System Access: The Alternative Commitment

As you know, Serotek is not a conventional assistive technology provider. In fact, we take pride in our willingness to think outside the box and leverage products that make a distinct mark on the customers we serve, but, the price of pulling away from the pack means succumbing to all manner of speculation perpetuated by competitors and by customers who rely on bias reviews to direct their own decisions. We have never shied away from defending our approach to development, and so following in that tradition, today we address a question that comes to our attention from time to time: Is System Access a full screen reader?

Well, to begin on common ground, let's first start by defining what a screen reader is. In the way of an impartial source, we can use the American Foundation of the Blind, which sets forth the following:

"Screen readers are software programs that allow blind or visually impaired users to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer. A screen reader is the interface between the computer’s operating system, its applications, and the user. The user sends commands by pressing different combinations of keys on the computer keyboard to instruct the speech synthesizer what to say and to speak automatically when changes occur on the computer screen."[1]

Well, if we're going by these fundamental guidelines, then System Access is most certainly a full screen reader. Customers can install our product and interact with a growing number of popular applications that facilitate e-mail, word processing, web browsing and other key activities that are essential to daily tasks inside and outside of the office or classroom.

In its early days, it would have been fair to ask if our product could feasibly rise to the challenge of a traditional screen reader. Then again, we never promised more functionality than the product delivered. We understood that in its infancy, the product formerly known as Freedom Box that later included System Access 1.0 was a rudimentary solution with limited use of the off screen model to interact with applications, but even in 2002, many years after the birth of competing products, Freedom Box was hailed by the Teachers.Net Gazette as a product that "opened a new door for the blind and visually impaired, offering a new found freedom and a new kind of life."[2] That was high praise for a product that was so basic compared to the innovation we see today and when compared to the screen readers that had already been enjoying a prominent spotlight in the market.

There are at least three factors that feed people's hesitation to see System Access for what it is:

First, customers respond to marketing tactics that feed on human instinct. When you are sick, and when given a choice between the less expensive and the more expensive treatments, your instinct is to want the more expensive treatment because the higher cost must surely mean that the results are better. The same is true of technology. Accessibility concerns aside, you could buy the new Kindle Fire, or you could put down more money and buy the more expensive iPad because the majority says the latter outperforms the former. So it comes as no surprise that if competing screen readers cost $895 and $1,095, the experience must surely be sweeter. We often hear that not all is peace in paradise, but it's not our place to comment on other companies' ability to live up to expectations.

Second, there is a persistent view that a product cannot be considered a full screen reader if it does not allow for scripting. Such a view presumes that the absence of this feature was an oversight rather than an implementation by design. For the moment, Serotek does not buy into the practice of opening its product to scripting languages, and even if this were to change in the future, it would not be a dominant focus of our development.

To understand this aspect of our approach, it's important to recognize our distinction between user interface and user experience. User interface provides users with a core platform and enough tools to make that platform work for the specific needs of the end user. The manufacturer admits it does not know what the user might want to do with the product, so it provides scripting language support to help advanced users manipulate the platform to fit their needs. Such an approach is by no means a bad one, but it relies on users to devote many hours to learning the scripting language. It also sometimes requires many dollars to gain training if a consumer wants assistance with using the language to interact with and configure access to complex applications.

On the other hand, user experience boils down to nothing more complicated than creating a product that, to borrow Apple's philosophy, just works. Serotek has never claimed to outpace competing products on all fronts. We continue to cultivate a product that works very well for the most popular applications like ITunes, various e-mail clients, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome and a growing range of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. The scope of what System Access can deliver might be painted as limited, but limitations are only as concrete as the real world use of the consumer in question. System Access need not be configurable through scripting if the product is already delivering a solid experience for what it is advertised to accomplish.

Finally, Serotek has a specific customer in mind as it develops new products and services. We are thinking of the consumer who cannot afford to pay for competing products or for the software maintenance agreements to keep those products updated. Starting with monthly payment plans as little as $9.95 per month, System Access is priced well below other options on the market, and we are the only company with enough faith in the evolution of our product and it’s ability to continue to attract new customers to have eliminated software maintenance agreements. Our option is economical enough for people who are recent adopters of screen reading technology who need a straightforward introduction to assistive technology before plunging into murkier waters. It is an economical solution for people who believe in having easy to use yet powerful options instantly at hand.

We are also thinking of the consumer who enjoys the bells and whistles of competing products but require a consistent companion on hand when the competing product crashes or is unable to be installed due to lack of access to admin rights on the target machine. Nothing is more frustrating than encountering silence and having no way to get around it than to reboot the entire system to get things talking again. We would never suggest that System Access is without faults, but as far as offering an approach that delivers immediate and intuitive access, we stand by our commitment to make it work as easily and as consistently as possible. We are also the only company that has developed portable solutions that work under a minute on any PC you plug your thumb drive into with our product or access them via our Internet sites on any compatible version of Windows without the need for admin rights.

So, while we may not be the best choice for the software developer who requires specific tweaks to make her environment inhabitable, we are a perfect tool for the vast majority of users who want to take accessibility on the go and work anywhere, anytime, something best exhibited in the free service available on SAToGo.com. After all, why limit yourself to timed demonstrations when you could take our product for a more uninhibited test drive?

At Serotek, System Access provides a fundamental platform upon which our other services have been launched. We rolled out System Access during the days before we had options like NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA), and in fact, System Access might have never been born if NVDA had been an option back then. As things stood, the only choices were too expensive for a vast majority of blind consumers, and our commitment to making products as affordable as possible is as vigorous today as it was when we released our first beta.

So, is System Access a full screen reader? We believe in presenting you the evidence and letting you decide for yourself. Ultimately, the proof is in the performance and if the product works for your spasific applications. Right?
?
[1] Screen Readers. American Foundation of the Blind: Last accessed December 6, 2011
http://www.afb.org/prodbrowsecatresults.asp?catid=49
[2] The Freedom Box, Technology for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Melanson, Dave. Teachers.Net Gazette. Last accessed: December 6, 2011
http://teachers.net/gazette/OCT02/melanson.html

Serotek Corporation Announces the Release of DocuScan Plus

For Immediate Release
Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 24, 2010

Serotek Corporation, the leading provider of accessible multi platform and cloud-based solutions which can be accessed from anywhere, is proud to announce the release of DocuScan Plus. This innovative software allows persons to scan and read documents from any computer with an attached Twain-compliant scanner, sound card and internet connection.

Serotek's DocuScan Plus offers high-quality optical character recognition, (OCR), to convert the printed page in to text. This self-voicing application can read both printed pages from a Twain-compliant scanner, as well as many types of PDF files, including those containing text and those containing only images. The software also supports scanners with duplex and ADF (automatic document feeder) capabilities. DocuScan Plus can convert scanned documents in to MP3 audio files for playback on many portable devices, and the software can even convert scanned materials in to the popular DAISY format. For Low Vision users, DocuScan Plus also offers a full Screen Magnifier for the reading of scanned text. This magnification option, when combined with the self voicing features of DocuScan Plus, allows documents to be comfortably read from the screen as well as via text-to-speech. Materials can also be saved in Large Print. In this way, documents can be scanned, printed, and shared with friends or viewed offline under a Video magnifier.

