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
Showing posts with label System Access. Show all posts
Showing posts with label System Access. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Monday, March 1, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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?
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?
Monday, February 16, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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.
Friday, August 1, 2008
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.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.5.0
Accessible Digital Lifestyle
Fixed a problem which prevented the SA Mobile Network browser from starting the Amazon MP3 Downloader.
Eliminated an error message which was appearing when logging into Napster from the SA Mobile Network browser. Note that other error messages still appear when using Napster with the current beta of Internet Explorer 8; this isn't a problem with System Access or the SA Mobile Network browser, but we're still working with Microsoft to remedy it.
Fixed problems with the log-in form on Pandora.com.
Internet Explorer and SA Mobile Network Browser
Improved access to pages such as the Comcast.net home page that have areas which frequently update themselves.
Improved access to Google applications, especially Gmail and Google Docs.
Fixed a bug in the new SA Mobile Network browser which prevented the browser from coming to the foreground on startup.
Windows Live Mail
This update introduces support for Windows Live Mail, Microsoft's latest desktop email software for home users and the successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail. As well as providing access to Windows Live Mail itself, System Access now provides fully automatic speech output in Windows Live Installer, making it easy to install and start using Windows Live Mail.
Miscellaneous
If you tap the Control key twice quickly, System Access will stop automatic speech in the current foreground window, such as reading of progress bars and status indicators, until you switch to another window.
Improved access to the Microsoft rich edit control, resulting in better access to the freeware Jarte word processor, among other programs.
Your SA Mobile Network notes will now be stored on SA Mobile Network servers instead of your home machine and/or U3 smart drive. This means that you'll have access to all of your notes in one place whether you're using your home machine, a U3 smart drive, or SA to Go.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.4.8
Internet Explorer and New SA Mobile Network Browser
Fixed a bug which caused System Access to hang the browser when tabbing through some pages, such as the results page on Froogle.
SA Mobile Media Library
You can now play WMA files in your media library and transfer them to a ZEN Stone.
Victor Reader Stream Support
When you connect to the Victor Reader Stream, the SA Mobile Network browser will now offer to download the latest Stream software update if your Stream isn't running the latest software.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.4.7
This update introduces two features related to the accessible digital lifestyle: access to the Songza.com music search engine and Internet jukebox, and improved access to Major League Baseball's audio and video streams.
Songza
You can now use Songza with System Access, in either Internet Explorer or our own browser, to search for songs, listen to the songs you find, create playlists, and more. You can control Songza's music player with the same hot keys as in the Napster Web-based player; for a listing of the special hot keys in either of these Web-based players, press Modifier+F1. We're excited about the access we've been able to provide to this cutting-edge Web 2.0 application, and we hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions, please share them on the Serotek Users Forum.
Major League Baseball Multimedia
This update fixes a few problems which rendered Major League Baseball's subscription-based audio and video streams inaccessible with SA. Again, if you still have problems, please let us know.
Internet Explorer and New SA Mobile Network Browser
Fixed a bug which sometimes caused SA to lock up Internet Explorer when using Windows Update.
SA no longer interrupts continuous reading of a Web page to announce changes on the page. This is especially important for news articles which have frequently updating advertisements.
Added check boxes to our browser display preferences section which let you indicate that our browser should always use your preferred colors, font, and/or font size, even when visiting a site that provides its own settings. These have the same effect in our browser as the accessibility options in Internet Explorer.
Word
Fixed a bug which prevented SA from speaking the new horizontal position after pressing Tab.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.4.4
Starting with this update, you should no longer need to use our old browser, which will go away in a week or so.
Instant Messenger
Our instant messenger is now available in the new SA Mobile Network browser.
Made sign-in and sign-out alerts configurable per account.
You will no longer hear sign-in and sign-out alerts when the SA Mobile Media Player is in the foreground.
Miscellaneous
You will no longer hear SA Mobile Network email alerts when the SA Mobile Media Player is in the foreground.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.4.0
Screen Magnification
System Access 2.4 introduces full-screen magnification. The screen can be magnified with a factor from 1.25x to 6x, adjusted in 0.25x increments. The colors can also be inverted, so black becomes white and vice versa. For more information, including magnification-related keyboard commands, refer to the System Access online help.
System Access Browser
This update also re-introduces the display preferences section which was present in the old browser, so you can adjust the font size and colors that our browser uses.
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.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.3.0.195
New Browser
Added an explanation of keystrokes which changed from the old browser to the new. If you previously used the old browser, this message will appear when you run the new browser for the first time, and never again.
In the "Notes" section, voice notes now work in the new browser, as they did in the old.
Added support for Audible Manager to the new browser. Note that you must still install Audible Manager on your computer first.
Document Scan
When you scan a page with Document Scan in the new browser, the text of the whole page will now be read, as it was in the old browser, instead of just the first line.
Miscellaneous
The keystrokes for moving to the previous and next sentence have changed from Shift+Modifier+S and Modifier+S to Alt+Up Arrow and Alt+Down Arrow, respectively. These commands don't interfere with the ability to open drop-down lists by pressing Alt+Up Arrow or Alt+Down Arrow.
Improved support for edit controls in .NET applications such as EdSharp.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.3.0.189
System Access Browser
Re-added the "Copy Shortcut" command to the context menu for links.
Changes in System Access 2.3.0.188
Starting with this version, the new System Access browser is used by default when you choose to connect from the SA Mobile Network from the System Access menu, or when you launch the SA Mobile Network icon on the Windows desktop. The old, Mozilla-based browser is still available; it's now the second option on the System Access menu. If you previously set the old browser as your default browser, the new browser will become the default when you install this update. You'll want to use the old browser if you want to use our instant messenger; otherwise, you should use the new browser.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.3.0.187
Accessible Digital Lifestyle
Audio demos of the features described below are available.
The new SA Mobile Network browser now supports the Amazon MP3 downloader, which we strongly recommend that you use when buying music from the Amazon MP3 store.
You can now transfer described movie audio, other SA Mobile Network audio content such as old-time radio, RSS news articles, podcasts, email, and forum messages to a Victor Reader Stream. Note that you need at least version 1.2 of the Victor Reader Stream firmware, which we expect to be released within a few days of this blog post. You can also transfer music and podcasts to a Creative ZEN Stone MP3 player. Please check the online SA Mobile Network help for more information about these new features.
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.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.3.0.174
Internet Explorer
Added support for the MathPlayer browser plug-in from Design Science, which provides access to math on Web pages which use the MathML standard.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Changes in System Access 2.3.0.172
Internet Explorer and New SA Mobile Network Browser
When you press H and Shift+H to move by heading, SA will now announce the heading level after reading the heading itself.
Fixed a bug that prevented users from passing the C-SAW test.
Audible
Fixed a bug that prevented SA from speaking in Audible Manager's Library list view.
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