Feature: Kurzweil 1000; Open Book
Recognition engines; Kurzweil 1000: Fine Reader, ScanSoft; OpenBook: Fine Reader, Scan Soft.
Speech Engines; Kurzweil 1000: VoiceText from NioSpeech, IBM ViaVoice; OpenBook: IBM ViaVoice.
Scanners Supported; Kurzweil 1000: Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models); OpenBook: Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models).
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
In June, Amazon.com launched a store for people with visual impairments. The site says that the store will offer "a diverse selection of products for those with vision difficulties, as well as for those who care for or care about them." Current items include books in large print, braille and audio, as well as some talking products and other household products, mainly from the MaxiAids catalog.
Books about blindness include several titles published by the American Foundation for the Blind. Also listed, however, are such questionable titles as Yoga For Your Eyes and The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses. This store will help make people aware of what is out there for people who are experiencing vision loss. You can visit the store at <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/14264821/104-3999956-5349515>.
In this issue, Darren Burton and Mark Uslan of AFB Tech evaluate the accessibility of insulin pens, devices that offer diabetics a delivery method that is easier, less painful, and more discreet than drawing doses from a vial using a needle and syringe. They are small, lightweight plastic handheld devices with prefilled insulin cartridges inside, and they use small microfine needles that have been shown to cause significantly less pain than conventional syringe needles. Find out how accessible these devices are for people who are blind or have low vision.
Lee Huffman of AFB TECH evaluates the MLS Student Addition from Low Vision International, a laptop-compatible CCTV. This is the second article in a series evaluating CCTVs that are compatible with laptops, weigh less than 5 pounds, have a rotating camera that allows for near and distance viewing, and have the ability to take a "picture" of an image and save it to the computer. Learn what this product has to offer.
Brad Hodges of AFB TECH evaluates Kurzweil 1000 and OpenBook, the two leading optical character recognition (OCR) systems for people who are blind. Each product was tested to determine how well it recognizes the text on a variety of printed pages, its ability to follow the formatting of printed material, and how well it handles file conversion—reading untagged PDF documents, for example. Read about how these products compare.
Janet Ingber, author and music therapist, evaluates Henter Math's Virtual Pencil, a program that allows people who are blind to solve math problems independently. Virtual Pencil offers two math programs: VP Arithmetic and VP Algebra. VP Arithmetic covers such operations as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. VP Algebra allows you to solve both simple and complicated problems and equations. Check out this handy software.
Janet Ingber also reviews music download sites. These are the sites to go to if you want to purchase and download all types of music legally. The sites include eMusic, RealPlayer, Rhapsody, Napster, Wal-Mart, and iTunes. None of these sites is a model of accessibility, but with some persistence, you can buy and play the music of your choice.
Darren Burton and Lee Huffman present the third in a three-part series investigating the accessibility of today's multifunctional copy machines. This article focuses on accessibility solutions from Canon and Xerox that have been specifically designed to make their large copy machines more accessible and usable for people who are blind or have low vision. Find out how well these accessibility solutions work.
Deborah Kendrick describes Playaway, a combination audio book and player in one. It includes simple controls and costs about the same as an audio book on CD or cassette. Find out how accessible this interesting new product is.
Anthony Candela, Deputy Director, Specialized Services Division of the California Department of Rehabilitation, presents the first in a series of articles chronicling the history of assistive technology. He interviewed more than 20 major players—inventors, company executives, and trainers—spending hours with each one. Read about how these people's innovations led to the assistive technology we use today.
Jay Leventhal
Editor in Chief
Feature: MLS Student Addition
Documentation (Preliminary): 3.0.
Auto focus: 5.0.
Portability: 5.0.
Performance when moving text under the camera: 4.0.
Image capture: 4.5.
Software installation: 4.5.
Ease of setup: 5.0.
Video image adjustment: 4.0.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature: Canon Voice Guidance; Xerox Copier Assistant
Voice quality: Canon Voice Guidance: 4; Xerox Copier Assistant: 3.
Intuitive easy-to-learn interface: Canon Voice Guidance: 4.5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 5.
Keys easy to identify by touch: Canon Voice Guidance: 5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 5.
Software stability: Canon Voice Guidance: 4.5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 3.5.
Accessibility of electronic documentation: Canon Voice Guidance: 4.5; Xerox Copier Assistant: 4.5.
Braille quality: Canon Voice Guidance: 4; Xerox Copier Assistant: 4.5.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature
Canon Voice Guidance
Xerox Copier Assistant
Accessible print and basic copy features
Yes
Yes
Accessible fax, scan, and e-mail features
No
No
Accessible interface for administrative tasks
Yes
Yes
Price
$750
$475
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature
MLS Student Addition
Auto focus
Yes
Semicolors
Yes
Inverse mode
Yes
External light
No
Desktop viewing
Yes
Distance viewing
Yes
Self-viewing
Yes
Magnification range
1.2x to 55x (on a 15-inch monitor)
Image capture
Yes
Internal battery
No
USB 2 connections needed
One
Remote control
Yes (when connected to a VGA monitor or a television set)
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Features: Canon Voice Guidance; Xerox Copier Assistant
Accessible print and basic copy features: Canon Voice Guidance: Yes; Xerox Copier Assistant: Yes.
Accessible fax, scan, and e-mail features: Canon Voice Guidance: No; Xerox Copier Assistant: No.
Accessible interface for administrative tasks: Canon Voice Guidance: Yes; Xerox Copier Assistant: Yes.
Price: Canon Voice Guidance: $750; Xerox Copier Assistant: $475.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature: MLS Student Addition
Auto focus: Yes.
Semicolors: Yes.
Inverse mode: Yes.
External light: No.
Desktop viewing: Yes.
Distance viewing: Yes.
Self-viewing: Yes.
Magnification range: 1.2x to 55x (on a 15-inch monitor).
Image capture: Yes.
Internal battery: No.
USB 2 connections needed: One.
Remote control: Yes (when connected to a VGA monitor or a television set).
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
I really enjoyed Lynn Zelvin's article on accessing commercial eBooks. I have some additional information. Another major source of accessible eBooks is Audible, at www.audible.com.
Palm documents that are not secure can be converted to text via a free program called Mini-reader, available at <www.panix.com/~kestrell/minireader.exe>. Many books sold at Fictionwise are in this format.
Bookshare.org offers all its books in DAISY format as well as BRF.
Finally, there is more information about accessing eBooks in my book, Finding eBooks on the Internet, available online at <www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/EBOOK.html>, and on the Blind Bookworm page at <www.panix.com/~kestrell/ebooks.html>.
Anna Dresner
National Braille Press
Feature: Humalog; InDuo; Innovo; Novolin InnoLet; Novolog FlexPen; Novopen 3; Novopen Junior; OptiClik
Tactile/auditory feedback; Humalog: 4.5; InDuo: 4.0; Innovo: 4.0; Novolin InnoLet: 3.5; Novolog FlexPen: 4.5; Novopen 3: 3.5; Novopen Junior: 3.5; OptiClik: 4.0.
Ease of replacing needles; Humalog: 5.0; InDuo: 5.0; Innovo: 5.0; Novolin InnoLet: 5.0; Novolog FlexPen: 5.0; Novopen 3: 5.0; Novopen Junior: 5.0; OptiClik: 5.0.
Ease of replacing cartridges; Humalog: N.A.; InDuo: 4.0; Innovo: 4.0; Novolin InnoLet: N.A.; Novolog FlexPen: N.A.; Novopen 3: 3.5; Novopen Junior: 3.5; OptiClik: 4.0.
Overall ease of use: Humalog: 3.5; InDuo: 2.5; Innovo: 2.5; Novolin InnoLet: 3.0; Novolog FlexPen: 3.5; Novopen 3: 2.0; Novopen Junior: 2.0; OptiClik: 2.0.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature: OpenBook; Kurzweil 1000
Documentation: OpenBook: 4; Kurzweil 1000: 5.
Scanning speed: OpenBook: 5; Kurzweil 1000: 5.
Recognition speed: OpenBook: 5; Kurzweil 1000: 4.
Simple scanning: OpenBook: 5; Kurzweil 1000: 4.
Complex scanning: OpenBook: 4; Kurzweil 1000: 5.
Overall rating: OpenBook: 4; Kurzweil 1000: 5.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Dallas, TX
Contact: National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; phone: 410-659-9314; e-mail: <nfb@nfb.org>; web site: <www.nfb.org/convent/conven06.htm>.
San Diego, CA
Contact: International Society for Technology in Education, 480 Charnelton Street, Eugene, OR 97401; phone: 800-336-5191 or 541-346-3537; e-mail: <neccinfo@iste.org>; web site: <www.center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2006>.
Jacksonville, FL
Contact: American Council of the Blind; phone: 202-467-5081; e-mail: <info@acb.org>; web site: <www.acb.org/convention/info2006.html>.
Baltimore, MD
The week-long camp for high school students who are blind focuses on physics, electronics, rocketry, and teamwork.
Contact: Mary Jo Thorpe, National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; phone: 410‐659‐9314, extension 2407; e‐mail: <mthorpe@nfb.org>; web site: <www.nfb.org/nfbji/science_academy.htm>.
San Diego, CA
Contact: Association on Higher Education and Disability, P.O. Box 540666, Waltham, MA 02454; phone: 781-788-0003; e-mail: <neal@ahead.org>; web site: <www.ahead.org>.
Baltimore, MD
The week-long camp for middle school students who are blind focuses on the earth and life sciences.
Contact: Mary Jo Thorpe, National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230; phone: 410‐659‐9314, extension 2407; e‐mail: <mthorpe@nfb.org>; web site: <www.nfb.org/nfbji/science_academy.htm>.
Madison, WI
Contact: Kimary Peterson, conference manager, Pyle Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department 111, 702 Langdon Street, Madison, WI 53706; phone: 608-265-4159; e-mail: <distel@education.wisc.edu>; web site: <www.uwex.edu/disted/conference>.
