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April
- May 2006 -
Volume 5 Issue 3 - @Freedom Scientific
Newsletter
@Freedom
Scientific is a free newsletter packed with the latest information
about Freedom Scientific technology. Please feel free
to send us your feedback.
- SARA 7.8
Update Offers Improved User Experience
- RFB&D Support
With New FSReader Update
- Anticipation
Runs High over Upcoming JAWS and MAGic Updates
- From the Training
Department: Five Tips for Navigating Web Pages with JAWS
- Ask Tech Support: The PAC Mate Calendar
- Research Studies
of WYNN and TestTalker Produces Impressive Results
New
SARA 7.8 Update Offers Improved User Experience
The latest update for the
SARA™ contains several enhancements that continue to make it
the optimal scanning and reading appliance for blind and low vision
users.
Registered customers have been
sent an update disk to update their SARA to the 7.8 release. Unregistered
customers may receive their SARA update by calling Freedom Scientific
and registering or by contacting their local Freedom Scientific authorized
dealer.
What's New in SARA 7.8?
New Voices
Three new voices, Australian English Lee, French Canadian Felix, and
Castilian Spanish Javier expand the SARA’s versatility. The SARA now
provides 26 high quality, natural-sounding voices in 18 language dialects.
New Scanning Mode
The new Scan and Replace Scanning mode allows you to easily replace the current page with the newly-scanned page. This is also an excellent feature for browsing mail or other materials you don’t want to save for future use.
“Go To” Menu
Easily navigate your document using the new Go To menu. Navigate forward
and backward through the document by paragraphs, sentences, and pages,
or go directly to the top or bottom of your document.
Power Down Verification
An incidental press of the power button while working on a document
will no longer cause SARA to shut down. The SARA now waits for
a second press of the power button to confirm that you want to power
the unit
down. Press any other button to return to your work.
Expanded Playing
of Audio Files
Now you can play almost any audio CD on the market today on your SARA.
In addition to playing DAISY formatted audio files, the SARA now
plays audio CDs, MP3 files, unprotected WMA files, and WAV files.
Easier Access to
Public Domain Book Collection
You can now assign one of the four function keys to open the list
of public domain books. With this assignment, a single keystroke
brings you into the list so you can open the book of your choice.
Visual Enhancements
This release adds another foreground/background color combination to the
already powerful list of low vision features. The new default color combination,
black on sky blue, provides a low glare, high contrast reading environment.
Automatic Closing of
Files
Now, powering down the SARA automatically closes your open documents,
providing a clean workspace the next time the unit is powered on.
Unsaved Files Discarded
on Shut Down
Unsaved documents are automatically discarded during shut down, eliminating
the need to manually discard pages you don’t want to keep.
Full Power Down
Powering down the SARA now performs a complete shut down, eliminating
the possibility of unplugging the unit while in suspend and not
properly shutting down or saving your work.
More information
is available by visiting the SARA
Scanning and Reading Appliance page on the Freedom Scientific Low
Vision Solutions Web site. For more information on receiving the SARA
7.8 update, contact Freedom Scientific at 800-444-4443
or 727-803-8000.
Return
to Table of Contents from the First Story
RFB&D
Support with New FSReader Update
Since the release of FSReader
in 2005, many users, both blind and sighted, have commented on the
ease of use when navigating DAISY books.
“FSReader is so easy and simple to use,” said one user. “I
am impressed with the intuitiveness of the interface.”
Several users have stated that this is the easiest DAISY player they
have seen.
"It’s easily learnable by low vision and learning disabled users.”
Now users of FSReader 1.1 for the Desktop can add support for digital
talking books available from Recording
for the Blind and Dyslexic® (RFB&D).
RFB&D is a national non-profit organization that provides digital
talking books, including a wide range of textbooks, to students and
other individuals who are visually impaired or have other reading
disabilities. Their library of both digital and analog books includes
over 100,000 titles. Since material is only available to qualifying
members, RFB&D AudioPlus® books will not play in just any
DAISY player.