“We wanted to create an affordable application that really took in to account the way we access the printed word in the 21st century.”, said Mike Calvo, CEO. “We don’t spend all our time on one computer, or even one device anymore, so why should we be using software based on that model? When we make a product like this, with a feature set that’s useful to people with a wide variety of disabilities,and it’s just as easy to use from the classroom computer as it is from home, we believe it has the potential to open a lot of doors that have remained closed until now.”

The DocuScan Plus software can be used as an installed program from your personal computer, or it can be accessed from any computer simply by visiting http://www.DocuScanPlus.com. The program may be purchased for only $299, or less than one third of the cost of other scanning solutions.

Other features included are:

Braille Conversion: DocuScan Plus contains Braille translation options, allowing you to convert your scanned pages and PDF files into a variety of different braille formats based on the specific translation table you choose.
Save To Kindle: Wirelessly Transfer scanned documents to the Amazon Kindle for reading on the go using the Kindle's built in text to speech function.
Export Scanned Text: Save documents and materials to a computer or portable DAISY player for offline reading.
Encrypted Online Storage: Save documents securely to the cloud and retrieve them from anywhere.
Additional Synthesizer Support: Choose from a variety of synthesizers for use with this self-voicing application.
Additional Support For Mobile Platforms: DocuScan Plus will support some external camera and mobile phone platforms. This functionality will come free with DocuScan Plus and it is currently scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2011.

DocuScan Plus may be used independently of any other Serotek software. The application can allow persons to read the printed page with any Windows-based computer, regardless of whether any access technology has been installed or is currently running.

For more information, please call Serotek Corporation at (612) 246-4818, or email us at sales@serotek.com.
Visit the official DocuScan Plus web site at http://www.DocuScanplus.com

Serotek Corporation is a leading technology company that develops software and manufactures accessibility solutions under the System Access brand. Committed to the mission of providing accessibility anywhere, Serotek began with the launch of the first online community specifically designed to meet the needs of people with visual impairment. Since then, Serotek has introduced several powerful, affordable solutions that require minimal training and investment. For more information, visit www.serotek.com.
Media Contact:
pr@serotek.com
612.246.4818, Ext. 104
Technical Contact :
info@serotek.com

What is the Future of Screen Readers anyway?

A week or so ago, the American Council of the Blind held a Future of Screen Readers panel as part of the Information Access Committee seminar at the ACB annual convention. Serotek was one of the companies invited to attend remotely via Skype. Other remote participants were GW Micro and NVDA. Unfortunately technology failed (through no fault of Skype) and we remote participants did not get to contribute. But I thought the panel questions were extremely pertinent to all blind people and that it was important we add our voice to the conversation. So this blog post is Serotek’s way of making sure our voice, and the voice of many who share our view, is also heard.
I’d like to begin with Question 6, because it separates us from most panel participants. I’ll come back and address each of the ten questions – which are included in their entirety at the end of this post.
Question 6 said: “Imagine that you are participating on a panel five years from now. What do you hope you can tell us about the screen reader space and the role of your screen reader in it?”
Serotek hopes wholeheartedly that in 2015 we can say the screen reader space has vanished. This change will be brought about through our efforts as a company, and through advocacy by consumers, to encourage universal accessibility in all mainstream products. When screen readers were invented in the early 1980’s they were essential tools to make an inaccessible digital world accessible. They were never meant to be a business, only a means to an end. They were developed by private companies aided by government funding to correct an inequity and make it possible for blind people to use digital tools to become economically viable again. They were for vocational rehab, helping us get off the dole and back to work as contributing members of society. Unfortunately this wonderful leg up soon became a barrier for blind people. Digital technology raced ahead but without universal accessibility built in. Screen readers lagged behind and rather than leveling the playing field, they tended to add extra cost and training while restricting access to the most advanced mainstream software features. Companies producing screen readers were more concerned with preserving the government funding cash cow than with helping the blind community achieve total equality. Fortunately that business model is finally disintegrating. We’ve been a part of the push to change the model from day one of our existence, but truthfully it didn’t really start to shift until mainstream companies like Apple embraced universal accessibility in their core product design.
So you know where we’re coming from. Let’s move back to the original order of the questions.


Question 1 asked us to describe how our business model will impact the overall market for screen readers.
Serotek is a blindness products and technology company. Our sole purpose is to help our blind community fully enjoy the digital lifestyle. For us, screen readers are a necessary bridge until native operating systems have full accessibility for the blind built in. To that end we have made the screen reader very affordable – even free in the web-based SAToGo version. We believe accessibility is a fundamental human right and blind folks should not be penalized financially to achieve access. We think the blind community is short-changed when huge resources have to be focused on fundamental accessibility. Funds and teaching time should zero in on the applications not the access. Vocational rehab should be more like a driving school. Bring your own car and we’ll teach you how to drive. Where government subsidies are necessary they should shift from accessibility to the real applications people need in all facets of their lives – work, socializing, and play. The economy is driving this change whether we like it or not. Serotek is working hard to deliver the kind of services and training tools that make it affordable and easy.
Question 2 asked what is our strategy in the emerging remote computing, cloud computing, and virtual machine world.
We were, of course, first among adaptive technology vendors in all these areas. We were first in remote computing with products that used the web to allow users to connect to their home machines; first in developing accessible remote training solutions; and first in cloud-resident, downloadable AT applications. We are first in releasing AT products that can be accessed from the whole range of digital devices – phones, computers, I-pads, netbooks. Serotek is committed to being on the leading edge, assuring the blind community access to the power of the newest and best technology.
Question 3 asks how we can improve support for Braille.
System Access is the only Windows screen reader with true plug-and-play braille support, but we believe it's possible to do better still. Serotek took the lead in supporting the HID standard for Braille and refused to create interfaces for any Braille display product not using the HID standard. Now, all but one Braille device manufacturer (Freedom Scientific) supports HID. Why is that important? Interface standards are fundamental to universal accessibility. How can it be better? While the USB HID standard facilitates plug-and-play operation, even HID-capable displays use proprietary interfaces to communicate with the screen reader on the host computer or smart device. And while most braille display manufacturers are quite willing to help screen reader developers in adding support for their displays, we believe that interface standards are fundamental to universal accessibility. As devices and applications proliferate interface standards make it possible for mainstream developers to include accessibility in their core design. If we want universal accessibility and we include the deaf/blind in our goal, Braille is essential. Serotek is actively collaborating with both Braille manufacturers and software developers to develop and promote a standard interface between braille displays and the increasing variety of devices that can use them. There is no room for proprietary solutions in this arena.

