[gui-talk] Fwd: Individuals with Print Disabilities Gain New Opportunities to Read Bookshare Digital Books Using Mobile Speak Phone Technologies

[Steve Pattison]

From: vipnews at googlegroups.com

PRESS RELEASE
via PRweb.com

Individuals with Print Disabilities Gain New Opportunities to Read Bookshare
Digital Books Using Mobile Speak Phone Technologies

Individuals with print disabilities can now choose new, low-cost mobile
technologies to read more than 50,000 digital books and periodicals thanks
to a partnership between Bookshare, the world's largest online library of
accessible books for individuals with print disabilities and Code Factory,
(Barcelona Spain); a leading global provider of screen readers, screen
magnifiers, and Braille interfaces for a wide range of mainstream mobile
devices.
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) July 6, 2009 -- Individuals with print disabilities
can now choose new, low-cost mobile technologies to read more than 50,000
digital books and periodicals thanks to a partnership between Bookshare, the
world's largest online library of accessible books for people with print
disabilities, and Code Factory, Barcelona Spain; a leading global provider
of screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille interfaces for a wide
range of mainstream mobile devices.

The Mobile Speak screen readers for mobile phones developed by Code Factory
use synthesized speech to read aloud information displayed on the mobile
phone screens including ebooks stored on their phones. Using this
technology, Bookshare members who are blind or have visual impairments will
have new alternatives and features like navigation, bookmarking and text
search, to access digital books for work, study or reading pleasure.

"For years, individuals with print disabilities have needed the ability to
read books on a readily-available, low-cost, portable device such as the
mobile phone," said Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, the nonprofit
organization which operates Bookshare. "We envision students with visual
impairments or learning disabilities on the bus reading textbooks and other
assignments with their phones; in rural areas or homes without computers,
individuals can download digital books at school or a community center with
computer access and read the content anywhere using their mobile phone. 
Mobile phone technologies will bring Bookshare books to people and students
who previously lacked a portable technology solution to read digital books,
magazines and newspapers on the go."

To read Bookshare books, users of Mobile Speak can download books and
periodicals from the Bookshare website to their PC and transfer them to
their mobile phones or PDAs. Code Factory provides accessible solutions for
Symbian phones as well as Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs.

LINK:
http://www.bookshare.org

If users have a Symbian phone (e.g. Nokia phone) they can install the Mobile
DAISY Player application in addition to the Mobile Speak screen reader
application.
Mobile DAISY Player is a book
reader which will allow users with sight and visual impairments to read
Bookshare files in DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format.
Mobile DAISY Player is the first and only mobile phone DAISY application to
support both DAISY 2.02 and DAISY 3.0 (NISO) book formats. Users can adjust
the speed of reading without changing the pitch, set bookmarks to favorite
places in the contents screen, navigate by character, word, sentence or
paragraph, and configure font sizes and screen colors.

Individuals with a Windows Mobile device can also read Bookshare books in
BRF (Braille Ready Format) through the built-in Braille reader implemented
in Mobile Speak Smartphone and Mobile Speak Pocket. 
The Braille reader application will read Bookshare BRF files in English
through users' active speech synthesizer whether or not a Braille display is
connected. Users having a refreshable Braille display can read Bookshare
books in Braille which is particularly useful for deaf-blind users.

Bookshare member Larry L. Lewis, Jr., President and Founder of Flying Blind,
LLC, uses the Mobile Speak application to read Bookshare books on the go.
"My Mobile Speak-equipped Smartphone is convenient and allows me to
accomplish more tasks while carrying fewer devices," said Lewis. "Code
Factory's BRF reader allows me the flexibility to read Bookshare books with
a wireless Braille display or to simply listen to the text while it is read
by Mobile Speak."

"Bookshare and Code Factory share a vision to provide individuals with
disabilities around the globe with greater access to a vast collection of
digital books and information,"
said Eduard Sanchez, CEO
of Code Factory. "We value this introduction from Bookshare, a social
enterprise, to identify the latest mobile technologies as a solution that
will raise the level of access for these individuals."

Product Information Links:
Bookshare Membership - Code Factory Promotion Code Bookshare offers
memberships to individuals in the U.S. and around the world for a nominal
fee. The library has tens of thousands of books including fiction,
non-fiction, textbooks, educational reading, newspapers and magazines, plus
two free software applications that read digital content. To learn more
visit http://www.bookshare.org/signUpType
.
Applicants, other than U.S. students who qualify for free memberships, will
receive a $25 waiver on a set up fee. To receive this waiver, you must: 1)
enter promo code:
Codefactory in your
registration form and 2) send an email to membership at bookshare.org  to
request the waiver.

LINK:
http://www.bookshare.org/signUpType?promoCode=Codefactory

Mobile Speak Pricing and Distribution Information

Code Factory's accessible solutions are available in the U.S. through
several distributors, including AT&T. The price for Mobile Speak starts at
$89 for AT&T customers.
For more information
about the AT&T and Code Factory partnership visit
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/disability-resources/mo
bile-speak-magnifier.jsp
.

To find the closest distributor visit
http://codefactory.es/en/purchase.asp?id=54
To download Mobile Speak screen readers, visit
http://www.codefactory.es/en/downloads.asp?id=44 .
To learn how to get a trial, visit
http://www.codefactory.es/en/purchase.asp?id=285 .
Mobile DAISY Player Information
To download Mobile DAISY Player for a free trial for 30 days, visit
http://codefactory.es/en/downloads.asp?id=43#version_2_57
To buy Mobile DAISY Player, contact the following distributors or look for
other Code Factory distributors at
http://codefactory.es/en/purchase.asp?id=54 :

Adaptive Technology Resources at http://www.adaptivetr.com or call
262.375.2020 Handy Tech North America at http://www.handytech.us or call
651.636.5184 Vision Cue at http://visioncue.com/contact.php or call
888.318.2582

About Bookshare
Bookshare, www.bookshare.org , is the world's largest accessible online
library for people with print disabilities. Through its technology
initiatives and partnerships, Bookshare seeks to raise the floor on
accessibility issues so that individuals with print disabilities have the
same ease of access to print materials as people without disabilities. In
2007, Bookshare received a $32 million five-year award from the U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), to
provide free access for all U.S. students with a qualified print disability.
The Bookshare library now has more than 56,000 members. Bookshare is an
initiative of Benetech, www.benetech.org , a Palo Alto, CA-based nonprofit
that creates sustainable technology to solve pressing social needs.

About Code Factory
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Terrassa/Barcelona, Spain, Code Factory
is the global leader committed to the development of products designed to
eliminate barriers to the accessibility of mobile technology for the blind
and visually impaired. Today, Code Factory is the leading provider of screen
readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille interfaces for the widest range of
mainstream mobile devices including Symbian-based and Windows Mobile-powered
Smartphones, as well as Pocket PC phones and PDAs. Among Code Factory's
customers are well known organizations for the blind such as ONCE, and
carriers such as AT&T, Bouygues Telecom, SFR, TIM and Vodafone.
Code Factory has also
built strong partnerships with mainstream companies like Nokia, Microsoft,
and HP as well as leading AT companies like Baum, HumanWare, Optelec and
Sendero.

http://codefactory.es

The content of this Press Release was developed under a grant from the U.S.
Department of Education. 
However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S.
Department of Education,
and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

SOURCE

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2606164.htm

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963