To access RFB&D AudioPlus books with FSReader, users will need to
obtain a special User Authorization Key (UAK) from RFB&D by calling
800-221-4792. RFB&D will only provide and support the UAK. Users
will need to purchase FSReader from Freedom Scientific before contacting
RFB&D. Those who already have version 1.0 can download
the 1.1 update from the Freedom Scientific Web site at no charge. Finally, support for
RFB&D talking books is currently only available for the desktop version
of FSReader. Support for the PAC Mate version will be available later
this year.
Learn more about FSReader by visiting our FSReader
product pages.
Return
to the Table of Contents from the Second Story
Anticipation
Runs High over Upcoming JAWS and MAGic Updates
Freedom Scientific is hard
at work preparing to release the free update of JAWS 7.10 and the exciting
upgrade of MAGic 10.0. Both updates offer several innovative new features
and numerous enhancements, which greatly increase ease-of-use and performance.
When operated together on the same system, JAWS 7.10 and MAGic 10.0
integrate more seamlessly than ever before to provide the ultimate
in screen access with both complete speech and magnification.
JAWS 7.10 is a free update for
existing JAWS 7.0 users. Some of the new features include:
- New installation
program using Microsoft Windows® Installer technology
- Support for Automatic
Updates enabling users to download minor fixes and features as soon
as they become available
- Three new Navigation
Quick Keys in Microsoft Word®. When in a document with Quick Keys active,
press M to move to each misspelling, A to move to each grammatical
error, and R to move to each revision if Track Changes
is on
- Full support for the
new Corel WordPerfect Office X3
View a complete list of all
the new features and enhancements by visiting the JAWS
7.10 page. In
addition, Freedom Scientific has offered a public beta of JAWS 7.10
for download. Already, a number of issues have been resolved, thanks
to reports from users who are using the beta. More information on participating
in the public beta is available on the JAWS
7.10 Public Beta page.
Hear a presentation on JAWS 7.10 by Eric Damery from the 2006 CSUN Conference
on our JAWS Headquarters page.
MAGic 10.0 offers many significant
new enhancements to speech, application support, and more. Some of
these include:
- New speech engine
offering improved responsiveness and additional customization options
to provide even greater speech feedback when only running MAGic
- New HTML reading
support. This new feature allows a user to navigate a Web page by
using the arrow keys as they would in any other document
- Support for remote
access using Citrix and Terminal Services
- Enhanced support
for Microsoft Word and Excel™, Adobe Acrobat/Reader™, and new
support for Firefox™
View more details by visiting
the MAGic 10.0 Preview page. When MAGic is released, users with a
current Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA) will be able to download
the update
at no charge. Otherwise, the update will need to be purchased by contacting
Freedom Scientific at 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000.
When released, JAWS 7.10 and
MAGic 10.0 will be available for download. Watch the Freedom
Scientific Web site in the coming weeks for further release details.
Return
to the Table of Contents from the Third Story
From
the Training Department:
Five Tips for Navigating Web Pages with JAWS
We’ve all been there,
right? You’re browsing the Web with JAWS, looking for the perfect
birthday present for Aunt Mable or researching some last minute information
for a school report, and you just can’t seem to find information
that you know is on a Web page. You stumble around, scrolling through
the page, and it seems as if there are a million links, graphics, and
advertisements - but none of it is useful to you. These five tips may
help you find what you are looking for on those huge and cluttered
Web pages.
- Listen
Carefully to JAWS when a New Page Loads
We all get “Control key happy” sometimes, and we just want
to press it to make JAWS hush up. However, when a Web page finishes
loading, JAWS will announce information about the page that can be
very useful. JAWS will always announce the number of links on a page,
and will also announce the number of frames and headings, if they exist.
This gives us some idea of the size of the page.
.
- H is for “Heading”
Sometimes Web page designers use headings to separate pages into sections.
You can use JAWS to quickly read the headings on a page. This may
help you to find the content you are looking for - or at least
get an idea of how the page is organized. Press H to make JAWS
cycle through and read all the headings on a page. You can also
bring up a list of all headings by pressing INSERT+F6. You can
navigate to the heading you want to move to and then press ENTER.
If the page is laid out with a logical hierarchy of headings, this
can be a really easy way to find what you are looking for.