Question 4 asks what are the challenges and opportunities in AJAX and HTML5.
AJAX was an evolutionary step in Web Development; HTML5 is now the media rich standard language. Serotek is always on the leading edge adopting and applying these standards as they are accepted. This is fundamental to our mission to assure the blind community has access to the latest digital tools and applications. Many developers, both mainstream and adaptive technology, look backward and struggle to protect their past investment in code and hardware. Serotek is focus forward. We bring our legacy base along by keeping them fully up-to-date with continuous improvements to our products including, from time to time, complete re-writes if necessary to fully employ the latest tools.
Question 5 asks how we can reduce the time lag between mainstream innovation and availability to the blind community.
An active collaboration with the manufacturers of mainstream products must begin during a product’s development cycle, not after it is released. In this way, AT vendors can not only ensure compatibility with the current versions of their own products, but can leverage the opportunity to educate manufacturers on accessibility and universal design, moving us ever closer to the day when AT vendors are no longer required at all. We’ve provided quality support well before the public release dates for products like Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Office 2010, and these are just a few examples of our dedication not to leave our customers behind. When mainstream development moves forward, we move forward to match it. . Our goal is no time lag – and so far we’ve met that goal.
Question 6 was answered in the introduction.
Question 7 asks what we can do to ensure our users have the best training and support?
Serotek’s products are intuitive and easy to learn. We want consumers to spend more time actively using a computer, rather than concentrating on learning a screen reader first and then moving on to the tasks they ultimately want to perform. We provide tech support by phone or online, but the best part is that our customers are able to help and learn from each other. This can be done through remote tools built in to the product, or through participation in community forums or voice chats. We produce software designed to help trainers and technical support professionals service not only our products, but any technical product one on one using the Internet. This allows trainers to reach and train more people to use their computers and other devices to their fullest potential, regardless of which assistive technology they choose to use. We produce podcasts and tech chats distributed on the serotalk.com web site, aimed at educating consumers about the available mainstream and AT solutions to improve the quality of their digital life. Rather than passive participation, our community submits reviews and other materials to be included in these presentations, and this type of community involvement benefits everyone. Our design philosophy is to continuously simplify user interfaces; to use available standards wherever possible; and to use the power of social networking among our users, trainers and technicians to assure no question goes unanswered.
Question 8 asks what our top three pieces of advice are for developers of software, websites, and interactive environments.
Simple:
1. Provide us documentation.
2. Recognize the blind community as consumers, with disposable income, ready, willing and able to spend significant funds for the latest and best technology. We are talking hundreds of millions of potential users, worldwide, who have been ignored in the past. Stop ignoring US.
3. Stick to standards. The world is too complex – too many devices and languages -- to add yet another proprietary interface. Apply universal design principles from the start so as to leave no one behind.
Question 9 asks what will have to occur for Microsoft to follow Apple in the use of integrated screen reading.
It is important to note that Microsoft has made incremental improvements to their “Ease of Access” program. In Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced Speech Recognition to their built in access options. They have refined it for Windows 7 and we have demonstrated how System Access can be used with this integrated technology on the Serotalk podcasts.
Also, in Windows 7, Microsoft has introduced enhancements to the Windows Magnifier that allows it to display in a full screen mode. This is a vast improvement over the previous thin strip of a magnified window that was found on machines in the Windows XP era. This new Windows Magnifier, when combined with other Windows effects for altering color and mouse pointers, can create a compelling argument that Low Vision users need not pay hundreds of dollars for minimal screen magnification.
Change is coming. It is happening. Microsoft is slower than we would like, but we have to remember they are hosting 90% of the computers in existence. Every change is a big deal. The last time they tried including accessibility they got a lot of grief from the community and they backed off. Now they are moving forward. We are working with them as we will any vendor looking to make its products more accessible.
Question 10 asks what we find most frustrating in the market.
It is the lack of co-opitition among screen reader manufacturers. We say this because we are blind guys first and anything that improves capability for our community should be celebrated and used. The industry needs more innovation and less litigation. We applaud companies like GW Micro and the Braille display manufacturers that have openly partnered with us and others to improve things for everyone.
We should all share the goal of making things better for the community first. Profit is important, but not at the cost of reducing accessibility.
We applaud ACB for this highly pertinent discussion. We are in a unique time in the history of our community when our paradigm is shifting under our feet – and for the better. The latest generation of mainstream technology is more accessible than ever. Standards are moving forward and finally most of the contributors are agreeing to play by the standards. Within a very short time the idea that “accessibility is a right” moved from the lunatic fringe to absolute mainstream. Serotek, as you all know, has happily waged the battle at the fringe because what is best for the blind community is best for us.
Here are the ACB panel questions:
Questions for the “Future of Desktop Screen Readers” Panel


1. Each of your company has a different business model for marketing and selling your screen reader. Based on this model, describe how your product is expected to impact the overall market for screen readers.

2. The role of computing has shifted dramatically in the past few years with much computing being done either remotely—through some kind of cloud-based virtual operating system—or virtual machines via products such as VMware. Going forward, tell us about your strategy to support remote and virtual computing with your screen reader.


3. As you know, braille is absolutely vital to many aspects of the lives that we live as people who are blind or visually impaired including education, employment, and literacy. How do you imagine support for braille can be improved in your product?

4. The future role of the World Wide Web is often described as that of a highly interactive, media-rich desktop. As we move into the era where this role becomes more and more evident with the gradual implementation of such technologies as AJAX and those collectively known as HTML5, what challenges do you foresee your screen reader facing? What opportunities do you imagine these interfaces to bring?

5. With rapid changes, often dramatic at times, in operating systems, browsers, and other technologies, screen reader users express frustration that they are unable to take advantage of the technologies used by their sighted peers for months—if not years. In addition, the interaction model for each screen reader may differ significantly. What collaborative steps can you take to reduce the lag and different interaction modalities for increased benefit to users?


6. Imagine that you are participating on a panel 5 years from now. What do you hope you can tell us about the screen reader space and the role of your screen reader in it?

7. Training and support are essential for most screen reader users. What innovative steps can you take in the future to ensure that your users have the best training and support available? What are some challenges are you likely to face?


8. What are the top three things you would tell developers who develop software, websites, and interactive environments?

9. By introducing a screen reader as an integral part of the operating system available for every user and at no additional cost, Apple has changed the dynamics of the screen reader industry. What changes need to occur for Microsoft to bring about a similar model for Windows? What reasons are there for not taking such a step?

