I've decided to publish this site under the creative commons license. This has served me well with photography leading to my work being used on projects including ABC science online, the Welsh National Learning Grid, and German RTL2 TV. Basically it allows for the reuse of any of the original material published on this site as long as the source material is attributed to this site, usually by way of a link. The Creative Commons site is the best place to start for more information.

Another futuristic keyboard that has many possibilities for vision impaired people is the Optimus Maximus keyboard. At first look it doesn't seem to have any specific accesibility capabilities, but its use of a OLED screen for every key means that a custom on-the-fly large print keyboard can be created. If the kids want to use it, switch it back to standard key mode. You could also configure it to be used in a similar manner to intellikeys.

The bad news is that the full 113 key version costs around $1,500US with a 47 key version costing $999. Like most cutting edge technology, expect the prices to drop dramatically over the next few years. Take a look at the Optimus product page and Optimus demo.

Humanware have released the first version of their softrware for the Victor Reader Stream that enables easy transfer of books and notes to and from the device. Here is a direct link to the Companion software (.zip) and also the link to the Victor Reader page.

The knfbReader Mobile and kReader Mobile, developed by K-NFB Reading Technology Inc. from the USA, are truly pocket-size readers. They are based on the Nokia N82 mobile phone and are the smallest text-to-speech reading devices in history. It enables users to take pictures of and read printed material, text on ATM Machines and on computer screens at the push of a button. Blind users hear the contents of the document read in clear synthetic speech, while users who can see the screen and those with learning disabilities can enlarge, track and highlight printed materials using the phone’s easy-to-read display. The Reader gives immediate access to printed information whether it is a menu or a letter.

The New York Times has an interesting story about a detective specializing in transcribing and analyzing surveillance recordings in criminal investigations. The full article about the blind detective is found here.