- Putting
the N Back in Navigation
Many pages contain large navigation menus with links designed to help
users quickly move to different pages on a site. Listening to these
links every time you visit a new page on a site can become very tiring
and can take up valuable time. Fortunately, JAWS allows you to quickly
jump past a group of links by pressing the letter N. Each time you
press N, JAWS moves to the next block of text that is not a link. The
default behavior of JAWS is to look for a block of text that is at
least 25 characters long that is not a link. This length can be changed
in the HTML Options section of the Configuration Manager. For example,
if you were searching for a CD on www.amazon.com, you could press the
N key several times to move to the search results, instead of scrolling
down with the arrow keys through hundreds of links. This technique
is effective on any page with lots of links that you want to quickly
move past.
- Let the JAWS
Find Work for You
Why should you have to scroll down through an entire Web page just
to find a certain word or phrase? The JAWS Find can do that for you.
Press CTRL+F to open the JAWS Find dialog box, and type in the word
or phrase you want to locate on the page. Press ENTER, and let JAWS
do the work. If JAWS finds the text you searched for, you will immediately
be taken to that spot on the page. You can then press F3 or SHIFT+F3 to cycle forward or backward through other instances of your search
string on the page. Using the example of finding a CD on amazon.com
again, if you’ve selected a CD and land on the page with the
CD information and track listing, you could use the JAWS Find to move
directly to the track list rather than trying to find it on your own.
You could simply search for “1” because it’s safe
to assume that the number one will be in front of the first track name.
This quick trick can save tons of time.
- Ever Heard
of INSERT+F3?
This keystroke often gets lost in the shuffle, and can be quite handy.
Pressing INSERT+F3 brings up the Virtual HTML Features dialog box.
This is a list of all the different page elements you would find on
a Web page. Pressing ENTER on any of the items in the list will display
a list of those particular items found on the page. To view a list
of tables on a page, just choose “Tables list” in the dialog
box. To view a list of paragraphs, choose “Paragraphs list.” To
view a list of form fields, choose “Form fields list.” All
of these lists can be activated through other keystrokes but with the
INSERT + F3, you don’t need to remember all those other keystrokes.
Remember, when dealing with Web pages, be patient, persistent, and try
and find patterns to help you find the information you are seeking.
You’ll also find additional tips and techniques for navigating
Web pages with JAWS on Freedom Scientific’s Surf’s Up Web page.
Return
to the Table of Contents from the Fourth Story
Ask
Tech Support:
The PAC Mate Calendar
Question: On the PAC Mate, how do I navigate through the Calendar in regard to
days, weeks, months, and years?
Answer: When you first start
the Calendar program, the cursor is on the Appointment View page, and
the PAC Mate speaks the date and any appointments scheduled for that
day. If an appointment is scheduled for that day, press ENTER to view
its details. If you have scheduled more than one appointment for the
current day, press DOWN ARROW to select that appointment, and press
ENTER to open it and view its details.
While in the Appointment View,
you can only navigate through the Calendar forward and backward one
day at a time. If you press LEFT ARROW, you move back one day. Pressing
RIGHT
ARROW moves you forward to the next day. Each time you move the cursor
to another day, the PAC Mate speaks the date and any appointments
scheduled for that day.
While you could navigate through
the Calendar from one month to another in the Appointment View, this
can be a long and aggravating process. For example, let’s say the
cursor is currently positioned on a date such as Wednesday, April
5, 2006, and you need to check the second week in May to see if you
have any appointments scheduled for that week. You would have to press
the
RIGHT ARROW key quite a few times to position the cursor
on the desired date. However, the Calendar View feature, also called
the Date Selector
on the BX, will allow you to move from week to week, month to month,
and even year to year, with a minimum of keystrokes.
The first thing to note about
the Calendar View is that the PAC Mate does not speak any of the scheduled
appointments when you are navigating through the Calendar. The purpose
of the Calendar View is to quickly select the month and the year of
the calendar that you want to view. You can even select the week of the
month
that you would like to view. Once the cursor is positioned on the
desired date, press ENTER (DOT 8 on the BX), and you will be back in
the Appointment
View of the Calendar. You can now simply use the LEFT and RIGHT
ARROW to move forward or backward through the Calendar day-by-day, and the
PAC Mate will speak the date and any appointments that are scheduled
for that day.
