire universe of people and services at my beck and call. And together we can do almost anything.
There is a problem, though. Of the millions and millions of blind people in the world there are fewer than five hundred thousand living the digital lifestyle today. And that isn’t fair. Anything this good and simple, immediately available to every sighted teenager in the world, should be available to every blind person as well.
That’s what my company, Serotek, is about. Our motto is Accessibility Anywhere and you can add to that for everyone. Our mission is to give every blind person everywhere an equal opportunity to participate in the digital lifestyle.
Of course we can only make it available. Then the choice is up to the blind person. He or she can put on the digital lifestyle and live free and independently in the modern world, or not. But we are rapidly approaching a time when no blind person can say that they don’t have the opportunity. The digital lifestyle is within almost everyone’s reach from grade school kid to grandmother. It’s there, it’s easy to use, it’s inexpensive. Adopting the digital lifestyle will take cost out of your life.
What are you waiting for?
We’ve been seduced into it, often without even knowing that it is happening to us. In our pocket we have a cell phone that does an amazing number of things besides make voice calls. Quite likely we have some sort of music-playing device – an I-pod or MP3 player. We have a computer or two or three, probably wired together (or today, connected via a wireless network). Maybe we have a personal digital assistant or other type of note-taker. It’s a lot of gear, but we don’t think of any of these as gadgets anymore. They are necessities. We can’t imagine functioning without them.
Welcome to the digital lifestyle. But it’s more than devices.
We are also members of a variety of online services for social networking, entertainment, education, information. We order our movies and music online and maybe pizza. We “Google” anything we need to know. We are “wired” into any number of online communities and exchange information on our blog or podcast or comment on other people’s blogs or podcasts. We have a Website where people can view our family or do business with us. When something goes wrong they can log on and follow our progress in the hospital or say nice things about us in our obituary.
And then there are our software tools – word processors, picture editors, Web page editing tools, browsers, screen readers or other accessibility tools – whatever we need to be involved and stay involved.
It doesn’t look very much like the Jetsons or any other futuristic conception from the last century. It’s a whole lot more practical and common place than that and yet, if you look, much of the gee whiz stuff is in everyday use – picture phones, tracking devices, robots.
The future snuck up on us and we didn’t even notice.
For a blind guy this is sort of heaven. Today I can do a hundred things without thinking about them each of which would have been a major production ten years ago. Think about it: shop, fill out a government or business form, write my congressman, text or talk to my wife while I’m standing in line ready to board my plane, get the plane ticket, reserve the hotel room, pick up the information off of my home computer that I forgot to load onto my laptop, listen to ten tunes my best-buddy told me I’d like, scan a dozen articles, order groceries, amuse myself playing an online game, pay my bills, get paid, invest in stocks, find out why my guide dog Jacksan is scratching himself silly. I can make this list as long as you’d like. I do it all using my computer, cell phone, or Personal digital assistant and I do it wherever I am.
I’m no longer dependent. I’m in charge. I am completely blind but my blindness is rarely more than a minor inconvenience. How did that happen? It’s the digital lifestyle. It makes molehills out of mountains and the impossible pretty simple. It puts an entire universe of people and services at my beck and call. And together we can do almost anything.
There is a problem, though. Of the millions and millions of blind people in the world there are fewer than five hundred thousand living the digital lifestyle today. And that isn’t fair. Anything this good and simple, immediately available to every sighted teenager in the world, should be available to every blind person as well.
That’s what my company, Serotek, is about. Our motto is Accessibility Anywhere and you can add to that for everyone. Our mission is to give every blind person everywhere an equal opportunity to participate in the digital lifestyle.
Of course we can only make it available. Then the choice is up to the blind person. He or she can put on the digital lifestyle and live free and independently in the modern world, or not. But we are rapidly approaching a time when no blind person can say that they don’t have the opportunity. The digital lifestyle is within almost everyone’s reach from grade school kid to grandmother. It’s there, it’s easy to use, it’s inexpensive. Adopting the digital lifestyle will take cost out of your life.
What are you waiting for?
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
SAToGo Beta – Phase 2
Thank you for participating in the first phase of Beta testing for Seroteks amazing online accessibility tool, SAToGo. We are reviewing your many comments and making adjustments to the product in response. The initial reaction from beta users is that SAToGo is an astounding success.
Effective October 15, 2007, the public beta phase is ended. We are now moving into the second phase of Beta testing which focuses on interaction with features of the System Access Mobile Network. SAMobile.net subscribers can continue their use of SAToGo indefinitely. Those who are not yet SAMobile.net subscribers but would like to continue to use SAToGo are invited to subscribe. A one-year subscription to SAMobile.net costs $229 for the first year and $129 for every year of continuous service after that for life. Or you can purchase System Access Mobile, for $499 Seroteks award winning screen reader alternative for PC access at home, on the job, or at school, including a license for a U3 compatible thumb drive. Purchase this package and get a years subscription to SAMobile.net at no additional charge. Offer is valid until December 1st 2007. In either case, you will be able to continue to use SAToGo and exercise some of the unique features of the SAMobile Network. In particular, you can use SAMobile.Nets Remote Training and Support feature, connecting to your home or office system directly through the network from anywhere, operating your home system remotely as if you were sitting at the keyboard, accessing your files and using your home systems resources even if you have another screen reader installed on the remote computer. Similarly, on invitation, you can share the desktop of any other SAMobile.Net user, helping a friend fix a system problem, showing someone how to use an application, or collaborating on a key document, again even if they have a different screen reader installed.
If you thought SAToGo was a powerful stand-alone accessibility tool, wait until you try it in its full glory, with access to SAMobile.net and the largest concentration of accessible content ever assembled with the visually impaired user in mind. Create your own website, shop, blog, e-mail, access described videos, news, and much more.
And stay tuned to see where SAToGo goes next. Accessibility anywhere. Isnt that the way it should be??
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
From Street Kid to CEO: An Interview with Mike Calvo - AccessWorld® - September 2007
We invite all of you to check out this interview of Mike Calvo, Serotek's CEO, in the September 2007 issue of AccessWorld, the assistive technology newsletter published by the American Foundation for the Blind.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
BBC Access 2.0: SAToGo on the Go
Great article about System Access to Go has been posted to BBC's Access 2.0 blog.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Thank You for Your Support and Keep Your Comments Flowing!
The Serotek Team wants to thank you for your support of SAToGo. We have had an overwhelming response to our beta release of SAToGo and we are methodically reviewing each and every comment. If you haven't heard from us yet, you will. Many of your comments have already been turned into fixes and the software is getting better in real time. Keep those comments coming. We are grateful for your support and help bringing about a revolution in universal accessibility.
Many thanks,
The Serotek Team
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