Huntsville, AL
Contact: Dan Oates, coordinator, Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students, West Virginia School for the Blind, P.O. Box 1034, Romney, WV 26757; phone: 304‐822‐4883; e‐mail: <scivis@atlanticbb.net>; web site: <www.tsbvi.edu/space/>.
Minneapolis, MN
Contact: Closing the Gap, P.O. Box 68, 526 Main Street, Henderson, MN 56044; phone: 507‐248‐3294; e‐mail: <info@closingthegap.com>; web site: <www.closingthegap.com>.
Boulder, CO
Contact: Disability Services, University of Colorado, Willard Administrative Center 322, 107 CU-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309; phone: 303‐492‐8671; e-mail: <dsinfo@spot.colorado.edu>; web site: <www.colorado.edu/ATconference>.
Baltimore, MD
Contact: TASH, 29 West Susquehanna Avenue, Suite 210, Baltimore, MD 21204; phone: 410‐828‐8274; e‐mail: <dmarsh@tash.org>; web site: <www.tash.org>.
San Antonio, TX
Contact: Conference Services, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, P.O. Box 3728, Norfolk, VA 23514; phone: 757‐623‐7588; e‐mail: <conf@aace.org>; web site: <http://site.aace.org/conf>.
Feature
Humalog
InDuo
Innovo
Novolin InnoLet
Novolog FlexPen
Novopen 3
Novopen Junior
OptiClik
Type of pen (disposable or reusable)
Disposable
Reusable
Reusable
Disposable
Disposable
Reusable
Reusable
Reusable
Type of insulin available
Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N
Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30
Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo)
Novolin N, Novolin 70/30, Novolin R
Novolog, Novolog Mix 70/30, Levemir
Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo)
Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo)
Lantis, Apidra
Cost of pen
$30.03
$99.00
$57.95
$13.60
$31.96
$24.99
$37.49
No charge
Cost of cartridges (for reusable pens)
$17.96
$17.96
$17.96
$17.96
$31.73
Dimensions (inches)
6.3 long by 0.9 diameter
4.9 by 2.1 by 1.2
4.7 by 1.6 by 0.8
4.5 by 2.2 by 1.1
6.2 by 0.6
6.4 by 0.6
6.4 by 0.6
6.8 by 0.8
Weight with full cartridge (ounces)
1.1
4.7
2.7
1.6
0.9
2.3
2.3
2.1
Electronic display screen
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature
Kurzweil 1000
Open Book
Recognition engines
Fine Reader, ScanSoft
Fine Reader, Scan Soft
Speech Engines
VoiceText from NioSpeech, IBM ViaVoice
IBM ViaVoice
Scanners Supported
Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models)
Twaine compatible scanners (see web site for particular models)
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature: Humalog; InDuo; Innovo; Novolin InnoLet; Novolog FlexPen; Novopen 3; Novopen Junior; OptiClik
Type of pen (disposable or reusable); Humalog: Disposable; InDuo: Reusable; Innovo: Reusable; Novolin InnoLet: Disposable; Novolog FlexPen: Disposable; Novopen 3: Reusable; Novopen Junior: Reusable; OptiClik: Reusable.
Type of insulin available; Humalog: Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N; InDuo: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30; Innovo: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo); Novolin InnoLet: Novolin N, Novolin 70/30, Novolin R; Novolog Flexpen: Novolog, Novolog Mix 70/30, Levemir; Novopen 3: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo); Novopen Jr: Novolin, Novolin N, Novolin R, Novolin Mix 70/30 (same as InDuo); Opticlik: Lantis, Apidra.
Cost of pen; Humalog: $30.03; InDuo: $99.00; Innovo: $57.95; Novolin InnoLet: $13.60; Novolog FlexPen: $31.96; Novopen 3: $24.99; Novopen Junior: $37.49; OptiClik: No charge.
Cost of cartridges (for reusable pens); InDuo: $17.96; Innovo: $17.96; Novopen 3: $17.96; Novopen Junior: $17.96; OptiClik: $31.73.
Dimensions (inches); Humalog: 6.3 long by 0.9 diameter; InDuo: 4.9 by 2.1 by 1.2; Innovo: 4.7 by 1.6 by 0.8; Novolin InnoLet: 4.5 by 2.2 by 1.1; Novolog FlexPen: 6.2 by 0.6; Novopen 3: 6.4 by 0.6; Novopen Junior: 6.4 by 0.6; OptiClik: 6.8 by 0.8.
Weight with full cartridge (ounces); Humalog: 1.1; InDuo: 4.7; Innovo: 2.7; Novolin InnoLet: 1.6; Novolog FlexPen: 0.9; Novopen 3: 2.3; Novopen Junior: 2.3; OptiClik: 2.1.
Electronic display screen; Humalog: No; InDuo: Yes; Innovo: Yes; Novolin InnoLet: No; Novolog FlexPen: No; Novopen 3: No; Novopen Junior: No; OptiClik: Yes.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
Feature: Playaway
Design; 4.5.
Sound quality; 4.5.
Keyboard layout; 4.5.
Ease of operation; 3.5.
Accessibility; 3.5.
Documentation; 3.0.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
July 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of the first large public demonstration of optical character recognition (OCR) technology in front of a large group of people who were blind. Since Ray Kurzweil's first demonstration of his then-revolutionary system, the development of products that address the complexity of converting the printed word to meaningful speech has continued uninterrupted. As we enter the fourth decade of this technology, it is useful to understand exactly what products are available and how they compare with one another.
This article focuses primarily on the two most popular packages that are intended for and marketed to people who are blind or have low vision in the United States: Kurzweil 1000, version 10, and OpenBook, version 7.02. A sidebar on OCR Alternatives considers some off-the-shelf options.
For this evaluation, we at the AFB TECH product evaluation lab compared several important characteristics of these products. First, how well do they recognize the text on a variety of printed pages. Once text is recognized, how do these products compare in their ability to follow the formatting of printed material. We also tested several examples of file conversion. This is an increasingly important function of OCR systems, since, in many instances, it is the only way to read inaccessible electronic files, such as untagged PDF documents. We also evaluated the installation of each product and share some thoughts on customer support.
Since these OCR systems are intended to be installed on a personal computer, the user must provide several important hardware components. OCR technology can place much higher demands on a computer's processor than some common applications, such as word processors and web browsers. Each company has established minimum specifications for computers that will support their respective products. It is essential to understand these requirements before you purchase and install this technology. In our opinion, the quality of the experience you will have will be greatly enhanced by using a computer that is substantially more powerful than the minimum that is suggested by the software vendor.
In addition to the computer, a scanner is required to capture the text page for processing by the OCR program. As with computer specifications, specific models of scanners are recommended by the OCR vendors. Because scanner technology can change suddenly, do not assume that the favorite brand of yesterday is still a good bet today, and, conversely, brands that were once off-limits may now be recommended.
Many seasoned OCR users may recall with fondness scanners of yesteryear. Several of these scanners allowed the placement of a book along the front edge of the scanner, which eliminated the need to disassemble the book to ensure a flat placement of the page on the glass. A new book-edge scanner from Plusteck, Optic Book 3600, is now available. Several technical support professionals have told us that it can provide scans in five seconds, once it is configured and installed properly. Several important steps must be followed to ensure smooth scanning, so if the Plusteck is of interest, we strongly suggest that you contact your vendor before you purchase or install it.
The final consideration that will influence your experience will be the configuration of the OCR program as the only assistive technology on the system or its inclusion as part of a larger group of assistive technology programs. Both Kurzweil and OpenBook products can operate alone—providing their own speech output—or with a screen reader.
Before installing the OCR program, you will want to ensure that your PC is ready for the software and that your scanner is properly installed and ready. Scanners typically use the conventional installation "wizard," which you may already be familiar with from other Windows installations. We understand that in some instances problems can result from installing the software and connecting the scanner in the wrong order. Check your scanner's installation instructions carefully. Some scanners also include their own software package, which may include utilities that are intended for use with Windows. If you do not wish to install these utilities, consulting with your vendor's technical support staff may be prudent.
We believe that individuals with even basic computer experience should be able to install these programs independently. Both products require that you enter a key for authorizing the product. It is a good idea to be sure that the key is available in a format that you can read easily. Kurzweil 1000 provides several registration options, including by telephone, conventional mail, or online. The product number is provided in braille and is also scanable. OpenBook provides product registration numbers in print and braille. Products purchased directly from Freedom Scientific are already registered when you receive them, according to a Freedom Scientific sales representative.
Kurzweil 1000, version 10, is priced at $995. The package includes the product CDs and several additional CDs that contain a variety of classic literature. Full braille documentation is available upon request, including the product guide and the installation and quick reference guides. A cassette package of the documentation is also included, along with a print directory of the included classic literature.
Installing Kurzweil is a smooth operation that begins automatically when you place the CD in the computer. Whether or not you are using a screen-access program, the voice guidance provided by the installer is excellent.
Kurzweil 1000 is a large program, and the installation may feel longer than that of other programs. One important note: IBM ViaVoice is a component of the Kurzweil package. Many individuals have reported that this component can conflict with the voice of a screen reader. For this reason, we suggest that you address this potential problem with a Kurzweil customer support representative.
Kurzweil 1000 has a well-developed user interface that is based on many years of development. The beginner can listen to prompts that describe the steps involved in using the product, as well as information on how to learn about the functions of the keys that are required to scan and read a document.
Kurzweil reading products were developed 30 years ago, before the advent of the PC. In the early products, a specialized keypad provided navigation of the products' functions. This approach of a simple keypad layout is still available to the beginner. The advanced user can gain full access to the system with the conventional Windows keyboard and commands.
After spending only a few minutes with Kurzweil, it becomes apparent that this is a powerful program with an appropriately comprehensive interface that provides a seemingly infinite array of configuration options. When installed and launched for the first time, Kurzweil 1000 will assume that you want to scan, process, and read each page as it is scanned.