10. As a developer of a screen reader, what to you is the most frustrating aspect of being in this market?

The Serotek Ultimatum

Serotek declares war on the traditional adaptive technology industry and their blind ghetto products. With this announcement we are sending out a call to arms to every blind person and every advocate for the blind to rise up and throw off the tyranny that has shaped our lives for the past two decades. It is a tyranny of good intentions – or at least what began as good intentions. But as the proverb says, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And for the past two decades the technologies originally conceived to give us freedom have been our shackles. They have kept us tied down to underperforming, obscenely expensive approaches that only a small percentage of blind people can afford or master. They have shackled us to government largess and the charity of strangers to pay for what few among us could afford on our own. And we have been sheep, lead down the path, bleating from time to time, but without the vision or the resources to stand up and demand our due.
That time is past.
We stand today on the very edge of universal accessibility. Mainstream products like the iPod, iPhone, and newly announced iPad are fully accessible out of the box. And they bring with them a wealth of highly desirable accessibility applications. The cost to blind people is exactly the same as the cost to sighted people. It’s the same equipment, the same software, the same functionality, and fully accessible.
What Apple has done, others are doing as well. The adaptive technology vendor who creates hardware and software that is intended only for blind folks, and then only if they are subsidized by the government, is a dinosaur. The asteroid has hit the earth, the dust cloud is ubiquitous, the dinosaur’s days are numbered.
But dinosaurs are huge, and their extinction does not happen overnight.. Even as they die, they spawn others like them (take the Intel Reader for example). Thank you, no. Any blind person can have full accessibility to any type of information without the high-cost, blind-ghetto gear. They can get it in the same products their sighted friends are buying. But let’s face it; if we keep buying that crap and keep besieging our visual resource center to buy that crap for us, the dinosaurs of the industry are going to keep making it. Their profit margins are very good indeed. And many have invested exactly none of that profit in creating the next generation of access technology, choosing instead to perpetuate the status quo. For instance, refreshable braille technology, arguably the most expensive blindness-specific(and to many very necessary) product has not changed significantly in 30 years. Yet, the cost remains out of reach for most blind people. Where's the innovation there? Why have companies not invested in cheaper, faster, smaller, and more efficient ways to make refreshable braille? Surely the piezoelectric braille cell is not the only way? And what about PC-based OCR software? It's still around a thousand dollars per license, yet core functionality hasn't changed much; sure, we get all sorts of features not at all related to reading, along with incremental accuracy improvements, but why are these prices not dropping either, especially when you consider that comparable off-the-shelf solutions like Abby Finereader can be had for as low as $79? ? And let's not forget the screen reader itself, the core technology that all of us need to access our computers in the first place. Do we see improvements, or just an attempt to mimic innovation with the addition of features which have nothing to do with the actual reading of the screen, while maintaining the same ridiculous price point.

This maintaining of the status quo will, inevitably, face an enormous crash, worse than the transition from DOS to Windows based accessibility. You can expect a technology crash that will put users of the most expensive accessibility gear out of business.
Why? I won’t bore you with all the technical details, but the basic story is that some of these products have been kept current with patches and fixes and partial rewrites and other tricks we IT types use when we haven’t got the budget to do it right, but we need to make the product work with the latest operating system. That process of patching and fixing creates an enormous legacy barrier that makes it impossible to rewrite without abandoning all who came before. But you can only keep a kluge working for so long before it will crumble under its own weight. That, my friends, is exactly where some of the leading adaptive technology vendors find themselves today.
There are exceptions. Serotek is an exception because we have completely recreated our product base every three years. GW Micro is an exception because they built their product in a highly modular fashion and can update modules without destroying the whole. KNFB is an exception because they take advantage of off-the-shelf technologies, which translate ultimately into price drops and increased functionality.

But even we who have done it right are on a path to obsolescence. The fundamental need for accessibility software is rapidly beginning to vanish. The universal accessibility principles we see Apple, Microsoft, Olympus, and others putting in place are going to eliminate the need for these specialty products in a matter of just a very few years.
Stop and think. Why do you need accessibility tools? To read text? E-book devices are eliminating that need. None of them are perfect yet, but we are really only in the first generation. By Gen2 they will all be fully accessible. To find your way? GPS on your iPhone or your Android based phone will do that for you. To take notes? Easy on any laptop, netbook, or iPad. Heck, you can record it live and play it back at your convenience. Just what isn’t accessible? You can play your music, catch a described video, scan a spreadsheet, take in a PowerPoint presentation – all using conventional, off-the-shelf systems and/or software that is free of charge.
There are still some legacy situations where you need to create an accessibility path. Some corporations still have internal applications that do not lend themselves to modern devices. There will certainly be situations where a specialized product will better solve an accessibility problem than a mainstream one, especially in the short term. We don't advocate throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but we do advocate that we begin to hasten the inevitable change by using accessible mainstream solutions wherever possible. Even now, the leading edge companies are reinventing their internal systems with accessibility as a design criteria, so the situations that require specialized products will certainly become fewer as time goes on.
If our current Assistive technology guard's reign is coming to an end, why the war? Why not just let it die its own, natural, inevitable death? Because nothing dies more slowly than an obsolete technology. Punch cards hung on for twenty or thirty years after they were completely obsolete. The same is true for magnetic tape. Old stuff represents a comparatively large investment, and people hate to throw away something they paid a lot of money for even if it’s currently worthless. But that legacy stuff obscures the capabilities of the present. It gets used in situations where other solutions are cheaper and more practical. The legacy stuff clogs the vocational rehab channel, eating up the lion’s share of the resources but serving a tiny portion of the need. It gets grandfathered into contracts. It gets specified when there is no earthly reason why the application requires it. The legacy stuff slows down the dawning of a fully accessible world.
It hurts you and it hurts me.
To be sure, I make my living creating and selling products that make our world accessible. But first and foremost, I am a blind person. I am one of you. And every day I face the same accessibility challenges you face. I have dedicated my life and my company to making the world more accessible for all of us, but I can’t do it alone. This is a challenge that every blind person needs to take up. We need to shout from the rooftops: “Enough!”
We need to commit ourselves in each and every situation to finding and using the most accessible off the shelf tool and/or the least-cost, highest function accessibility tool available. With our dollars and our commitment to making known that our needs and the needs of sighted people are 99% the same, we can reshape this marketplace. We can drive the dinosaurs into the tar pits and nurture those cute fuzzy little varmints that are ancestors to the next generation. We can be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
And all it takes is getting the best possible solution for your specific need. Once you have found the solution to fill that need, let the company know you appreciate their work towards better accessibility. Let your friends (sighted and blind) know about these accessibility features; they probably don't know that such features exist.
Make your needs known to the vocational rehab people you are working with, and don’t allow them to make recommendations for a specific technology for no other reason than that it’s been in the contract for years. Make sure your schools and your workplace understand the need to push technology in to the accessible space. Show them the low-cost alternatives. In this economy some, the intelligent ones, will get it and the tide will begin to turn.
And then in short order the tsunami of good sense will wash away the old, and give us the space to build a more accessible world for all of us. Let the demand ring out loud and clear and the market will follow.
If this message rings true to you, don’t just shake your fist in agreement and leave it at that. let your voice be heard! Arm yourself with the vision of a future where there are no social, conceptual, or economic barriers to accessibility, and let your words and your actions demonstrate that you will not rest until that vision is realized. Take out your wallet and let your consumer power shine! You do mater as a market people! You have kept this company alive with your money for 8 years this month! I believe that if we all get together and do our part, we will finally say “NO more!” same old same old! Join the revolution! Together we can change the world!

