[blindLaw] Openbooks 9.0 by freedom scientific or Kurzweil 1000—for reading and writing

Fri Oct 24 02:18:57 UTC 2025

Got it great answer. Thank you for that follow up . Very helpful.

My follow up questions below are a bit lengthy. Feel free to connect with
me directly over email personally and we can exchange phone numbers and
discuss the two program software differences to save time from having to
read the question.

With that said, the questions  are meant to get a better understanding
about Kurzweil 1000 and the openbooks 9.0 and to get an understanding of
the difference between both softwares.  And I am wondering which program is
more optimal For the needs of someone who is partially sighted/low vision.

Now… straight to the questions and follow ups

 Comment: The only differentiators between Kurzweil 1000 and openbooks 9.0
is that openbooks lets users access the exact view of the scanned pdf which
could be helpful for low vision partially sighted users.
would say that is sole benefit.

Questions: As far as reading speed and the hot key commands and shortcuts
for navigating through text—what was easier. I know openbooks 9.0 has a
smaller learning curve because the commands for navigating are consistent
with Jaws

Question:
What was easier to work with overall in terms of navigating text and being
able to plow through text as easily as possible , which is impotent for law
school.

Question:  And what software offers more updates. I know openbooks 9.0 has
not updated in the last decade or more.

Question:
Another important question I got is Kurzweil 1000 has study tools
Embedded that are more Sophisticated than the basic tools in OpenBook. The
feedback from you all regarding Kurzweil 1000 study tools and how
 effective  they are for studying would make a world of difference.

Question:
I am split between the exact pdf view of openbooks because as a partially
sighted person I want to view the original format but I crave the study
tools and productivity features of Kurzweil 1000?

Queation:
On that note, does Kurzweil 1000 have more integration with other platforms
like book share, Learning Ally, project Gutenberg and these other
platforms. I heard open books 9.0 does not have as many integrations as
KURZWEIL 1000. Can someone testify to this?

Question:
Additionally, whose customer support is more responsive and easier to get a
hold of and provides better assistance?

Question:
With a Kurzweil 1000 license,  on how many computers can one download
Kurzweil 1000 with that license. I know freedom scientific openbooks allows
downloads onto 3 devices

Question:
Last of all, for a low vision partially sighted user, my main question is
what would be the best way to plow through text and cases and study
material and to be as quick as possible and as effective as possible

Thank you for your attention.

If anyone is able to provide quick feedback to these answers based on their
experience, I would appreciate that a lot.

This would be very helpful for my studies. I appreciate everyone’s
attention in advance and assistance and their  time. If anyone prefers a
quick phone call to discuss these features rather than typing responses
back to these questions or does not want to read through the whole thing,
please feel free to call me and we can schedule  a call.

Feel Free to connect with me directly over email  at my email affiliated
with the list serv or reach out and we can exchange phone numbers.

On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM Aser Tolentino via BlindLaw <
blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> I’m currently maintaining CoCounsel and ChatGPT subscriptions, but I also
> still keep K1000 on my computer too. I always liked Kurzweil more, and if a
> rehabilitation agency is going to provide a license to one or the other,
> I’d go with that. It also comes with a few decent VoiceWare SAPI 5 voices
> that can be used system wide FWIW I think OpenBook’s big claim to fame was
> always its document camera support with the Pearl, but that sort of
> capability is so ubiquitous now and the interface is otherwise so basic
> that I’d say it isn’t the killer feature it once was, especially since JAWS
> OCR can directly capture from a camera now anyway.
>
> Practically speaking, JAWS OCR and particularly OCR to Word are probably
> the most useful day to day tools for that kind of thing outside of books.
> In law school, K1000 was what helped me plow through reading because after
> ingesting the books and saving as .kes files, navigation was just so fast.
> Everyone’s experience will vary though, because technology has changed so
> much in the span of even the last decade.
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 9:25 PM gary via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
>
> > Both of these products have not been developed in a long time with e age
> > of AI .
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of omar duncan
> via
> > BlindLaw
> > Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 12:48 PM
> > To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> > Cc: omar duncan <oduncan821 at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [blindLaw] Openbooks 9.0 by freedom scientific or Kurzweil
> > 1000—for reading and writing
> >
> > Hello does anyone know if openbooks 9.0 by freedom Scientific is better
> or
> > Kurzweil 1000
> >
> > What has better ocr, better scanning and speed, better human like  voices
> > and better features overall.
> >
> > Also, when it comes to using openbooks or Kurzweil 1000 as a writing
> tool
> > for typing, are there any program  that are better than the other in
> these
> > areas?
> >
> > Also,  what is better in the overall department?
> >
> > More importantly, for the purposes of law school, which software is
> better
> > suited for handling law school workload like casebook reading and other
> > books or handouts?
> >
> > Lastly, which one is better for low vision use—partially sighted user.
> >
> > I appreciate anyone feedback and insight here.
> >
> >
> > Thanks for everyone attention
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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