Kurzweil 1000 worked reasonably well in its default mode when it was called upon to read simple documents, such as memos, reports, and other text on white paper. It produced highly accurate and understandable results.
Moving to more complex document formats, such as magazines, proved more challenging to the technology. Many factors will affect the accuracy of scanning. Complex or unusual formats; shaded or half-tone backgrounds; and poorly printed material, such as magazines or paperback books, will require your attention. Kurzweil 1000 includes important tools such as a choice of recognition engines, brightness control of the scanner, settings for removal of speckles, and many more options. It is in the use of the tools that Kurzweil 1000 and other programs provide that the differences emerged.
Version 10 of this highly sophisticated product is perhaps the most powerful and advanced assistive technology product that is available. Many important controls have been developed over the past several years and are at your fingertips. One example is the Optimize feature. This utility will try various settings for a particular page that you have placed on the scanner. Our first try, using the default settings, produced results that were less than ideal. After we used the Optimize function, a useful, if not 100 percent accurate, document emerged.
Kurzweil 1000 allows you to select one of two recognition engines. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and the results are dependent on the kind of material that you are recognizing. The reading process can also be tailored to your liking, with headings or other visually important material announced in a distinct voice. A cornucopia of options for converting and saving documents and settings is also available. Kurzweil 1000 can access some online information as well.
Several other tests—a paperback book and magazine page—demonstrated the importance of coming to terms with the controls and settings of this program. We noted that a simple change in the scanner setup, selecting dynamic threshold, produced an immediate increase in accuracy on several formats of text that we tested. We recommend that Kurzweil change the default setting from static to dynamic thresholding, taking advantage of today's scanner technology.
OpenBook is priced at $995. Version 7.02 is currently shipping. Included in each new purchase is the product CD, a Getting Started cassette, a braille Quick Start guide, and a print Quick Start guide.
Whether installed alone or with the assistance of a screen reader, OpenBook provided an easy-to-follow installation process that began automatically when the CD was placed in the computer.
OpenBook includes Connect Outloud, a basic screen reader. On the basis of the information that was provided by the prompts from the installation program, it was not clear how to proceed if you did not choose to install Connect Outloud and were not using an existing screen reader. We suggest that you consult with a technical support representative before you install the program to clarify this part of the procedure.
OpenBook opens like other Windows programs. If you are already familiar with using Microsoft Office and similar programs, then OpenBook will feel like an old friend.
This product did not provide prompting or descriptions of shortcuts to options. OpenBook also has a heritage that includes a small specialized keypad. A simple set of keys on the keypad can provide navigation and basic operations.
The most striking feature of OpenBook was its successful recognition and formatting of both our basic memo as well as more complex formats such as the CD liner notes, using only the default settings. After installation, the product is ready to go without further tweaking. The behavior for both scanning and recognizing was snappy and responsive. The responsiveness of the product was especially noticeable when OpenBook was used with JAWS.
A wide variety of tools and configurations are easy to reach and understand, especially for those who grasp the concepts of the Windows operating system. Selecting and navigating the settings is as simple as pressing the Alt key and moving among the standard menus. In all instances, we found OpenBook to be responsive and well behaved.
OpenBook was not as responsive as Kurzweil 1000 in the self-voicing default mode. In one instance, the voice stopped responding when focus moved to an error dialogue box caused by an empty drive. In instances in which the system produced subpar recognition results, the program lacked some of the more advanced controls found in Kurzweil 1000. Using gray-scale scanning in Kurzweil can make the difference between success and failure with some difficult images.
PDF (portable document format) is a hot-button topic for many computer users who are blind or have low vision. For a variety of reasons, which space does not permit us to explore here, these documents can defy all attempts to read them using a screen reader and the Adobe Reader. In fact, this situation can become such a problem that for many, the term PDF means "problem document format." The most effective solution in these situations is to use an OCR program to recognize the PDF file.
PDF files can be of several varieties. Some contain no text; they can be thought of as a picture of a page of text. Other PDF files may contain text, which the computer could recognize were it not for other technical issues.
Both Kurzweil and OpenBook facilitate the conversion of PDF documents. Each program takes a different approach to the process. Kurzweil needs to be open to manipulate PDF files. Use the File Open dialogue to locate and load the file, as you would any other document. OpenBook offers a Print-to option in the File menu from the Adobe reader. If you are browsing PDF documents from a network drive or the Web, this is a particularly useful feature, since clicking on the PDF file will usually trigger the Adobe Reader on your system.
Both programs did well with a standard untagged PDF test document supplied by Adobe. The one-page letter was recognized with 100-percent accuracy by both applications. We also tested an interesting, more difficult file, a simple one-page channel guide, found at <www.xmradio.com>. This document could not be formatted by either of the programs, demonstrating that PDF documents, while usable in some instances, are not always accessible.
OCR systems are among the most expensive in the assistive technology arena. For this reason alone, customer service is an obvious and important consideration. In our experience, both Freedom Scientific's and Kurzweil's technical support representatives provided accurate, prompt, and courteous answers to both basic and complex questions.
Kurzweil provides toll-free support Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM eastern time. OpenBook support is available from 8:30 AM to 7:00 PM eastern time.
Freedom Scientific's technical support professionals are generalists who, in addition to supporting JAWS, the company's flagship product, answer OpenBook support questions. In every instance, we found their assistance to be of the highest quality. If you regularly integrate an OCR product with other Windows applications, the Freedom Scientific representatives are in an excellent position to assist you with all your questions.
The Kurzweil 1000 technical support staff specialize in the Kurzweil product. Their knowledge of the intricacies of their product is obvious, and their ability to explain complex issues is especially welcome.
Both OpenBook, version 7.02, and Kurzweil 1000, version 10, performed well in our tests of optical character recognition. We encourage you to view and compare the samples that we have included with this article to judge the relative performance on the limited number of scans that space permits us to include.
Deciding on which product is worthy of your first consideration, then, comes down to what kind of user you are and in what context you will use the product. For the novice user, Kurzweil 1000 version 10 may be better. For users with little exposure to a computer with speech output, the excellent prompts, reminder messages, and generally friendly feel of the process make for a successful introduction to assistive technology. When questions need to be answered or trouble needs to be resolved, customer service is available 14 hours a day from Monday to Friday toll-free. Furthermore, the ability to choose from several speech-output options, including Neo Speech, provides the best chance that you will find a voice that suits your listening preferences.
For those who want to integrate OCR functionality into a work pattern in which Microsoft Office is the centerpiece, OpenBook provides a responsive, intuitive, and well-organized approach to scanning and reading many kinds of documents. It also performs well out of the box for recognizing and formatting printed matter of both basic and some intermediate complexity.
We were disappointed in the overall performance of the speech of OpenBook in its self-voicing mode. The limited choices of voices, their more computer-like sound, and a bug that was revealed when selecting drive options suggest that this product works best with a screen reader, such as JAWS, OpenBook's sister product, that controls speech functions.
For the advanced user who requires precise control of the OCR process and the widest range of tools to meet the most demanding OCR challenges, we believe that Kurzweil 1000, version 10, is worthy of first consideration. The Optimize feature enables settings to be automatically adjusted for a particular job or text document. The highly granular control of the most obscure functions of the scanning and recognition is unsurpassed. This advanced control and user configurability demands that those who perform intermediate and advanced scanning tasks with Kurzweil 1000 orient themselves to the controls and idiosyncrasies of this powerful and complex product.
Demonstration versions of both products can be obtained from the respective companies. If you have a computer and scanner available, installing and comparing these powerful and costly applications for yourself may be the best way to go.
View the Product Features as a graphic
View the Product Features as text
View the Product Ratings as a graphic
View the Product Ratings as text
Product: Kurzweil 1000, Version 10.0.
Manufacturer: Kurzweil Educational Systems, 100 Crosby Drive, Bedford, MA 01730; phone: 800-894-5374 or 781-276-0600; e-mail: <info@kurzweiledu.com>; web site: <www.kurzweiledu.com>.
Price: $995.
Product: OpenBook 7.02.
Manufacturer: Freedom Scientific, Blindness and Low Vision Group, 11800 31st Court North, St. Petersburg, FL 33716; phone: 800-444-4443; e-mail: <Sales@freedomscientific.com>; web site: <www.FreedomScientific.com>.
Price: $995.
So you like the idea of a system that will control a scanner and allow you to read the text that you have placed on it. You may also be thinking that you would like an alternative to the Adobe Reader to handle that in-box full of PDF files. Despite your interest, you still suffer from a case of sticker shock. Several alternatives may be of interest.
People who are blind or have low vision are not the only ones who use OCR technology on a PC. Many business applications and processes rely on this technology. Two competing off-the-shelf products vie for the bulk of the OCR business. These products also make use of the internal OCR processors that are within both OpenBook and Kurzweil.
In instances in which a sighted person will be scanning and preparing materials for a blind person, an off-the-shelf solution is not only significantly less expensive, but allows the sighted person to use the familiar visual cues and conventions of Windows programs. Be forewarned, however: These programs are not always fully accessible and require intermediate to advanced Windows skills.
OmniPage, with a street price of $349, is an off-the-shelf, Windows-based OCR program. Many individuals, most with intermediate to advanced screen-reader skills, report that they have been successful using OmniPage as an alternative to the programs we have reviewed here. They caution, and our experience confirms, that using the program is a challenge in comparison to OpenBook or Kurzweil 1000.
The second alternative is FineReader. Generally distributed online, it is priced competitively with Omnipage. It also offers a powerful OCR engine and includes some of the challenging design limitations of programs that are only partially accessible.