And the Winner is

Thanks to everyone who purchased Serotek products between Black Friday, November 27 and Cyber Monday, November 30. We were excited to see so many people joining the Serotek community for the first time, and we were happy to see so many long-time customers purchasing SAMNet subscriptions, new text-to-speech engines, and lots more. And for one lucky person, the excitement doesn’t end with the purchase of a Serotek product. Access to digital talking books, music, and content from the System Access Mobile Network will soon be in the palm of this person’s hands. The winner, who will receive a choice between the
Victor Reader Stream
and the PLEXTALK Pocket, is …

Audrey Farnum from Warr Acres, Oklahoma! Congratulations to Audrey, and we’ll contact you soon to determine which portable device will be delivering excellent content to you at home or on the go.

If you didn’t win but would still like access to all your content in one small and affordable package, you can still purchase either of these devices without breaking the bank. Purchase the Victor Reader Stream for $329, or the Plextalk Pocket for $349.

For more information about these devices or any other Serotek products, call us at (612) 246-4818 or
visit www.serotek.com .

Happy Holidays from the Serotek Team.

Save With Serotek and win!!

The day after Thanksgiving, now known as "Black Friday", has become an annual tradition, marking the beginning of the holiday season. Retailers slash prices on the year's must-haves, and bargain hunters stampede the doors in a mad dash to get that last great deal,.
At Serotek, every day is Black Friday, except without the crowds. With low prices on assistive technology, 365 days a year; and with no SMA (software Maintenance Agreement), you’ll save at least $100 per year, for the rest of your life!

From 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time on Black Friday, November 27, through 11:59 PM on Cyber Monday November 30, 2009, you could win your choice of either a
Victor Reader Stream, valued at $329
or the PLEXTALK Pocket PTP1, valued at $349. To become eligible to win, simply purchase one or more Serotek products listed below.

System Access Mobile Network For $129 per year or $14.95 per month.
includes audio tracks of described movies, thousands of Internet radio stations,
personalized news, podcasts, books, music, voice chat, blogging, your own web site, forums, email, instant messenging and remote computer access.
Use with System Access or any other screen reader you prefer.

System Access Screen Reader: on up to 2 computers for just $399
Get full access to Microsoft Windows 7, Vista and XP operating systems, and use all your favorite Windows applications for productivity, entertainment, and much more.

System Access Mobile For just $499
Harness the power of System Access on up to two computers, plus carry accessibility in your pocket on a U3 thumb drive. Plug the thumb drive in to any computer running Windows XP or later, and get instant access, with your own preferences and settings. When you're done, simply unplug the key and be on your way. No traces of System Access are left behind on the host computer.

System Access Atom Edition ($149)
License one netbook or any computer using the Atom processor for only $149.

NeoSpeech VoiceText with Three Human-sounding voices for Just $74.95
Kate, Julie and Paul are three voices to make your computer sound as human as possible.

Get the Most Popular Eloquence speech from Nuance for Only $25
For the most accurate pronunciation, and for those who like to read fast, Eloquence is it!

System Access Software As a Service, full buy-out with 48-month commitment
Get two screen reader licenses, network access, all voices, and take it on the go for $24.95 per month.

System Access Software As a Service, no strings attached
For just $39.95 per month, get two System Access computer licenses,
a third portable U3 license to use on any computer,
access to the SA Mobile Network, Eloquence and DECtalk text-to-speech,
Remote access to your home computer, and other users for training and support.
There are no long-term contracts, so you can cancel your subscription at any time.

Document Scan For just $159
Scan, read, save, and email printed material on any computer with a scanner.
Take Document Scan with you on a U3 drive, to make any computer a reading machine.
For $80 plus shipping, add a light, portable CanoScan USB scanner.

Surfboard all-in-one computer with System Access and 1 year of SAMNet starts at $999
At about the size of a PC keyboard, the unit is 18.25 inches long, 9 inches wide, 0.5 inches high in the front, and 2.5 inches high in the back, and weighs 7.4 pounds.
6 USB ports, 2 1394 FireWire ports, up to 3.2 GHz processor, up to 2GB main memory, and up to 250GB hard drive. Comes with System Access installed.

Netbooks Start at $799 with Speech, or $599 Without
Netbooks currently offered include: the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and the MSI Wind Netbook

The winner will be announced Tuesday, December 1st at 10 AM Eastern U.S.

If you have an account with either samobile.net or satogo.com, go to

https://secure.samobile.net/login.html?next_url=/signup/order_start

If you have never created an account with samobile.net or satogo.com, go to

https://secure.samobile.net/signup/account_info.html

To order by phone, call either Friday, November 27, or Monday, November 30 between the hours of 10 AM and 10 PM Eastern U.S. at 866-202-0520.

So give yourself, or someone you care about the holiday gift of accessibility anywhere!
And while doing so, you might just win your choice of either a Victor Reader Stream, or a PLEXTALK Pocket; from Serotek corporation, where low prices and great support make every day Black Friday.

Who Says? You Can't Build It and They Will Come

Knowbility blogger Desiree at Universally Designed gives us a wonderful tutorial in Webinars in her September 2nd posting along with an introduction to Serotek’s Accessible Event, which makes this phenomenally useful tool completely accessible to the blind, deaf, and deaf-blind. Desiree gives our AE team a lot of well-deserved pats on the back. That’s the way it should be because our people are out there changing the world, one demonstration at a time. Once again Serotek has blasted the barriers and brings the latest in social networking technology to everyone.
I call Accessible Event a social networking tool because online meetings are really a dimension of social networking. The one-on-one stuff is great and we make that available in many different ways, but some information is best provided to a group, all at the same time. That includes corporate meetings, webinars, university classes, sermons and presentations of many kinds – really any time one person or a group of people play show and tell to a larger group in real time. Thanks to the Internet and tools like GoToMeetinghttps://www1.gotomeeting.com/?Portal=www.gotomeeting.com and WebEx virtual meetings or webinars have been with us for a while now. But, as Desiree pointed out, the blind were not invited to be full participants. And neither were the deaf and deaf-blind.
Serotek changed that. We did it in a way that is very low cost and absolutely easy to use. We brought in the deaf and deaf-blind with closed caption capability and Braille interface. There is really no excuse now for any organization to offer a Webinar or even a presentation in an auditorium and not include full participation for the blind, deaf, and deaf-blind.
In case you haven’t noticed, this is what we do best. Make the world accessible with little or no hassle. We provide the accessibility tools people need to fully participate in today’s society. We make them easy to use and easy to own. We don’t wrap people up in expensive maintenance agreements or force them to own only our software in order to take advantage of the accessibility. AE, for example, works with any screen reader. And, of course, you don’t even need to purchase a screen reader for online use. System Access To Go is available free of charge to anyone.
When ADA was enacted there was always the built-in excuse that it was too costly or difficult to make certain activities accessible. Unfortunately, before we came on the scene, the Adaptive Technology Industry seemed to be doing its best to prove the ADA backsliders’ point. Serotek’s mission is to eliminate that excuse and with Accessible Event we’ve virtually eliminated it from presentations, online meetings and forums.
So speak up. If you are attending classes, webinars, going to meetings, or otherwise involved in presentations that are not fully accessible to you, it’s time to demand your rights. Any organization or individual can use AE at very little cost. The tools are available to tear down the barriers to accessibility, but only you can demand the people you deal with use those tools. Accessibility really begins with you demanding your right to it.

