Home Products Purchase Support Training About Us Low Vision Facts

Sign up for our e-mail newsletter

TOPAZ Line Gets New Look and Breakthrough Capabilities

Our totally redesigned line of TOPAZ® video magnifiers was unveiled and enthusiastically received at CSUN 2011. The new TOPAZ and TOPAZ XL desktop video magnifiers make for easy reading of a wide variety of printed material, including numbers in the phone book, labels on prescription bottles, tiny print in contracts, bills, and much more.

Widescreen 20-inch, 22-inch, and 24-inch models fit more magnified text on the screen than ever before. A large illuminated working area, wider field of view, and deeper range of focus make sewing, painting, repairing items, and other non-reading activities easier as well. The products feature a modern design with easy-to-learn controls, and the TOPAZ XL models provide productivity features heretofore unavailable to low vision computer users.

Other video magnifiers can share their monitor with a PC to save desk space, but the TOPAZ XL goes beyond that. With Freedom Scientific’s optional GEM™ software, low vision users can bring the magnified image to their PC, control the TOPAZ XL from the keyboard, and work in multiple split screen views so that they see their magnified document and their application at the same time. Users can quickly capture multiple images, review them with a single keystroke, and select which ones to save.

The new TOPAZ models range in price from $1995 to $3695, depending on monitor size and feature set.

JAWS® 12 Update 1 is Available

When you purchase our JAWS ® screen reading software, you can always be assured of frequent updates that keep you up with the latest technology, add enhancements, and respond to feedback from customers like you.

JAWS 12 Update 1 is free to all JAWS 12 customers, and adds numerous enhancements.

• JAWS now supports our new MAGic® Large Print Keyboard, offering one touch access to common functions such as voice rate adjustment and Research It. The keyboard is also highly customizable, making JAWS functions you use often just a key press away.
• Internet Explorer® 9 has been released for Windows® Vista and Windows 7. JAWS 12 update 1 now fully supports it.
• JAWS 12 is the first screen reader to provide robust support for Visual Studio 2010 Professional and the development of WPF applications
• You’ll find many Web 2.0 sites performing better than ever, as support for ARIA is enhanced
• JAWS now supports the conversation view found in Outlook 2010
• Our support for Microsoft Excel® has been rewritten, and you will find working with Excel to be more responsive
• JAWS 12 now includes full support for the Mozilla Thunderbird® e-mail application

If you have JAWS update notifications enabled and are not behind a firewall, JAWS has probably already advised you of the update. You can also check for updates from the JAWS Help Menu, or visit the JAWS Headquarters page to download a full update for both 32 and 64-bit systems.

New Lower Price for the RUBY

Owners of our RUBY® handheld video magnifier have been telling their friends about its convenience, sharp image, and the hundreds of ways it helps them be more independent every day.

We are pleased to announce that the RUBY is now available at a new lower price of $545.

Read all about the RUBY on the RUBY product page.

JAWS Certification Program Announced

The Freedom Scientific Training Department is pleased to announce the new JAWS Certification Program, an online knowledge-based exam for consultants, trainers, agency staff, and JAWS users. Its purpose is to:

• Increase your product knowledge to assist other JAWS users
• Expand your skills using JAWS
• Create awareness of the free training resources available within JAWS and online
• Help JAWS trainers and consultants validate their JAWS understanding for companies, agencies, and consumers

For more information about this program, visit the JAWS Certification Program Details page.

New Training Webinars and Workshops Posted

New Webinars and workshops have been posted online by the Freedom Scientific Training Department. New items include:

Mail Merge with Word 2007 - 2010; New Low Cost Paid Webinar

NOTE: This is a special reduced price Webinar. We know how important mail merge is to you, so we are offering this paid Webinar at 60% less than our normal paid Webinars - it's only $20. If you have not yet participated in our paid Webinars, this gives you a chance to do so at a greatly reduced price.

To register for this Webinar, just go to the Freedom Scientific e-learning page and choose the Register for Mail Merge in Microsoft Word 2007 - 2010 paid Webinar button. You will receive an e-mail with more instructions on how to purchase the Webinar.

In addition to this new low cost paid Webinar, the Training Department has added several new free Webinars to the schedule. Read the next section for more details.

Free Webinars

• Strategies for Navigating Difficult Web Pages with JAWS – May 3
• Webinar Training Room Orientation – May 12
• Text Analyzer - New in JAWS 12 – May 31
• Facebook with JAWS and MAGic, Part Two – June 7
• PDF Document Reading and Strategies with JAWS and MAGic – June 21
• Twitter with JAWS and MAGic – June 30

Visit the free Webinars section on the e-Learning page for more information or to register for the Webinars listed above.

Paid Webinars

• Office 2010 Overview and Introduction – May 20
• Word 2010 – May 24, 26, and June 2
• Mail Merge in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 – June 9, Promotional Price - $20
• Outlook 2010 – June 21, 23, and 28
• Excel 2010 – July 21, 26, and 28
• PowerPoint 2010 – August 4, 9, and 11

Visit the paid Webinars section on the e-Learning page for more information or to register for the Webinars listed above.