An alternative strategy for recognizing inaccessible or poorly tagged PDF documents may be found in Adobe Acrobat, the $149 big sister of the Adobe Reader. We have included an example of this strategy with the unsuccessful conversions of the XM Radio Channel Guide. We did not conduct in-depth comparison tests of Acrobat with other recalcitrant PDF documents. Adobe's own information suggests that the process that is used in Acrobat is less rigorous than the processes that are available in either of the blindness-specific OCR products.
Return to article, or use your browser's "back" button.
In August 2001, I attended "2001: A Technology Odyssey," a conference co-hosted by the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). The conference was devoted to instructing professionals who work with people who are blind or have low vision to use the assistive technology they will eventually teach their students. Little did I know that the banquet luncheon would be professionally altering for me. By the time the luncheon ended, I was convinced that I would undertake the project described in this article.
Two speakers stood out. The first, Richard Chandler, an industry leader, spoke about his vision for the future of blindness assistive technology. The head of Freedom Scientific, a recently formed conglomerate of three well-known blindness technology companies, Chandler (who was replaced by Lee Hamilton in 2002) represented an ever-growing phenomenon on the world corporate landscape. Despite worries about the demise of small businesses at the hands of "mega-giants" in many industries, several of these small blindness technology companies merged in the early 2000s for competitive advantage. In the case of Freedom Scientific, three mainstays of the blindness technology industry (Arkenstone Blindness Products, Blazie Engineering, and Henter-Joyce)—companies that had occupied their own specialty niches—had suddenly disappeared.
The next speaker was Harvey Lauer, one of the early pioneers and inventors of blindness technology. Now retired and despite his advancing age, Lauer impressed me with his clarity and wit. While he took the audience back in time, relating adventures in his laboratory from a career that spanned more than 30 years, it became clear why he is considered such a prominent figure in blindness technology that AER's Information Services and Technology division named its professional award in his honor. As I listened, I realized that, as is the case for many of his era, Lauer's career has been, at best, only lightly chronicled.
After Lauer's speech, the award named in his honor was presented to Jim Allan of the Texas School for the Blind. Allan is a highly accomplished technology trainer and educator. His acceptance speech included a paraphrase of a quote from Albert Einstein, attributing his achievements to the "giants" (Lauer among them) upon whose shoulders he stood. I began to think, wouldn't it be wonderful to hear the first-person account of the history of blindness assistive technology directly from the mouths of the legends and pioneers themselves? My imagination began to race, and when Jay Stiteley, a techno-wizard in his own right and a former employee of both the Texas School for the Blind and AFB, broke into tears while presenting the award to his old friend Allan, I was hooked.
There is a lot of passion in the assistive technology community. Not only the legends and pioneers, but the business owners, salespeople, trainers, and technologists, have always been and continue to be committed to a labor of love. Money, although important, has rarely been a primary motive. Instead, the men and women who developed and purveyed the technologies that enable people who are blind or have low vision to use computers, operate personal digital assistants, scan and read printed documents, use their residual vision to read books, convert electronic files to hard-copy braille, and more, did their work to enable us who are visually impaired to function in the world on a level playing field.
Thus, I was inspired to preserve the memories of the giants—the legends and pioneers—upon whose shoulders we stand today. In doing so, I hoped not only to illuminate the history of this specialized technology industry, but to do so in a personal way.
Heightening the urgency for this project, Tim Cranmer, one of the "grandparents of the business," died on November 15, 2001. The immediate reaction from blindness technology buffs appeared to be shock; only a few eulogies were posted on the most popular blindness electronic discussion groups. I worried that we had lost a great deal by not having recorded Cranmer's story. Fortunately, shortly before Cranmer died, a historian, Harold Schneider, who was working on an unrelated project for the National Federation of the Blind, and a reporter, AccessWorld's own Deborah Kendrick, spent several hours with him, recording pearls of wisdom from the man who invented the talking calculator, the personal braille printer, and a special abacus for people who are blind. Kendrick's article appeared in the January 2002 issue of AccessWorld.
While working for the Kentucky Services for the Blind in the 1980s, Cranmer helped inspire Fred Gissoni to develop a precursor to a portable notetaker. Later, Deane Blazie, who as a teenager worked for Cranmer running errands as his "Saturday boy," was inspired to earn his engineering degree and enter the blindness assistive technology business. Blazie took Cranmer's and Gissoni's open-source specifications for the PortaBraille and developed them into the Braille 'n Speak and the long line of talking portable notetakers that followed.
Oral history is a great way to obtain and preserve firsthand accounts of events that took place during an individual's lifetime. Even though personal points of view may be slanted or memories may be incomplete or altered by time, listening to the stories of those who lived the events in question provides a flavor that is hard to get from more sterile and removed third-party renditions.
During the interviews, the oral historian can interact with the interviewees, asking questions that help direct them to a topic, clarify a particular point, or explore an angle they may not be thinking about at the moment. Next, using the stories as a rich source of information, the oral historian attempts to put together a history. Putting a few stories together can lead to the discovery of either a great deal of consensus or genuine disagreement about what actually happened. If you listen closely enough, you can even understand why the various persons may disagree and from this insight arrive at the "truth." Here is where secondary sources (such as time lines and histories written by others) come in. Ultimately, the challenge for the historian is to put several chunks of information together and create a well-rounded and comprehensive picture of the events as they actually occurred.
My primary goal in conducting the oral history project was not to write a comprehensive history (I am not a historian), but to audiotape extended interviews with as many legends and pioneers of blindness assistive technology as possible and to make them available for public consumption. I have done so through the generosity of AFB, which has archived the digitized interviews under the auspices of its M. C. Migel Library at the AFB headquarters in New York. Historians of technology and others who are interested in these fascinating stories can listen to all or parts of the interviews there.
To determine whom to interview, I asked people who might be interested and knowledgeable about the field to tell me whom they considered to be "legends" or "pioneers" in the field. I contacted currently practicing assistive technology specialists, as well as consumers who are blind or have low vision. The response to my inquiry was a daunting list of luminaries—far more than I thought I would ever be able to interview on my own. Thinking that the best course of action was simply to begin, I read a few books on oral history protocol, consulted a few professors of oral history, dusted off my interviewing skills (I am a counselor by training), and began making telephone calls. No one whom I asked refused to be interviewed. Even the extremely busy Ray Kurzweil, whom I literally accosted by running onto the stage after he received an M. C. Migel Award from AFB, said yes.
In May 2002, I began traveling around the country in my spare time, conducting three- and four-hour interviews. (AFB, for which I worked at the time, permitted me to piggyback a few of my interviews on trips made in its behalf and began funding the project in 2004.) By December 2004, when I arbitrarily decided to end my trek and begin analyzing what I had heard, I had completed 25 interviews.
My first interview, in May 2002, was with Jim Bliss, who, along with John Linvill (whom I interviewed by telephone the following August), developed the Optacon and Telesensory Systems. Bliss recently retired from his latest company, JBliss Imaging Systems (which focused on easy-to-use PCs for older people who are visually impaired), and Linvill (now in his late 80s) lives with his wife Marjorie not far from Stanford University, where he headed the Optacon project at the Stanford Research Institute. It was Linvill's daughter Candy's blindness that inspired the creation in the 1960s of what is arguably the first electronic device for blind people. Marjorie Linvill helped create the Sensory Access Foundation to use money from the Federal Bureau for Education of the Handicapped (now the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services) to provide training to people who are blind in the use of the device. Under Telesensory, the Optacon hit the market in the early 1970s, marking, in my opinion, the beginning of the blindness assistive technology era.
In late August and early September 2004, I interviewed Larry Israel and Jim Halliday. Both live in Danville, California; were integral parts of the history of Telesensory systems; and, coincidentally, are interested in viticulture (the growing of grapes) and enology (wine making). Israel is a pilot and an excellent business investor, and Halliday is an accomplished piano player who has a plethora of musical instruments from all over the world in his home.
Israel founded VisualTek (closed-circuit televisions) in 1971 to market Sam Genensky's creation (closed-circuit televisions, to be described in Part 2 of this series) and to compete against Apollo Lasers. Telesensory purchased Apollo Lasers in the early 1980s and three years later bought VisualTek (then called VTek) from him. Five years later, after Bliss had been forcibly replaced as chairman and CEO by Jim Morrell, Israel took over from Morrell and became chairman and CEO of Telesensory.
In 1986, Israel earned his law degree. He still practices law. Resigning from Telesensory in 1999, Israel returned to the board in the early 2000s. He was on the board when Telesensory went out of business in 2005, about eight months after our interview.
Halliday (Telesensory, HumanWare, Pulse Data–HumanWare, and now the HumanWare Group) began his professional life as a Mormon missionary; got into media production in the California community college system; and found his way from there to Telesensory, where he headed its sales force. In 1987, he left Telesensory to pursue a new venture, one that would emphasize the human-factors aspect of assistive technology. It was then that he received a call from Russell Smith, who was managing the buyout from the Wormald International Group that led to the creation of Pulse Data in 1988. Smith hired Halliday to develop Pulse Data's American affiliate, the company called HumanWare. HumanWare was eventually purchased by the Tieman Group and, a few years later, repurchased by Pulse Data.
In June 2002, I spent a delightful morning in my home town of Haverstraw, New York, interviewing Bob Keenan, one of a small group of industry observers whom I included in this series. Keenan is a great storyteller with a wonderful sense of humor. He has been a sales representative for Telesensory and HumanWare, and was working as an assistive technology specialist for Lighthouse International at the time of our interview. Keenan had plenty to say about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Telesensory's product development and marketing approach. His conclusion: Telesensory's ultimate downfall would come from its engineering culture, which often supplanted a more customer-oriented approach. (It was a similar feeling that led Halliday to seek a new venture.) Little did Keenan and I realize how much our interview portended the eventual demise of this giant just three years later.