Deck Chairs On The Titanic

It’s April 15th. Tax day tea party fanatics are holding a national protest against government spending. Of course government spending keeps us blind people going. Without SSDI and government subsidized technology and training, most of us would be a lot worse off than we are today. What may look like waste to conservatives looks like a lifeline to us.
Today is also the 97th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The largest, most luxurious ship ever built sunk on its maiden voyage after hitting two icebergs late on the night of April 14th. It sank two and a half hours later, early in the morning on April 15th and more than 1500 people were lost.
What do these two things have in common other than April 15th?
While conservatives protest too much spending, blind people everywhere are protesting too little. As large as President Obama’s budget is, it doesn’t have much in it for us. The agencies that serve the blind population are being squeezed, and forced to operate with less funds and more demand. That means fewer blind people achieving independence.
One of the reasons that fewer and fewer blind people are being served is that government agencies insist on investing in the Titanic. They buy the biggest, most bloated products, build on obsolete technology, and they continue to pay for such technology long after the initial purchase. But these products are not in tune with today’s environment. They aren’t nimble enough to avoid the icebergs, and it takes weeks or even months for users to become familiar enough with such huge and ponderous technology to even attempt to navigate the waters safely.
So we thought, why not sink the Titanic and put what money we have in state-of-the-art technology that is cheaper, easier to learn and allows government to do more for less? While state agencies and NGO vision support organizations are hanging on to their tickets aboard the Titanic amid shrinking budgets, we are offering seats on the lifeboats.
Any user who currently owns a screen reader and finds himself in the unfortunate predicament of not having the latest Software Maintenance Agreement for the product can purchase System Access Mobile for $299 ($200 off the regular price) until April 30. System Access Mobile is state-of-the-art accessibility which can be used on a home computer or from any computer simply by plugging a thumb drive in to an available USB port. It runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, and gives users full access to all the social networking, pod casting, twittering fun of modern Internet use while delivering full accessibility to the most widely used business applications including Microsoft Office. It can be trained in a tiny fraction of the time it takes a new user to become familiar with a traditional (titanic-like) screen reader. And, while those old style behemoths continue to gobble dollars with Software Maintenance Agreements, System Access Mobile has done away with these costs for maintenance. Buy the software once and we keep it up-to-date forever at no cost to the user.
We figure realistically that a Voc-rehab can serve four newly blind individuals with System Access Mobile for every one served with a traditional screen reader. How’s that for stretching those tax dollars?
And of course, that’s not all. We offer our Voc-rehab trainers and blind field support technicians the power to train remotely with Remote incident Manager (RIM). We open up scarce technical jobs for blind IT professionals by promoting Remote Access Manager to businesses with large intranets. These products deliver accessibility at a cost that is comparable to any mainstream corporate intranet application.
Look around. While the competition is selling luxury staterooms on the Titanic for thousands, we are providing fast, safe accessibility at very affordable prices. We invite any agency to put our products against the competition in a cost-benefit analysis. And isn’t that what the agencies should be doing? Why, I bet that would even please the grumpy old misers at the Tax Day Tea Party. How could you be against doing more for less?

Our Birthday and President’s Day? Wow!

Not four score, but seven years ago we launched Serotek. I like to think that the company was conceived on liberty. In fact our first product was all about emancipation – helping blind people access the internet with little or no training, using an easy menu selection process. Even the name was liberty-based, but we’ve since stopped using that brand name.
The first product was an Internet appliance. We were more than a little ahead of the market and our original prototype appliance was about the size of a microwave oven. But compared to everything else out there it was a miracle – a breakthrough in human computer interface where we made the computer do the work, rather than the human.
The percentage of blind people using the Internet in those days was miniscule – just the super geeks. I’ll never forget the joy of a newly blind lady in her sixties who had never in her life used a computer when, with just her voice, she got on line using our product and made a purchase. She was so excited. Our little product had opened a door she never thought she would go through.
Back in 2002 we began to build what is now the SA Mobile Network – the largest compilation of blind-friendly web sites and online services in existence. Our mission then, as now was Accessibility Anywhere for Everyone. I like to think we were the first company to look at blind people as people, rather than as needy disabled folks that the government was going to take care of.
The competition paid no attention to us. We weren’t even on their radar screen. They had a business model that worked – for them – and they weren’t about to change it.
We played around with a variety of ways of packaging our Internet appliance, getting it down to about the size of a PDA – unfortunately not battery operated. Still it was very portable and that meant we could put accessibility on the move. Later we put the software on a thumb drive and our motto, Accessibility Anywhere was born. The competition was a little annoyed, but basically they thought we were selling toys and would go out of business before we could do any damage.
In 2004 we captured their attention with System Access. Suddenly it wasn’t just Internet Access we were offering it was full accessibility – the complete power of a screen reader. In 2005 System Access won the Da Vinci award, offered by Michigan Multiple Sclerosis Society to innovators who advanced the cause of accessibility. We put System Access on a thumb drive and now the competition was getting a little worried. Where they sold a separate license for every computer you made accessible, we offered completely portable accessibility and at a tiny fraction of the cost. SA was and is fully intuitive, requiring minimal training. It accesses many major commercial applications and on a thumb drive you could take it with you anywhere and make any computer accessible. It even stores your preferences for text to speech and other adjustable parameters.
In 2006 we turned our attention to businesses and trainers. We offered RAM, the first fully accessible corporate enterprise network package that made it possible for people with visual impairments to work as technicians, network managers, online trainers and help desk personnel, all in a completely secure environment. The cost was peanuts compared to outfitting a network with the necessary screen reader licenses and other support that would have been required if the competition could even conceive of the application. We also created RIM for visual resource trainers. RIM allows a trainer to share the desktop with any client, anywhere and teach any application – even the competitors’ products. The competition began to take us seriously. So seriously that in 2007 – well everyone knows that story. We began to build the System Access brand.
We had a lot of innovations in portability and ease of use as well as functionality. But in mid 2007 we put System Access To Go into beta test. SAToGo took accessibility onto the cloud. Anyone could download it anytime they were connected to the Internet and use it on any computer.
There was a lot of speculation on how we would price SAToGo. Most people thought we would add it as a capability to our Software as a Service package which allowed people to lease the entire Serotek software repertoire for a modest monthly charge.
At ATIA in 2008 we revealed our pricing. SAToGo was free. In cooperation with the AIR Foundation (Accessibility Is a Right) we put SAToGo on the cloud for anyone, anytime, at no charge. The competition thought we were crazy.
Here we were taking a veritable money tree and giving it away as firewood.
Slowly people began to understand. Serotek is a whole different animal. In 2008 Serotek Was Honored with The AFB Access Award

