[blindkid] FW: [vipnews] Individuals with Print Disabilities Gain New Opportunities to Read Bookshare Digital Books Using Mobile Speak Phone Technologies

[Jess]

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From: vipnews at googlegroups.com [mailto:vipnews at googlegroups.com] On Behalf
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Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 8:30 PM
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Subject: [vipnews] Individuals with Print Disabilities Gain New
Opportunities to Read Bookshare Digital Books Using Mobile Speak Phone
Technologies


PRESS RELEASE
via PRweb.com

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

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

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

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

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

LINK:
http://www.bookshare.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mobile Speak Pricing and Distribution Information

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

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

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

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

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

http://codefactory.es

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

SOURCE

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



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