In September 2004, I took a one-hour flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Christchurch to interview Russell Smith, the head of Pulse Data International, now part of the HumanWare Group. Just two days earlier, I had interviewed Leslie Kay in Auckland, another pioneer of blindness assistive technology and the inventor of the Sonic Guide, one of a series of sonar-based mobility and environmental scanning devices developed in the 1960s. Smith was one of only two of Kay's graduate students at Canterbury University (the other being John Brabyn, now with the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Institute in San Francisco) to remain in the blindness assistive technology business after he earned his Ph.D. On August 7, 2005, Smith and his wife died when their small Cessna 182 crashed into the sea between New Zealand's north and south islands. He was 61. The legacy he left includes one of the most prolific and enduring assistive technology companies in history.
Kay acquired his knowledge of specialized sonar in the British Royal Navy after World War II. Observing blind children enjoying themselves in a community swimming pool in Birmingham, England, and studying the use of sonar by bats, Kay (whose degree is in engineering) decided to combine concepts of airborne sonar with human learning and to develop devices for people who are blind. By the mid-1960s, he had developed the Sonic Torch. The Sonic Guide (a headborne device) and the Mowatt sensor are offshoots of the original Sonic Torch. These devices, which sold for more than $2,000 in the 1960s and 1970s and required a great deal of training to interpret accurately the audible signals generated from sonar that were designed to bounce off objects in the environment and return to receivers on the device, were not well received by the American market. Today's KSONAR device mounts on a cane, is easier to learn, and is somewhat less expensive.
Boasting one of the largest research and development teams of any similar company in the world, Pulse Data emerged in 1988 from the Wormald International Group, which Smith headed, to develop and market Kay's sonar-based devices. By the late 1980s, Pulse Data's "blind-friendly" portable notetakers, driven by the specially designed KeySoft suite of programs, had begun to revolutionize the market of products for people who are blind. Like his main competitor, Blazie, Smith's philosophy of creating technology for blind people that operates according to their unique needs captured the loyalty of many consumers. Two well-known devices from that period included the Viewscan and KeyNote series of portable devices. The legacy of the KeyNote is the BrailleNote.
Smith's most recent gifts to consumers who are blind or have low vision include the BrailleNote PK, the Brailliant braille display, the myReader digitally based electronic magnification system, and the merging of Pulse Data International with VisuAide of Canada to form the HumanWare Group.
I do have a few regrets. I wish I could have interviewed representatives of several blindness assistive technology companies that have made a big splash. Among these companies are Quantum Technologies of Australia, Dolphin Computer Access of the United Kingdom, Optelec, ALVA, Enabling Technologies, Papenmeier, and VisuAide (now part of the HumanWare Group).
More individuals were recommended to me than I could possibly have interviewed. Among them (in no particular order) are Larry Skutchan (ASAP, ASAW, Book Port, Book Wizard), Ron Hutchinson (Votalker synthesizer and Enhanced PC Talking Program screen reader), Tom Benham (Science for the Blind Products), Vito Proscia (an early braille embosser, IRTI), Noel Runyan (IBM talking typewriter, Telesensory), Peter Duran (early machine-based speech, Braille, Inc.), Franz Tieman (braille cells and more), Steve Brugler (Optacon, Telesensory), Greg Vanderheiden (Trace Center), Doug Wakefield (tutorials, technology advocacy), Oleg Tretiakov (ELINFA cassette-based portable notetaker, piezo-electric braille cell), George Dalrimple (an early braille embosser), and Gayle Yarnall (Telesensory).
In Part 2 of this series, I will continue my trek down the long and winding road. I will outline the remaining 18 interviews in the series, which took me from Hawaii to Boston and northern California to Florida. Although, with the possible exception of Hawaii, none was as exotic as New Zealand's north and south islands, all were fun places to visit, and the people I interviewed were even more fascinating.
Imagine this scenario. You have your boarding pass, and your flight is due to take off in about an hour when you remember the one thing you forgot to pack: a book. You forgot to load any books onto your BrailleNote or PAC Mate. You did not bring your cassette or CD player, and the omission is making you miserable. You will have time to read on the airplane and at your destination, but you do not have any reading material with you. A sighted person could dash into a bookstore or gift shop at the airport and buy a best-seller in five minutes, thus solving the no-book problem. But for people who are blind or have low vision, it is not so easy.
For the advantage of instant readiness (or should I say "instant reading-ness"?), the Playaway warrants investigation. This new kid on the digital books block is ready to go right out of the package. No CD player, MP3 player, or computer is required.
The Playaway is an audio book—the same production that you can hear if you purchase a copy of the book on CDs or cassettes or as a download from an online source like Audible.com. But with Playaway, the audio content and the vehicle for hearing it are one and the same.
The first things that you notice when you hold a Playaway book in your hand are its esthetically pleasing design and light weight. Weighing just 2 ounces, this sleek little "book" is about the size of a credit card, but slightly thicker at the top. The front (smooth to the touch) looks just like the book cover of the print equivalent—with the cover art, title, author, and imprint. Flip it over, and the bottom half (again, smooth to the touch) bears the blurb that appears on the back of the printed book jacket (the publisher's promotional information and excerpts from reviews), together with production credit for the audio book inside. The top half sports a grid of eight buttons: the top row of three buttons, the second row of two buttons on either side of the tiny display window, and the bottom row of three buttons. On the top right edge is the universal headset jack.
Each Playaway book package includes the book, a pair of headphones, an optional lanyard (which can be attached to hang the book round your neck), and a spare AAA battery. (One battery is already loaded in the unit, with a tab to pull off when you are ready to begin listening.) With a Playaway book, you can literally take it out of the package, plug in the headphones, press Play, and begin listening to your newly purchased thriller or self-help book.
The layout of the buttons is excellent. The buttons are prominent and arranged in a perfect rectangle for easy tactile discernment. The Play button (the center key on the bottom row) is also distinguished by the addition of a little nib pointing downward. From left to right, the controls include (top row) Volume, Speed, Bookmark; (middle row) Chapter Back, Chapter Forward; (bottom row) Rewind, Play/Pause, Fast Forward.
Activating the book is quirky. You need to press Play for a considerable length of time—about five to six seconds—and then quickly press it again. Pausing and resuming are accomplished by quick presses, and then to power down completely, you need again to hold the Play button down for a much longer time.
To increase the volume, you press the Volume key continuously. When you get to the loudest point, however, the volume simply cycles again, so that you go from 100 percent volume to no volume with a single press of the key. This situation can be disconcerting for a person who is visually impaired, since there is no audible cue to let you know that the unit is still on. With some experimentation, however, it will become only a minor annoyance.
The Speed control, similarly, cycles through its three choices repeatedly. The bottom Rewind and Forward buttons work in a cue-and-review style, moving short distances backward or forward through the text by small increments. The Chapter buttons, on the other hand, move immediately back or forward to the next chapter (or designated audio segment).
The Bookmark feature is useless to a person who is blind. Revisiting or skipping forward to another section of the book, however, is relatively easy with the four buttons just described.
The audio quality of Playaway books is extremely good. The content itself is the same as is available in other audio formats, such as a CD format or a download from Audible.com, and the quality and clarity of the sound are excellent. The universal headset jack makes it easy to play these books through the provided ear buds, as well as through any other headset, portable speakers, or your home or car stereo system. The content is as final as the print pages of a hardcover book. If you buy, say, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, that book will always be the only book inside the particular Playaway. You do not add to it or delete it; rather, you simply enjoy each Playaway as the individual audio book that it is.
Some audio book enthusiasts who are accustomed to free library books or discounted ones from Audible.com may find Playaway a bit pricey. At roughly $35 to $50 each, however, the prices are comparable to purchasing an audio book on CDs or cassettes. The greatest drawback to this new product is the limited content. As of this writing, only about 60 titles were listed on the Playaway web site—only a few more than were available at the beginning of 2006. They range from thrillers and best-sellers through self-help books, biographies, and children's books. Since the product is less than a year old, only time will tell how much and how quickly the list of available titles will increase.
The product has no automatic shutoff, so if you do not see the lighted display to remind you that the book is playing, you can wear down the battery. If you do shut it off, Playaway always resumes playing at the same point in the book when you pick it up again.
Playaway books are sold online, as well as in many Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores. Although this novel product should certainly not be considered a replacement for more sophisticated assistive technology approaches to listening to recorded books, it is definitely a viable addition to the recommended list of sources of audio books. With a longer list of titles, an automatic shutoff feature, and an accessible bookmarking function, Playaway could be a hot product, indeed. As it is, Playaway books certainly offer a great option for people who are new to the audio book genre and give experienced audio book listeners the kind of book that they can pick up, pay for, and start reading on their way out of the bookstore.
To order Playaway books or locate book stores that carry the product in your zip-code area, visit the web site <www.playawaybooks.com>.
View the Product Ratings as a graphic
View the Product Ratings as text
Product: Playaway.
Manufacturer: Findaway World, 23 Bell Street, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022; phone: 877-893-0808 or 440-893-0808; fax: 440-893-0809; web site: <www.playaway.com>.
Price: $35 to $55.
This is the final article in our three-part series investigating the accessibility of today's multifunctional copy machines. In the March 2006 issue of AccessWorld, Part 1 of this series evaluated large, expensive, stand-alone multifunctional copy machines that have been common in offices in the past few decades. That evaluation showed that the great majority of these units pose serious accessibility barriers, mainly because of their use of an inaccessible touch-screen interface and their lack of speech output to guide users who are blind or have low vision. The second article, in the May 2006 issue, examined the smaller, less expensive desktop units that are often found in a small business or home office. Although that article found the desktop units to be more accessible than the large units, it was clear that the manufacturers have a long way to go to make such units completely accessible and usable. This final article goes back to the large machines, focusing on accessibility solutions from Canon and Xerox that have been specifically designed to make their units more accessible and usable for people who are blind or have low vision.