Also at ATIA we introduced the Accessible Digital Lifestyle which opened a world of fun products and gadgets to blind people just like we were – people. Can you believe it?
Now the industry was taking full notice. In fact, GW Micro beat us to the punch and, working with Apple Computer, made the Ipod accessible – a huge breakthrough. All manner of products and services that used to be available only to sighted folks are suddenly becoming accessible: GPS devices, MP3 players, PDAs, Facebook, MySpace, and more. The paradigm was shifting and little old Serotek was the lever that pushed the industry off its old model and into the scary world of full technology access for blind folks.
This year we pushed them again. We eliminated the software maintenance agreement (SMA) a little bit of legal larceny that forces blind folks to pay their vendor to fix stuff they should have gotten right the first time.
Of course along the way we’ve added all manner of fun and useful products and services. You can see them on our new, revamped Web site. But the 7th birthday is supposed to be the age of reason. I’m hoping people everywhere are beginning to see our reason and our reasoning.
At Serotek we believe in universal accessibility – no exceptions. The day we don’t have to design or sell another piece of software created to make inaccessible applications accessible, will be a celebration. We know we won’t lack for marvelous new things to do that make life more fun – more livable for everyone. And when that day comes the products we design for our blind brothers and sisters will have a market of billions worldwide. Our competition will be the big software players, not the niche organizations that specialize in government funded aid to the visually impaired.
No question but that Serotek is a pioneer and we may end up just collecting the arrows while others move on to settle the territory. But I don’t think so. I think we have the brains and genius to be designing world class products for the entire business and consumer market – products that blind folks can use right out of the box.
What will they be?
Short term you can believe that a great many applications will follow SAToGo onto the net. Cloud computing they call it and with Microsoft and Google focusing on it you can be pretty sure it will be ubiquitous in months, not years.
A big part will be social networking and social networking appliances. We are evolving to a whole new level of communication among groups with common interest. Look at the kids and their text messaging, We will all twitter, blog, and jott. We’re already podcasting and providing our own Internet radio channel. The future is about an evolving multimedia environment where groups with common interests share everything online.
If I started this post like Abraham Lincoln, let me finish it like George Washington. I can’t tell a lie. For me the current adaptive technology industry is a big cherry tree behind a fence that only feeds a few and starves the average blind person making it impossible to afford to have access to all the things his or her sighted peers can access. This tree is blocking the light and preventing innovation. And I have this little hatchet.
Well, Nuff said.

WINNERS OF SUMMER SIZZLE READY TO COOK

Since its announcement in early June, eager contestants have entered and anticipated the drawing for the Serotek Summer Sizzle, a contest offering $2000 worth of products comprising a Digital Lifestyle Makeover for the lucky winner. Nearly 2000 people from some 30 countries entered the online drawing, simply by completing a survey identifying personal styles and preferences as blind computer users.

As anticipated, the winner was announced on the Marlaina Show, a program of ACB Radio, Sunday evening, September 7. The lucky winner, Amy Ruell, is known to many in the blind community for her work in the areas of technology and braille literacy. In addition to her work distributing materials through the ReadBooks program for National Braille Press, Boston, and hosting webinars for parents of blind children for that agency, Ruell is also passionate about her work as president of a Boston area computer users group, VIBUG (Visually Impaired Blind Users Group.) Either directly or indirectly, her Summer Sizzle prize will benefit the VIBUG community, which is dedicated to demonstrating new products and providing information on both mainstream and adaptive technology.

“I’ve been a user of SA To GO for a long time,” Ruell commented, explaining that she often uses the free online version of System Access when traveling. It is so much easier to use the computer offered in a hotel business center, she said, than to carry her own somewhat heavy equipment.

“It will be wonderful to have the System Access software available to me all the time now,” she said, “and to demonstrate it to others.”

As winner of Serotek’s Summer Sizzle, Ruell’s prize included An ASUS 8G 2 pound Netbook PC with 1 gigabyte of main memory and an 8 gigabyte hard drive fully equipped for accessible, wireless networking A complete Serotek SAS package including System Access Mobile; four years of System Access Mobile Network; and Neo Speech
Victor Reader Stream audio book player Zen Stone MP3 Player
And choice of any MobileSpeak screen reader courtesy of CodeFactory.

Serotek CEO Mike Calvo also surprised ten lucky runners-up in the Summer Sizzle contest, each of whom received a one-year subscription to the System Access Mobile Network. The runners-up are: Pat Lenahan, John Manchester, David Taylor, Mike Nicol, Roger Fordham, Jay Pellis, Jessica Miller, Shawn Bever, Brandon Bracey, and Marjolijn Terlingen.

“We’ve learned a great deal from the Summer Sizzle survey,” Calvo commented, “but primarily what this proves is that blind people want the digital lifestyle and accessibility anywhere that is Serotek’s mission.”

For more information about Serotek and System Access products, go to www.serotek.com.

CEO Joins Students at Technology Camp

Students everywhere are enjoying the last few weeks of summer before the school year begins. When asked to describe how they spent their summer vacation, 12 lucky students in Cincinnati, Ohio will undoubtedly have quite a story to tell. The students attended the first technology camp hosted by the Clovernook Center for The Blind and Visually Impaired.

Mike Calvo had the opportunity to join in the fun this week as the children learned to send email, download audio-described movies, and explore web sites such as Bookshare and NLS.

You can read this excellent article about the camp which appears in the Cincinnati Enquirer. You can also view the news story which aired on WXIX Fox 19 and see footage of Mike, the campers, and the Clovernook staff as they discuss this year’s camp experience.

The students will return home from a week of immersion in technology carrying with them not only a greater understanding of how to use a computer, but with a tool allowing them to put such knowledge in to practice no matter where they are. The students are participating in the Keys for K-12 program, which provides any child in the United States enrolled in grades k-12 with a free, annually renewable license to install System Access on a U3-enabled USB thumb drive. Any windows-based computer becomes instantly accessible when plugging the drive in to an available USB port. As the students at this year’s technology camp will attest, having accessibility anywhere is not only practical, it’s lots of fun as well.

If you know of a child who is eligible to participate in the program, we encourage you to check out the KK12 page for more information.

Mike Calvo Presents at the General Session of the 47th Annual ACB Convention

Mike Calvo gave a well-received talk at the July 9rd morning General Session of the 47th Annual Convention of the American Council of the Blind. Everyone is now invited to listen to an archive of this special event.

This Year's Convention Adventures

So I am now getting ready to go home after 2 long weeks on the road. Wow! What a rush it's been. From Dalis to Louisville I have had a blast hanging out with many of you and being humbled with your good wishes and encouraging support.


I had so many things to say and for several reasons just decided to speak to the people I had in front of me, from the heart, and post my actual speech here. Should I have stuck to the script? I don't know really. Quite honestly I am just way to tired to even have an opinion. But hey, here it is, you decide.



It is truly an honor to have this opportunity to address you from the podium today. …

Maybe you’ve never heard of Mike Calvo or Serotek Corp., or SA To Go or System Access.

I’ll try to bring you up to speed.

I am one of you. I grew up in the schools and streets of Miami as a blind kid. (If you want to know more details, you can read an article in AccessWorld by Deborah Kendrick, called from Street Kid to CEO. That article tells you where I came from – and where I’m definitely going.)

