[Pibe-division] Bind/Low Vison software for Cognitively or Memory Challenged

Dr. Denise M. Robinson dmehlenbacher at yahoo.com
Thu Oct 20 18:59:20 UTC 2011


Bind/Low Vison software for Cognitively or Memory Challenged 
This software has been around for more than a year but I did not have a chance to try it out until today.
CDesk is a very basic talking 
software program for older adults who have lost sight or cognitively 
challenged children in school who cannot remember hundreds of commands 
to make their computer do what they want it to do. I have trained many 
adults and I can tell you, the challenge in remembering all these 
commands starts in the late 20's, so when I say older, you may be 
included in this category where technology is concerned.

CDesk offers several enlarged fonts for viewing. White letters on Black 
is the most popular, but it has other options too. Any major command 
begins with the Alt key, so that is only 1 thing to remember. Even if 
you do not remember ALT-the TAB key will move you through every option 
and ENTER opens the option. The Main menu consists of: 
- WORD PROCESSING
- EMAIL
- INTERNET BROWSING with SCREEN READER
- DOCUMENT SCANNING with OCR PAGE READING
- ADDRESS BOOK/CONTACT MANAGEMENT
- CALENDAR/APPOINTMENTS
- NLS/BARD/MUSIC/GAMES/INTERNET RADIO
- SKYPE AUDIO/VIDEO CALLS

You can download books straight from Bookshare or BARD. If you are 
looking for games for blind children and adults, it has that in the 
Media Center. Simple email that you are already on is incredibly easy to
 navigate and use. Anything you scan can also be brought right into the 
CDesk Word and the same commands that you use for word processing are 
used now for your scanned object.

Enlarging your page is simple and easy with the F12 key, so when you go 
into an email that has pictures, you can enlarge them enough to see 
them, true for Internet browsing and the other programs in CDesk too.

If you have tremors or palsy in your hands, the company will be putting 
out a new speech program soon, which works off of CDesk basic commands 
already, so it is easy to verbally command your computer to do what you 
need it to do. Your voice just needs to be loud enough to be heard by 
the mic. It has also come out with a simple small camera that will take a
 picture of any print work and put it on the CDesk format on your 
computer for you to immediately have feedback.

The more I work with this software, the more I see its potential for 
those who have difficulties remembering all those commands. In addition,
 the company: adaptivevoice offers the option to buy a computer, monitor, printer, scanner and 
software for $1999. Within that agreement is Best Buy will come out and 
set it up for you. So you can be set up to go in a very short time. 
 
       Denise 
 
Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D. 
CEO, TechVision
Specialist in blind technology/teaching/training
email:  yourtechvision at gmail.com
Website with hundreds of lessons: yourtechvision.com 
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