The accessibility solutions that are the focus of this article have been designed by Canon and Xerox to give people who are blind or have low vision access to some of the features and functions of some of their large copy machines. These machines are the 3 1/2-foot-tall multipurpose stand-alone furniture-sized pieces of equipment that have been familiar fixtures in offices for the past two or three decades. They are expensive units and are usually leased over a period of years. In addition to the standard functions of copying, collating, and stapling, they can be connected to an office's computer and telecommunications networks and provide printing, scanning, fax, and e-mail functions. When connected to networks, they can serve as a printer for all your office's PCs to use. Scanned images can be stored on your server, and you can use your optical character recognition (OCR) software to capture the text of these scanned documents. The copy machine can also be used to fax or e-mail the images. As with the large units that we evaluated in our first article, these copiers have a control panel with a group of tactilely identifiable buttons, as well as an inaccessible touch-screen interface that is used to control most of the unit's functions. The solutions that we discuss here provide alternate ways to access some of the functions that are not accessible because of the touch-screen interface.
The Voice Guidance Kit is the main solution from Canon that we evaluate here, but we also examine the access provided by Canon's Remote User Interface, Remote Operator Software Kit, and Braille Label kit.
The Voice Guidance Kit is an option available on 12 of Canon's imageRUNNER series machines (see the list of these machines in the Product Information section of this article). It costs $800 if you purchase it outright, or you can include the cost in your monthly lease payments for the copier for about $20 to $25 per month extra (according to our local vendor). The Voice Guidance Kit includes a small speaker attached to the side of the machine, along with speech-output software loaded onto the machine itself that provides access to the copy functions. It works like the voting machines that we evaluated in the November 2002 issue of AccessWorld. You use the number pad to navigate through and manipulate the various controls, and the speech output guides you along the way.
Caption: The Voice Guidance Kit for the Canon imageRUNNER series of photocopiers includes a small speaker attached to the side of the machine (right).
The Remote User Interface is preinstalled software on the machine that enables you to access some of the machine's functions from any computer in your network by using a web browser. It is mainly a back-end or administrative tool that allows you to perform many copy-room management functions. Among the many tasks that you can perform are monitoring the copier's job status, monitoring how many copies each user has made, and setting up mail boxes and address books for the fax and e-mail functions. You can also print and make copies of files that you have stored on your network.
The Remote Operator Software Kit is another tool from Canon for accessing the machine from any computer in your network. You load the software on your PC, and when you launch it, a mirror image of the unit's control panel appears on your monitor; you then have control of the system from your own PC. The Braille Kit is a set of peel-and-stick braille labels that you can place on the unit's control panel to label the various tactilely identifiable buttons; it is available upon request from your local Canon distributor. We were not charged for our Braille Label Kit.
The Xerox Copier Assistant is the main solution from Xerox that we evaluate in this article, but we also examine the access provided by Xerox's Remote User Interface and braille labels.
The Xerox Copier Assistant is an option available on 49 of Xerox's multifunction systems, including its CopyCentre, WorkCentre, and WorkCentre Pro models (a partial list of which appears in the Product Information section of this article). The software costs $475, or you can spread out the cost by including it in your lease payments for the copier. It works on computers running the Windows 2000 or XP operating systems. Xerox takes a different approach with its Xerox Copier Assistant than Canon takes with its Voice Guidance Kit. Instead of installing the solution directly on the machine itself, the Xerox Copier Assistant software is installed on a separate PC that is directly connected or networked to the copy machine. The Xerox Copier Assistant has its own built-in speech-output software and works like a standard Windows dialogue box. You use the tab, arrow keys, and space bar on the keyboard to navigate the controls for the copy functions and make selections, and the speech output guides you along the way. In addition, you can use hot keys to move quickly to various controls or to activate buttons. You can use Xerox Copier Assistant by itself or turn off the speech and use it with the JAWS or Window-Eyes screen readers. The interface also features large text, but people with low vision can choose to use the ZoomText or MAGic screen-magnifier products.
Caption: The Xerox Copier Assistant software, installed on a separate PC connected to the copy machine, allows the user to choose the copy functions from the PC.
Although Xerox does not have a remote operator software product like Canon, the Xerox Remote User Interface is similar to that of the Canon. It is preinstalled software on the machine that enables you to access some of the machine's functions from any computer in your network by using a web browser. Again, it is mainly a back-end or administrative tool that allows you to perform many copy-room management functions. The many tasks that you can perform include monitoring the copier's job status, monitoring how many copies each user has made, and setting up mailboxes and address books for the fax and e-mail functions. You can also print and make copies of files that you have stored on your network.
Xerox has braille labels for all its large multifunctional machines. For some of the machines, there are individual peel-and-stick labels that you can place on the unit's control panel to label the various tactilely identifiable buttons. For other units, there is a one-piece braille overlay for all the buttons. These braille labels are available on request from your local Xerox distributor at a cost of $95.
To evaluate these accessibility solutions from Canon and Xerox at the AFB TECH product evaluation lab, we first leased a Xerox Work Centre Pro 232, along with the Xerox Copier Assistant software and a Canon imageRUNNER 3570 with Voice Guidance and Canon's other access solutions. We then listed every task that can be accomplished by a sighted person on these machines and compared that list to the list of tasks that are made accessible by the solutions provided by Xerox and Canon. We also evaluated the usability of the Voice Guidance and Xerox Copier Assistant solutions, examining the voice quality, consistency, and intuitive nature of the products. We next looked at the Remote User Interface and the Remote Operator Software Kit to determine their compatibility with screen-reader and screen-magnifier products. Similarly, we evaluated the accessibility of the installation process for the various software products that have to be installed. We also examined the accessibility of the actual Canon and Xerox machines, evaluating the visual characteristics of the touch-screen interfaces, the tactile nature of the physical buttons, and other miscellaneous troubleshooting and maintenance tasks. Finally, we looked at the functionality of the braille labels that were provided and the accessibility of the manuals and other documentation for the various products.
First, we would like to congratulate Canon and Xerox for taking the initiative to design these solutions that are aimed at making their systems accessible and usable by people who are blind or have low vision. At the time of publication, these are the only two companies that have addressed the accessibility barriers that are inherent in today's large multifunctional copy machines. The solutions that are evaluated in this article provide much more access to these machines' functions and features than we have ever had before. They provide real alternatives to the dreaded touch-screen interface that we described in our first article in this series. However, they still do not go all the way toward giving us the same access to the machines that our sighted colleagues have. With these access solutions, we have access to most of the main copy-related tasks, and printing is not a problem as long as your computer has your requisite screen-reader and screen-magnifier tools. However, we still have little access to the scan, fax, and e-mail capabilities.
Canon Voice Guidance and Xerox Copier Assistant are the main access solutions, and we spend the bulk of this Results section discussing these products. As we stated earlier, these two products provide access to only the basic copy features, but not to the fax, scan, or e-mail functions.
Canon's Voice Guidance uses the tactile-button portion of the machine's control panel, rather than the inaccessible touch screen, to access the machine's basic copy features. It features speech output to provide access to these functions, but there is no visual enhancement of the information on the display screen. You mainly use the 12-key number pad, using the 4 and 6 keys to navigate through the basic copy-feature controls and the 5 key to make selections. The other keys on the number pad and the other buttons on the control panel each have specific functions, and pressing the Help key prompts Voice Guidance to speak the functions of each key. We will not bore you with the functions of each individual button, but suffice it to say that the buttons are used to control such things as reviewing information about the copy settings and job status, to pause or repeat speech, and to confirm or cancel actions. When you have to enter an actual numeric value, such as when entering the number of copies that you want to make, you use the number pad to enter these numbers, and the other functions of the number-pad keys are temporarily disabled.
The speech output that guides you as you adjust the various copy settings is produced by a proprietary speech engine created by Canon's Platform Technology Center in Japan. It is an average-quality synthetic voice. However, it immediately responds to key presses. You can adjust the volume and speed of the voice and choose between a male or female voice. We experienced no problems when listening to the speech, but a clearer synthetic voice may improve its usability. To launch Voice Guidance, you press and hold the Reset button on the control panel for three seconds, and the voice greets you by saying, "The Voice Guide will begin." It then prompts you with some basic instructions and reminds you that you can press the Help key to learn about each key's function. As you press the 4 and 6 keys to move backward or forward through the various controls, the voice prompts you with the name of each control and what the control adjusts. When you land on a control or setting that you want to adjust, you press the 5 key, and you hear more prompting either to enter a value or to use the 4 and 6 keys again to navigate to the setting of your choice and to press the 5 key to select it. When you have finished adjusting all the copy settings that you want, you simply press the large Start button to begin copying. Here is a brief description of the eight separate copy controls and their settings that you can adjust with Voice Guidance.
Number of copies. To set this value, you simply enter the number of copies that you want using the telephone-style number pad. The values are spoken as you enter the digits; you then press the ID button below the number pad to confirm your entry and are placed back in the list of controls. You are now ready to navigate to the next control that you want to adjust.
Copy ratio. This control allows you to adjust the size of your output compared to your original. For example, if you have a letter-sized original and you want 11-by-17 output, you would choose the setting that says, "129 percent, from letter to 11 by 17." You can choose among 12 ratios, including auto-zoom, which automatically chooses the copy ratio to fit the size of paper in the paper tray. You can also use the keypad to directly enter a number for the percentage reduction or enlargement you want. As you scroll through the choices, Voice Guidance speaks both the percentage value and what the percentage represents, such as letter to legal size.
Paper select. This control allows you to choose the paper drawer from which your output paper comes. As you navigate among the four available paper drawers, Voice Guidance reads the size and type of paper in each drawer, saying, for example, "paper drawer 1, letter, plain paper" or "paper drawer 2, legal, transparency." It also tells you if the paper drawer is empty, and there is a setting to automatically choose the paper drawer on the basis of the size of your originals.
Finisher. This control allows you to choose how your output is arranged. Your choices are collated, grouped, and/or stapled. Collated delivers sets of output in page order, and grouped delivers sets of output with each stack containing copies of one page from your set of originals. There is also an offset setting, which slightly offsets each set of output vertically in the output tray.