In the interest of time, though, I’ll tell you that I’m a blind guy who had a dream seven ears ago. I love technology. But I didn’t like the fact that we, as blind people, needed to pay more for it, use tools different from everyone else’s, and always seemed to be playing catch up with the sighted world wanting to accomplish the same tasks. My dream has grown and grown and is now spreading around the world. I used to say it’s something like AOL meets WEB-TV for blind folks – and that’s still true, but now, System Access is so much more.

Have you ever wished you could just sit down at your sighted friend’s computer and show them how to do something – but there’s no screen reader? Have you ever wished you could use the computer in the library or an internet café or your sighted child’s school? With SA To Go, you can have an instant screen reader on any computer, anytime, anywhere – and have it there in seconds. If the computer is used by sighted people who don’t like the sound of synthetic speech, you don’t have to worry, because it goes away when the computer is turned off.

System Access and the System Access Mobile Network are the flagship products we sell at Serotek. I could spend all my time just telling you about the news, entertainment, movies, music, and more you can find and find easily on the System Access Mobile Network. But I’m talking today about access for everyone, free, everywhere.

In January we partnered with a new foundation (headed up by your own Art Schreiber) called Accessibility is a Right: AIR. Because of the partnership between Serotek and AIR, any blind person anywhere in the world who has access to any computer with an internet connection can download SA To Go for FREE, and have speech and magnification on that computer to make it accessible in the way so many of us in this room have come to associate with using. Technology.

(And yes, Braille access is part of our plan as well….”
With the newest release of System Access Mobile, everything on the screen can be read with the Alva BC640 Braille display. Why is this the only display added at this time? Because it meshes with the Serotek philosophy that we, as blind people, should not have access only with limited, specialized tools that are available in limited settings.


Our intent is to do for accessibility what Google did for Web searches. That is, make the idea of accessibility fundamental to using the Web. We want to make accessibility second nature.

Why?

We believe that blind and low vision consumers have a right to be on a par with sighted consumers in enjoying the full benefits of the digital lifestyle. But we have a problem. Only a tiny portion of the blind and low-vision community is “access-enabled.”

Microsoft commissioned a study by Forester Research in 2004 to look at the opportunity in accessibility. The reports (there are two of them) are available on Microsoft’s Web site. The reports showed that only 1% of people who could benefit from screen readers were using them and only 5% of people who could benefit from screen magnification were using magnification. That means that 99% of blind and 95% of low-vision people were being excluded from access to the digital lifestyle. There are only a few hundred thousand “access-enabled” blind and low-vision consumers worldwide – and everyone here is undoubtedly counted among that elite group. But there are many millions of blind people in the world who are not “access-enabled.” And that number is growing.

When you’ve spent your life in the digital world, you become aware of how fast change happens. I’ve got some old timers in my company who remember when computers weighted tons and took up whole air conditioned buildings to deliver a few kilobytes of memory at processing speeds barely faster than a mechanical adding machine. These so-called old timers – and there are some in this room -- are only in their sixties. The time they are remembering is only about forty years ago. Computer technology has undergone nearly forty generations in that time. We are watching evolution on fast-forward. The conventional approach to access-enabling blind and low-vision users cannot come close to keeping up with the pace of technology innovation. Thus even access-enabled blind and low vision people, like you and me, are falling behind the state of the art if we are locked into current screen reader technology.

The blind community is falling further behind with each new generation of digital products and services. And as the gap increases we become less and less visible.
And there is no need for there to be a gap at all. The very nature of digital information makes it easily accessible. Whether it is presented as text, as voice, as Braille, music, graphics, or in multimedia combination is all a matter of how digital information is displayed. The intrinsic truth – the word, the note, the picture – is there, represented by 1’s and 0’s, arranged in well-known code structures. With almost no effort at all, every bit and byte of mainstream digital information could be inherently fully accessible allowing the user to choose how he or she would receive it.

But mainstream software companies and Web designers don’t recognize that they have a potential user base of millions who are being excluded. We, the blind community, are invisible to them and even as our numbers grow, we will become less rather than more visible unless we take dramatic steps to increase the percentage of us who are access enabled.

That is what System Access to Go is about. It is about enticing thirty or forty million blind and low vision people into the digital mainstream by making it possible for them to have access any time they are connected to the Internet. It’s about getting those people into the digital lifestyle, using the social networking tools, enjoying the music and entertainment, staying current with the news, and buying products in sufficient numbers for mainstream companies to take notice.

Our goal with System Access to Go is to make accessibility software obsolete. There is no reason whatsoever for accessibility not to be embedded within every software product, every Web site; every digital player and device.

SAToGo is our gift to the blind community and we ask nothing for this gift except that people make a small effort to be access-enabled. We believe an access-enabled blind community will be a vibrant market with ample opportunity for many businesses to prosper serving the community’s digital lifestyle needs. Will we achieve the ubiquitous recognition of Google? Well we could probably have chosen an easier to use name. You hardly ever hear anyone saying “SAY-TOGO that for me, will you?” Nonetheless, thousands of users are downloading SAToGo every day. We are making it possible for today’s blindness professionals to reach out to more people and meet the growing demand.

Look for Serotek to continue along this path – bringing easy, affordable access to the digital lifestyle for all blind people. Come by the Serotek booth to learn more about SAToGo and the SA Mobile Network and to enter our Summer Sizzle to win a digital lifestyle prize worth $2000. And thank you for allowing me to spend this time with you this morning.
Thank you.

Mike Calvo Presents at the General Session of the 68th Annual NFB Convention

Mike Calvo gave a well-received talk at the July 3rd morning General Session of the 68th Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind. Everyone is now invited to listen to an archive of this special event.

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.

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?

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.

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??

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.

Job Posting: Marketing Assistant

Serotek Corporation is seeking an outgoing, organized individual to assist the Senior Marketing Executive in identifying qualified prospects for the company's enterprise accessibility solutions (Remote Access Manager (RAM), Remote Incident Manager (RIM) and site licenses for System Access, the company's premier accessibility software). The Marketing Assistant will contact organizations which have already been pre-qualified as prospects for one or more of these products; and, following a prepared script, identify the right people in the target organization, setting up an appointment for the Senior Marketing Executive to present and demonstrate the company's products.  

The successful candidate will have superior phone skills, be comfortable seeking out the proper contacts within an organization, and able to present the prepared materials in a fashion that results in a scheduled meeting with Serotek's Senior Marketing Executive. Use of Microsoft Word, Outlook including the calendar, and Excel are a must. If the applicant is blind, proficient use of adaptive technology to complete tasks is also a must.

The position is offered at a base salary plus commission structure on any scheduled meetings that result in a successful sale. The Marketing Assistant has an opportunity to earn several times the base salary by assuring that the Senior Marketing Executive's time is used productively.  

Please submit all resumes for consideration to employment@serotek.com. Qualified applicants will be contacted by phone or email for a follow up interview.

Serotek Corporation is an Equal Opportunity Employer.