To activate the Calendar View,
press ALT (F2 on a BX) to access the menu bar, select Calendar View,
and press ENTER. The following keystrokes are used to navigate the
Calendar View:
- Move Backward by Day:
LEFT ARROW for the QX; LEFT ARROW or DOT
3 CHORD for the BX
- Move Forward by Day: RIGHT
ARROW; RIGHT ARROW or DOT 6 CHORD
- Move Backward by Week:
CONTROL+LEFT ARROW or DOT 2 CHORD
- Move Backward by Month:
UP ARROW; UP ARROW or DOT 1 CHORD
- Move Forward by Month:
ARROW; DOWN ARROW or DOT 4 CHORD
- Move Backward by Year:
CONTROL+UP ARROW or DOT 1+UP ARROW
- Move Forward by Year:
CONTROL+DOWN ARROW or DOT 1+DOWN ARROW
In addition, you
can quickly position the cursor on a particular day of the week. For
example, if the cursor is currently positioned on Monday, April 3,
then you can quickly position the cursor on Friday, April 7. This is
done by pressing ALT+S (SH CHORD on a BX) to open the Shortcut menu,
followed by a number between one and seven. The number one is for Sunday,
and the number seven is for Saturday. Therefore, if you wanted to position
the cursor on Friday of that week, you would issue the Shortcut command
and then press the number six. The PAC Mate will speak the date that
the cursor just landed on along with any appointments scheduled for
that day. This feature can be used in both the Appointment View and
the Calendar View.
Learn more about using the
Calendar by accessing the PAC Mate’s Online Help system, or the
user’s guide and audio tutorials located on the Documentation CD
that came with your PAC Mate. In addition, all PAC Mate documentation
is available on the Freedom Scientific Web site. Visit the PAC
Mate Software Documentation page to download the user’s guide.
You can download the various PAC Mate audio tutorials by visiting the
PAC Mate Training
page.
Return
to the Table of Contents from the Fifth Story
Research
Studies of WYNN and TestTalker Produce Impressive Results
Current research studies
show the importance of using WYNN and TestTalker in the classroom.
TestTalker in the News!
TestTalker has recently been featured in KELOLAND News' Eye on KELOLAND.
KELOLAND broadcasts out of Sioux Falls South Dakota and serves portions
of South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota.
TestTalker is currently being evaluated as an accommodation tool to
help under-performing students to improve test scores on the standardized
Dakota State Test of Educational Progress (STEP). In end-of-year 2005
testing, Sioux Falls School District found that students with Individualized
Education
Programs (IEPs) using TestTalker achieved a higher percentage of growth
compared to the overall school district's results. The district plans
a three-year study.
Watch amazing video footage
of students using TestTalker and describing how it has helped them
by visiting the TestTalker
report page.
National Research Center Includes
WYNN in Pivotal Study
WYNN software has been chosen to participate in a $3-million first-of-its-kind
research program. The research, conducted by The National Center for
the Study of Supported Text in Electronic Learning Environments, is designed
to better understand the value of embedding supportive software tools
into
electronic text (e-text) to help students with disabilities improve reading
comprehension. Read more on the WYNN
National Research page.
Improved Test Scores
Drive Increased Demand for WYNN & TestTalker
In Las Cruces, New Mexico, the School Administration has expanded its
investment in Learning Systems Group's technology solutions. The School
Administration and teachers are servicing a low-income student body,
50% of whom are learning disabled or considered "at risk." After
seeing significant improvement in those students' test scores, compared
to students
not using LSG technology, the group purchased additional WYNN licenses
and TestTalker software. The goal is to assist more of the state's struggling
students through the benefit of technology. Read more on the WYNN
in New Mexico schools page.
To learn more about WYNN and TestTalker,
visit the Freedom Scientific Learning Systems Group Web site.
Return
to the Table of Contents from the Sixth Story
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Freedom
Scientific's mission is to develop, manufacture, and market innovative
technology-based products and services that those with vision impairments
and learning disabilities use to change their world.
@Freedom Scientific is published by
Freedom Scientific
11800 31st Court North
St. Petersburg, Florida 33716-1805
800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000
www.FreedomScientific.com
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having hardware or software technical support queries can address them
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