Double sided. This control allows you to make double-sided originals from single-sided copies, or vice versa. It also allows for double-sided to double-sided copying, and there is even a book mode, which makes double-sided copies from a book that has been opened on the copy glass, exposing two pages at a time. In addition, there is an option to choose whether you want your copies bound horizontally like a book or vertically like a calendar.
Density. This control allows you to adjust the exposure of your copies. If the print on your originals is light, you may want to try a higher setting to darken your output, and vice versa. There is also a setting that automatically adjusts the exposure, depending on the condition of your originals.
Original type selection. This control allows you to select the type of print that is on your originals, so the machine produces copies that are as close as possible to the original. You can choose among text, photo, or text and photo.
Color selection. If you have a machine that supports color copying, this control allows you to choose among automatic, black-and-white, or full-color options for your copy output. The Automatic Color Selection mode enables the machine to detect whether an original is in color or black and white and automatically chooses the output accordingly.
These basic copy settings, accessed via Voice Guidance, are the same as the basic copy choices that are available to sighted users. However, there are additional copy settings, called Special Features, that can be accessed only by sighted users via the inaccessible touch-screen interface. The controls for these 10 additional settings are used for such functions as copying books and creating booklets, copying transparencies, numbering pages, and setting margins. Also, the Express Copy Basic Features screen is useful for advanced users because it enables you to set various copying modes with fewer steps than on the Regular Copy Basic Features screen. However, the Express Copy Basic Features screen is not supported by Voice Guidance. The handling of errors in the machine is also not supported by Voice Guidance, but Voice Guidance does announce that a paper jam has occurred. Although these are serious limitations and Voice Guidance does not support the fax, scan, and e-mail functions of the machines, Canon has done a great job of designing the interface to access the basic copy features just described. It is a responsive, intuitive, and easy interface to learn, and we hope that Canon will expand the reach of Voice Guidance to access more and more functionality in future versions of its products.
As we stated earlier, Xerox takes a different approach with its Xerox Copier Assistant. Instead of being installed directly on the copier, the software is installed on a PC that is connected to the machine, creating its own separate interface to access some of the basic copy functions. It loads automatically when the PC is booted and speaks with its own built-in speech synthesis. The speech output that guides you as you navigate through the controls and adjust the various copy settings is produced by the Microsoft Windows speech engine, which is a low- to moderate-quality synthetic voice. It has a male voice; no female voice is available. You cannot adjust the speed of the voice, and it can seem slow to users who are experienced in using screen readers or Talking Books at higher speeds. It also has some responsiveness problems, with 10-second or longer delays before it speaks certain important screen information that is displayed along the bottom of the Xerox Copier Assistant's screen. Other than these limitations, we experienced no major problems when listening to the speech, but a clearer and responsive synthetic voice would definitely improve its usability. While using the system at AFB TECH, we preferred to use our screen-reader and/or screen-magnifier programs, rather than the built-in speech. However, although doing so saved us from some of the long response delays and the lower-than-standard speech quality we experienced when using Xerox Copier Assistant alone, it still had its limitations in accessing the information displayed along the bottom of the screen.
Here is a synopsis of the long delays that we experienced when using Xerox Copier Assistant. First, there is a useful onscreen Help button that causes Xerox Copier Assistant to speak a list of all the hot keys and keystroke commands. However, there is a painfully long 10-second delay between the Xerox Copier Assistant's speaking of each command in that list. Visually, that information is displayed along the bottom of the screen, and each command is shown for about 10 seconds before the next one is displayed. The information is not automatically spoken if you are using a screen reader. We had to use the mouse cursors and recheck every 10 seconds or so to read that information with screen readers. Troubleshooting information, such as a paper jam alert, is also displayed along the bottom of the screen. That information is spoken automatically by Xerox Copier Assistant, but, again, you have to use your mouse cursor to access that information when using a screen reader. The delays also occurred when we navigated through the control settings. Although the name of the setting was immediately spoken, the extra explanatory information displayed at the bottom of the screen was delayed. The delay also occurred when we checked to confirm the copy settings that we made. For example, if we set it to make 10 copies and moved back to that control to confirm, Xerox Copier Assistant immediately spoke the name of the control, but then delayed for several seconds before telling us that we had set it to make 10 copies. Using a screen reader eliminates this specific delay, and you can also eliminate that delay when using Xerox Copier Assistant alone by pressing the F2 key when you land on the control.
When we used the ZoomText screen magnifier to control Xerox Copier Assistant, all the screen-manipulation tools worked as one would expect. The text-to-speech tools also worked well, speaking all the control information without delays. However, it was difficult to get the help and troubleshooting information displayed along the bottom of the screen to speak. We had to use the Speak-It tool in ZoomText to read each word one at a time.
The Xerox Copier Assistant software interface behaves much like a Windows multipage dialogue box, with three pages, or tabs, for controlling different aspects of the copy functions. The Basic Copying tab has most of the controls, while the Image Adjustment tab and Output Format tab have only one and two controls, respectively. The interface also has a Preferences button, which brings up a dialogue with controls to adjust the amount of information that Xerox Copier Assistant speaks. Here are the names, along with a brief description, of the nine copy controls and their settings that you can adjust with Xerox Copier Assistant. The first six are part of the Basic Copying tab, the seventh is in the Image Adjustment tab, and the eighth and ninth are in the Output Format tab.
Quantity. This control sets the number of copies, which you can adjust by entering a number manually or by using the arrow keys to increase or decrease the number one at a time.
Duplex. This control is similar to the double-sided control on the Canon. It has all the same settings as the Canon—double-sided originals from single-sided copies, single-sided copies from double-sided originals, or double-sided to double-sided copies—except for the Book Mode.
Tray. This control corresponds to the Paper Select control on the Canon, allowing you to choose the paper tray that is used for your copies. It has the same controls as with the Canon, and Xerox Copier Assistant provides the same information about the size and type of paper in each tray.
Staples. This control allows you to choose from no staple, one on the upper left, or two along the left edge. The Canon does not offer the left-edge option.
Collation. This control allows you to choose collated or uncollated copies, but there is no offset choice as with the Canon.
Reduction or enlargement. Just as with the Canon, there are eight settings here, or you can use the keyboard to directly enter a number for the percentage reduction or enlargement you want. Xerox Copier Assistant reads you the percentage of reduction or enlargement immediately, but the corresponding paper size is delayed because it is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Original input. This is the only control on the Image Adjustment tab, and it is used to tell the copier the size of the originals you are copying. The automatic setting is the default, and it automatically detects the size of your originals. The manual setting allows you to tell the machine directly the size of your originals so as to avoid any automatic detection errors. The mixed-size setting allows you to use mixed paper sizes in the document feeder.
Dividers. This is the first control in the Output Format tab. It allows you to insert a divider between the sets of output. You can choose to have a blank page as the divider, or you can set it to copy an image on the divider, such as your company's logo.
Covers. With this control, you can choose to put cover sheets on the front or back of each set of output or on both. You can also make the cover a blank page or an image.
As with the Canon, many other copy settings are available to sighted users that cannot be accessed via Xerox Copier Assistant. Some of these settings include extra options for stapling, a hole-punch option, settings for the image quality of your originals, and margin settings.
Although we have discussed several limitations with the Xerox Copier Assistant, it does provide access to many of the copier controls, and many of the responsiveness problems we have discussed are less of a problem as you get more used to how it works. However, we discovered perhaps a greater concern related to using a separate PC for the interface. The PC brings with it all the normal problems of using a PC, including periodic crashes. Although it always functioned properly while we were testing its functionality, we sometimes had to reboot the PC when we arrived in the morning or if we left it alone for an extended period. Also, if you leave Xerox Copier Assistant software on while you are not using it, it often keeps announcing copier-status information and that it is going to sleep or waking up. This situation could be annoying to nearby coworkers, who might turn down the speaker volume, leaving the user who is blind to try and figure out why it is not speaking when he or she wants to use it. We confirmed these problems when talking informally to employees of the U.S. Department of Labor who have Xerox Copier Assistant in their office. They told us that it has not been a practical solution because the system is frequently down when they want to use it. They either have to relaunch it on the PC or to reboot the computer. Both actions require sighted assistance because there is no assistive technology on the specific PC that is connected to their copier.
Although these large copy machines are multifunctional devices with fax, e-mail, and scanning capabilities, the Xerox Copier Assistant and Canon Voice Guidance have not addressed the accessibility of these functions. You still have to rely on the inaccessible touch screen to use the functions. However, you can, with sighted assistance, scan a large stack of print materials at one time and save the images on your server. You can then use your OCR technology to access the information. Canon also has accessible software, called Scan Gear, that allows you to use your PC independently to scan documents on the Canon and to bring up the image on your PC and then use your OCR technology to recognize it. Both systems are compatible with Kurzweil and OpenBook OCR software, and they work well as the scanners for these products.
As we mentioned earlier, each system has a Remote User Interface that is mainly a back-end or administrative tool that allows you to perform many copy-room management functions. Both the Canon and Xerox tools were completely accessible using both screen-reader and screen-magnifier software products. This point is significant because, again, this is the first time that people who are blind or have low vision have had access to this type of functionality on a copy machine.
Canon's Remote Operator Software Kit can be installed on a PC that is networked to Canon's copy machine. When launched, it brings up an exact image of the machine's control panel on your computer screen, and you can directly control and access all the machine's many functions. However, it is mouse driven only, and it is not compatible with screen readers. It does work, though, with the screen-magnification tools of ZoomText, but not with the text-to-speech functionality. So, it could be a solution for people with low vision who do not need to use speech output.
