[Nfbf-l] Blind bargains access awards: KnFb Mobile and Kurzweil take honors

[Sherrill O'Brien]

Hello all,

Well, if you recall, Dr. Maurer and Kathy asked us to vote for the KNFB
Mobile, and also for Ray Kurzweil as Person of the Year.  NFB members came
through...as we know we can!  Read on to learn about other deserving
winners!

Sherrill

Blind Bargains Access
Award Winners
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: J.J. Meddaugh
Phone: (989) 284-7915
Email: bargains at blindbargains.com


Portable Solutions, Innovators lead 2008 Blind Bargains Access Award Winners


Hundreds of votes cast for 2nd Annual Event
Kalamazoo, MI, February 23, 2008 - After much anticipation and the casting
of
hundreds of votes, the results have been released for the 2nd annual Blind
Bargains Access Awards. The awards recognize the achievements of companies
and
individuals in the assistive technology arena and beyond and were decided by
visitors to BlindBargains.com, a leading online resource for the blind and
visually impaired.
Leading the pack for this year is the KNFB Reading Technology K-NFB Reader
Mobile, a software package which uses a cellular phone and text-to-speech
technology to read printed material. Winning in the areas of Best Software
and
Product of the Year, the selection continues a trend of portable devices
garnering top recognition by site readers. "Our readers have a keen eye for
recognizing the most influential products currently available and have made
some
excellent choices," commented J.J. Meddaugh, lead webmaster for Blind
Bargains
and a contest administrator.
The HumanWare Victor Reader Stream took home the Best Hardware category for
a
second year in a row, winning by the widest margin of any product. Other
repeat
winners include Freedom Scientific's JAWS for Windows as best screen reader,
Independent Living Aids as best store, and the Fred's Head Companion as best
blindness-related blog.
Long a staple for free Windows-based accessible games, Jim Kitchen's
Kitchensinc
Games took home the best accessible game award for their rendition of
Monopoly.
The program has undergone several updates and is highly configurable.
Speaking
of entertainment, Blind Cool Tech was the winner of the best
blindness-related
podcast category, a new edition to this year's voting. It features
recordings on
technology, human interest, and general blindness subjects.
With the conversion to digital talking books by the National Library
Service,
much attention has been given to a new pilot website which offers
downloadable
recordings of popular book titles. This website was recognized by readers as
website of the year. The best company honor was awarded to Kurzweil
Educational
Systems, makers of the popular Kurzweil 1000 scanning program for
Windows-based
computers. Now at version 11, it has been a mainstay in optical character
recognition for over a decade.
Ray Kurzweil has helped to pioneer many of the technologies which have
changed
the lives for millions of individuals. From the creation of the first
scanner to
read printed text to his endeavors with musical synthesis, his
accomplishments
cannot be overlooked. Blind Bargains readers recognized these achievements
by
awarding the person of the year honor to Kurzweil.
The Blind Bargains Access Awards were based entirely on reader submissions.
A
nomination period was held in early January and followed by a voting round.
It
was administered by A T Guys, LLC.
For a complete list of winners and nominees, please visit
http://www.blindbargains.com/awardlist08.php
BlindBargains.com is a premier online destination featuring news, deals, and
articles relevant to the blind and visually impaired. Visitors can find the
lowest prices for useful products ranging from technology items to household
gadgets. Privacy PolicyCopyright 2008, A T Guys, LLC.