Hands-on Workshops

• Basics of Scripting with JAWS and MAGic – May 9 through 13
• Script Development with JAWS and MAGic – May 16 through 20
• Office 2010 and Windows 7 with JAWS and MAGic – NEW – June 13 through 17
• Supporting and Teaching Windows 7 with JAWS and MAGic – August 15 through 19
• Basics of Scripting with JAWS and MAGic – October 17 through 21
• Script Development with JAWS and MAGic – October 24 through 28

Visit the Training Workshops page for more information or to register for the hands-on workshops listed above.

Tips from the Training Department

Did you know that when using JAWS on the Internet with Internet Explorer or Firefox you can control whether or not JAWS reads the entire Web page each time a new one loads? By default JAWS begins reading a new Web page automatically as soon as it is loaded. If you prefer not to have the page automatically read, you can turn this feature off by doing the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer or Firefox.
2. Press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box
3. Press the letter D to move to the Document Automatically Reads option, and then press the SPACEBAR to change it to Off.
4. Press ENTER and the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box closes.

NOTE: Changing this option is a permanent change; it will stay set unless you manually change it again.

Every Student at Guerin Prep has WYNN™

Guerin College Preparatory High School in River Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, is a Catholic secondary school of about 540 students. Guerin strives to instill in its students a sense of global awareness and to empower them with the knowledge, values, and skills required to become active participants and effective leaders in today's world.

Tracy Hannon, director of the Barbara Welch Learning and Enrichment Center at the school, recently told us that in order to achieve that goal for all of their students, she is constantly looking for innovative tools and programs. “We have a diverse population that includes students with mild to moderate learning disabilities. We do not have a formal special education program, but we do provide resource support and accommodations for our LD students. We do not modify assignments or grades, so it is essential to find the right tools to ensure success with these students."

While attending a conference in 2007, Ms. Hannon was specifically looking for assistive technology that would provide support in reading, written expression, and study skills. She looked at many of the programs offered at the conference. “WYNN was the only platform that provided assistance in all three areas,” Ms. Hannon told us. She brought WYNN back to Guerin, and by 2008, it was installed on every faculty and student laptop.

During the initial time of installation, Freedom Scientific’s Learning Systems Group's Eastern Regional Manager trained teachers in the Sullivan Program, a developmental education program for students needing to build the academic skills required to succeed in Guerin's college prep curriculum and post-secondary education. During these sessions, our Eastern Regional Manager noted that some teachers found WYNN immediately helpful in meeting the needs of these particular students. Some of the benefits the teachers noted include:

• The WYNN software opened their Holt textbooks easily
• Teachers immediately saw value in study tools and Web resources
• English and Social Science teachers were impressed by the product’s writing tools
• Counselors thought the study tools would be valuable for all students
• Educators believed downloading novels from Bookshare® would be immensely helpful for students with auditory processing disorders

Additional training provided by both Freedom Scientific and Guerin personnel further aided English teachers and their students in the use of WYNN’s many reading, writing, and study tools. These sessions encouraged participants to create study guides for better comprehension and test preparation. Upon completion of the training and then the actual use of WYNN in the classroom, Ms. Hannon reported that teachers were impressed with the improvement in their students' written language. “The students who struggle with written expression are finding success in using word prediction and the text-to-speech component for editing.”

After all staff members had participated in a WYNN training, one of the teachers began using WYNN regularly with her Spanish I class. “Students use the program to translate materials, for pronunciation help, and to create review sheets. It certainly eases the transition of an ELL student,” stated Ms. Hannon. “Some students are even downloading vocabulary to MP3 files for study on-the-go.”

We also learned about how WYNN proved to be of exceptional help to a transfer student from Albania. The student found the Web tools, the dictionary, and the pronunciation features to be valuable tools in coping with learning a new language in a new country.

Ms. Hannon explained that she and the staff feel much of the success of WYNN with their school population comes from the fact that WYNN has an easy-to-use interface. “The students like the ease of the platform and the quick reference guide that simply explains the icons on each tool bar. And the text-to-speech capabilities are a BIG hit!”

FSCast Features the MAGic Large Print Keyboard

The February edition of FSCast features an interview with Dusty Voorhees about our new MAGic Large Print Keyboard. You’ll also hear from Brian Hartgen of T and T Consultancy, who’ll talk about the extensive list of new features in J-Tools 4, a set of scripts that offer many handy tools to enhance your productivity.

In March, we hear Dan Clark from our Training Department, giving a presentation to the CSUN conference about online training through our Freedom Scientific Webinars.

The April edition features Eric Damery discussing the JAWS 12 update, and JAWS knowledge certification. We also learn about JAWS 12's support for Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 Professional.

You won’t want to miss an episode, and you won’t if you subscribe to FSCast. The subscription is free, and delivers notification right to your computer when new FSCasts are released. If you did miss a previous FSCast, catch up by visiting the FSCast archives to download FSCast episodes in MP3.

A reminder that with JAWS now providing excellent support for iTunes, you can subscribe to FSCast through the iTunes Store.

Freedom Scientific's Mission

To develop, manufacture, and market technology-based products that provide equal access to information and computing for those with vision impairments or learning disabilities.