Although all the necessary software installation can be done by the machine vendor, we wanted to test it anyway, just in case a blind person's job required him or her to do so. All the software used standard Windows installation dialogues, and we had no problem using screen readers or screen magnifiers to accomplish the tasks. We did, however, find one minor problem when we installed the Xerox Copier Assistant software. A list box that is used to choose the copier's model name was improperly labeled with a label asking for the name of the connection port.
Although the software interfaces and corresponding speech output have been the main focus of this evaluation, we also examined the machines themselves. It became apparent to us during testing that these are both high-quality copy machines. The buttons on both machines were designed to be easily identifiable by touch, and they provide tone feedback when pressed, but the nib on the 5 key on the Canon should be more substantial. Also, with the exception of three buttons each on the Canon and Xerox control panels, all the buttons are the same color as their backgrounds, which can make it difficult to differentiate them visually from their surroundings. Changing the buttons to a color that highly contrasts with their backgrounds and increasing the size of the print labeling would improve their usability for people with low vision. As with all the large copy machines we have examined, the size of the information and icons that are presented on the touch-screen display of each machine are too small for most people with low vision to see. Some people with low vision could use a handheld magnifier to enlarge what they see on the screen, but glare may be a problem, depending on the background lighting and the viewing angle. There is a knob on the Canon unit for adjusting the display contrast and a contrast-adjustment feature on the Xerox, but the feature on the Xerox has to be accessed via the inaccessible touch-screen interface on the Xerox. The contrast adjustment on each machine was only slightly helpful to our testers with low vision. The Canon also has a reverse-polarity setting, which shows white letters on a black background on the display screen, which again may help some users with low vision, although it is accessed by navigating through the inaccessible touch screens.
The basic maintenance tasks, such as loading paper into the paper trays, refilling the staples, and clearing paper jams, can be accomplished by a person who is blind or has low vision. However, these tasks take some practice, along with sighted assistance. You need to learn which doors to open to access the paper trays and staple area, and you have to learn tactilely the steps that are involved in these tasks. You also have to learn the several steps that are involved in clearing a paper jam, which can involve opening some doors, adjusting several levers, and pulling out the jammed paper. If it was part of your job to maintain the copy machine, then it would make sense to learn and memorize everything about performing these tasks and perhaps creating a task cheat sheet.
Again, we applaud both Canon and Xerox for supplying braille labels for the buttons on their machines. Xerox provides high-quality, easy-to-read braille labels for its machines— individual peel-and-stick labels for some units and a one-piece braille overlay for other units. The Canon braille labels, although useful, are of a lesser quality. The material is thinner, and the braille is not as crisp or pronounced and seems to be slightly smaller than standard braille. Canon has expressed interest in working with AFB TECH to improve its braille labels.
All the documentation for the Xerox Copier Assistant, including the User Manual, Install Guide, and Getting Started Guide, is available on a CD in accessible PDF (portable document format) and TXT electronic formats. The manuals for the Xerox copy machine itself are printed mostly in a 10-point font and have small diagrams and pictures showing examples of touch-screen menus that are too small for many people with low vision to see without the aid of magnification from a handheld magnifier or closed-circuit television (CCTV). Furthermore, the manuals could be made more user friendly for a person with low vision by changing the paperback bindings to spiral bindings, which would keep the pages flat for easier use with magnifiers. There is also an electronic user manual in PDF format that works well with screen-magnification software, allowing you to adjust screen colors, the cursor, and pointer settings and have the documentation read aloud to you. The text of the file is accessible using screen readers, but, as we often find with PDF documents, many unlabeled graphics are mixed in with the instructions.
The Canon Voice Guidance comes with a large-print manual in a 26-point font, along with large diagrams and pictures, as well as user documentation on a CD in an accessible PDF format. The print manuals for the Canon copier are similar to those for the Xerox copier, printed in mostly 10-point font and with small diagrams of the copier and pictures showing examples of touch-screen menus, which are too small to be read by many people with low vision without the aid of magnification, such as a handheld magnifier or a CCTV. The large manuals are also difficult to accommodate on a CCTV because they have paperback bindings. A change to spiral bindings on the manuals would make them easier to read because the pages could be kept flat. The electronic manuals for the Canon copier and for the remote user interface are produced in somewhat accessible PDF files. We were able to access most of the text with screen readers, but, again, there were many unlabeled graphics throughout (although they were compatible with screen-magnification software).
Echoing our earlier comments, we again want to congratulate Canon and Xerox for taking the initiative to create these access solutions. These are the first products that have ever provided people who are blind or have low vision access to these functions.
In the first article in this series on copy machines, we mentioned that employment was one of the driving factors in our decision to evaluate office equipment. We surveyed local business leaders and found that using a copy machine was an important part of their employees' jobs. Although these are the best solutions that are available for copy machines, for a person whose job requires him or her to be able to use all the many functions of these machines, they still fall short. We would like to see Xerox and Canon expand the access they have provided to cover all the machines' functions and features, to give people who are visually impaired equal footing with sighted colleagues.
Comparing the usability of the Xerox Copier Assistant and Canon Voice Guidance, we prefer the Canon Voice Guidance solution. Both systems provide access to a similar number of copy functions, but the Canon is more responsive and easier to use. The fact that the Voice Guidance feature is built into the machine itself and does not rely on a separate PC (as does the Xerox) is another factor in Canon's favor. Although the Xerox Copier Assistant software costs much less than does Canon's Voice Guidance Kit, adding in the cost of a separate PC and the possibility of having to use a $500 to $1,200 screen reader or magnifier makes the Xerox system much more expensive.
Although we prefer the Canon system, it still has room for improvement. A better synthetic voice would be an improvement, but you can get used to the current voice fairly quickly. A higher priority would be for Canon to expand the reach of Voice Guidance to access all the machine's functions, not just the copy controls. We also suggest that Canon put a headphone jack on the speaker for privacy and to avoid disturbing others in an office.
Xerox needs to work to eliminate the long delays that we experienced when using its system. We also suggest that Xerox expand the scope of its solution to include access to the other functions of its copy machines. Furthermore, we strongly suggest that Xerox work to install its solutions directly on the machines and avoid using a PC that is connected to the machines for its accessible interface.
Despite the need for improvement, these two products are useful as they currently are designed. With these products, instead of having to ask "Can you make me some copies, please?" people who are blind or have low vision can now say, "I'll make my own copies, thank you very much." If these products progress as we would like, we will also be able to say the same about faxing, scanning, and e-mailing with these multifunctional machines, so that people who are blind or have low vision will be able to have more job security.
"Canon has been committed to increasing the accessibility of the imageRUNNER Series over the last several years. The Voice Guidance Kit is the latest of many enhancements, which was designed based on user requests for speech synthesis capabilities in our multifunction devices. As the AFB TECH office equipment study indicates, access to multifunction copy equipment is critical to professional success in today's workplace, and Canon would like to extend the benefits of this technology universally.
"Our effort to improve the accessibility of the Canon imageRUNNER is an ongoing process. The Voice Guidance Kit-A2 is the first Canon release of its kind for the U.S. market, and we are proud to offer this option for not just one model, but initially for our entire line of black-and-white and color imageRUNNER products for corporate users to mid-production environments.
Canon recognizes there is certainly potential to do more in the future. As AFB has encouraged, there is an opportunity to expand Voice Guidance beyond the basic copy features to faxing, scanning, and other options. Canon accepts this challenge and is committed to the development of even more accessibility enhancements on our multifunction devices in the very near future."
"Regarding our decision to use a PC-based access solution, the goal to this approach was to support more than just people who are visually impaired. Although this approach does result in some delays due to the communication process between the PC and the multifunction system, using a standard PC makes the functions more accessible for wheelchair users as well. When discussing the collating function, the article states that there is no offset choice like on the Canon. Actually, there is not a choice on the screen for offset because the finisher on this Xerox device automatically offsets the output when collate or staple is selected. We would also like to point out the value of the hot keys, which give the user a high level of control over the software. The hot keys are designed to make the system easy to use and to shorten the length of time a user spends at the device. Using hot keys, the experienced user can also stop the speaking entirely or stop the system from speaking the current sentence. Xerox is also investigating adding a voice selection on the preferences screen, which would allow a user to choose either a male or female voice. Finally, we would like to point out that Xerox does offer training on the use of these devices."
View the Product Features as a graphic
View the Product Features as text
View the Product Ratings as a graphic
View the Product Ratings as text
Products: Canon Voice Guidance, Canon Remote User Interface, Canon Remote Operator Software Kit, and Canon imageRUNNER 3570 multifunctional copy machine.
Manufacturer: Canon U.S.A., 1 Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042; phone: 703-807-3158; Canon Accessibility Solutions on the Web: <www.usa.canon.com/gmd/section508.html>; e-mail: <accessibility@cusa.canon.com>. Voice Guidance is available on the following black-and-white imageRUNNER series machines: iR2270, iR2870, iR3570, iR4570, iR5070, iR5570, iR6570, iR8070, iR85+, iR9070, iR105+, iR7105, iR7086, iR7095. Voice Guidance is also available on the following color imageRUNNER machines: iRC5870U, iRC6870U, iRC3170i, and iRC3170U. The Remote User Guide is available on all imageRUNNER series machines.
Products: Xerox Copier Assistant, Xerox Remote User Interface, Xerox WorkCentre Pro 232.
Manufacturer: Xerox Corporation, 800 Long Ridge Road, Stamford, CT 06904; phone: 800-ASK-XEROX or 800-275-9376; web site: <www.xerox.com>; assistive technologies webpage: <www.xerox.com/copierassistant>. The Xerox Copier Assistant is available on the following Xerox Work Centre and Work Centre Pro models: CC232, CC238, CC245, CC255, CC265, CC275, WC232, WC238, WC245, WC255, WC265, WC275, WCP232, WCP238, WCP245, WCP255, WCP265, WCP275. The Xerox Remote User Interface is available on all models.
We would like to acknowledge the assistance provided during this product evaluation project by Marshall University intern Trenton Chase Sturgill.
