Proloquo2Go is changing the world for people who have difficulty speaking. People with autism, Cerebral Palsy, down syndrome, ALS, developmental disabilities and beyond benefit from the Proloquo2Go speech technology. Because iPad has a large screen users will be able to use grids of up to 64 items. Proloquo2Go also now supports all device orientations allowing users to hold iPad any way they like. Proloquo2Go is a universal App permitting the use of the exact same app on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

New Features and Enhancements in version 1.3

• Universal App that will run optimally on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
• Added additional items sizes for the iPad.
• Support for both landscape and portrait view plus device rotation.
• Redesigned toolbar for easier access to core functions.
• Additional Appearance Settings for a fine-tuned user experience.
• Rewritten core grid engine for higher performance.

Read the full press release.

New Features and Enhancements

• Added support for wide items to fit more text. This doubles the number of available layouts, ranging from 1 item per screen to 36 items per screen.
• Optimized and increased font-size and legibility on many item sizes in grid view.
• Added a pronunciation editor allowing users to easily customize the pronunciation of any word.
• Added auto-recovery in case the vocabulary database becomes damaged.
• Items without an image now show more lines of text nicely centered.
• Over a dozen other interface and usability enhancements.
• Fixed several problems with manually re-ordering items.
• A dozen other bug fixes.

Proloquo2Go has taken the world by storm and is regularly featured in newspapers such as USA Today and The New York Times, as well as by major TV networks. This is an application that changes people’s lives. At US$189.99 Proloquo2Go costs a fraction of the dedicated devices it rivals, which typically cost anywhere between US$2500 and US$8000. Users and speech-language pathologists love Proloquo2Go and even though it has been on the market for less than a year over 100 assistive technology centers already include it in client evaluations.

Read the full press release.

Proloquo2Go is the first consumer device-based communication solution for people who cannot speak. Initially released in April 2009, Proloquo2Go is shaking up the assistive technology industry: An iPod touch with Proloquo2Go costs 5 to 20 times less than dedicated devices it rivals in power, flexibility, portability and easy of use. Proloquo2Go already serves thousands of people who could never before afford a communication device. The upcoming version adds many enhancements and fixes, including enhanced support for people who prefer a text-based interfaced over symbols.

The new iPhone application for storytelling that is previewed at BETT combines visuals, text to speech and audio recording for an engaging learning experience.

Also shown at BETT are the latest Snow Leopard compatible versions of KeyStrokes, SwitchXS, Proloquo, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader, VisioVoice and Infovox iVox.

Read the full press release.

After an extensive public beta, Infovox iVox 2.0 is now ready to give Mac OS X a natural-sounding voice in 22 different languages. A complete rewrite of the core iVox speech engine was necessary to make Infovox iVox 64-bit compatible and ready for Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard". Despite the major engineering efforts, Infovox iVox 2.0 is offered as a free update in order to facilitate the migration to Snow Leopard for those people who rely on these natural sounding voices to use their computer. All Infovox iVox users are advised to upgrade to version 2.0 before upgrading to Snow Leopard.

Read the full press release.

“As evidenced by articles about Proloquo2Go in USA Today and on the front page of The New York Times, Proloquo2Go is sending ripples through an industry that is not used to solutions that can be purchased in any electronics store and on Apple’s App Store,” said David Niemeijer, AssistiveWare’s CEO. “While dedicated devices cost anywhere between US$2500 and US$8000, an iPod touch (US$199), a speaker case (US$40) and Proloquo2Go (US$189.99) are within reach of family and school budgets. Users and speech-language pathologists love Proloquo2Go and over 75 assistive technology centers already include it in client evaluations.”

Version 1.1 adds British voices, voice personalization and other innovative features.

Read the full press release.

The updates resolve various bigger and smaller compatibility issues with Snow Leopard and all current users are strongly recommended to upgrade to the new versions before installing Mac OS X 10.6.

KeyStrokes 4.1.1 provides a fully-functional virtual keyboard with multilingual word prediction and dwelling for people with physical disabilities.

SwitchXS 2.5.1 is a single or multiple switch-based computer access and communication solution providing full emulation of mouse and keyboard for use with any standard Mac OS X application. Also supports switch accessible communication panels.

Proloquo 2.0.2 is a multilingual speech and communciation solution for Mac OS X enabling people who cannot speak to user their computer as an AAC device. Not to be confused with our Proloquo2Go product, which turns an iPhone or iPod touch into full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking.

LayoutKitchen 2.1.2 is a keyboard, speech panel and scan panel editor for KeyStrokes, Proloquo and SwitchXS.

GhostReader 1.6.5 is an easy to use multilingual document and selection reader that can also convert text to iPod-ready iTunes files.

Read the full press release.

Infovox iVox 1.3, the currently shipping version, is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard". A complete rewrite of the core iVox speech engine was necessary to make Infovox iVox 64-bit compatible and ready for Snow Leopard. Despite the major engineering efforts, Infovox iVox 2.0 is offered as a free update in order to facilitate the migration to Snow Leopard for those people who rely on these natural sounding voices to use their computer.

Because of the large number of languages available in Infovox iVox, not all languages will be available immediately as part of the public beta. The first languages to be released will be American English, British English, French, German, Italian, Canadian French, Spanish, American Spanish, Swedish and Norwegian. More languages will follow in the coming weeks. Languages are made available in public beta step by step to allow for basic internal tests before a language is made available as part of the public beta.

Read the full press release.

VisioVoice 1.2 new and improved features:

• Full Snow Leopard compatibility
• Full compatibility with Safari 4
• Compatibility with Infovox iVox 2.0 (to be available as public beta soon), including non-Roman languages
• Enhanced iTunes export with choice of encoder and background import in iTunes
• Speak selection now also works in floating windows such as the one used by Help Viewer
• Improved performance and lower CPU use
• Fixes some bugs including one with the Help menu in Leopard

Read the full press release.

Proloquo2Go is a perfect solution for anyone who cannot afford spending thousands of dollars on an Augmentative and Alternative Communication device and yet wants a solution that in terms of sheer communication power and ease of use rivals solutions typically priced over 10 times as high. It is also perfect for teenagers and young adults who want a device as cool as the iPhone or iPod touch. Not to mention, this a great solution for children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, or apraxia. Proloquo2Go can also serve adults with acquired disabilities such as ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury. It can be a useful solution in hospital and rehabilitation settings.

Read the full press release.

GhostReader 1.6 includes the following enhances:

• New voice languages: Arabic, Greek, Russian.
• New high quality voices for existing languages: Italian male voice, Turkish female voice, British female voice, Norwegian male voice.
• Compatibility with Safari 4.
• New localization: Italian (provided by our partner Active Software).

GhostReader can be used by anyone who prefers to listen to text rather then read it. Many professionals, writers, educators and students use it on a daily basis to save time, to proof read their own writing or to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages or to improve their reading and listening comprehension.

Read the full press release.

Infovox iVox 1.3 is a free upgrade for existing users that adds a host of new voices and languages: Vittorio for Italian, Rachel for British, Alyona for Russian, Dimitris for Greek, and Olav for Norwegian. The Russian and Greek voices require Mac OS X 10.5. The other voices require 10.3.9 or later.

Read the full press release.

Head-designed is also the title of a new video in AssistiveWare's video podcast series "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology". In episode 8 of this video podcast, Nijhuis can been seen in action working on his computer and controlling his environment with his head. This video can be viewed online and is also available in iTunes.

Read the full press release.

Infovox iVox, normally sold for 99 euro/US$ plus VAT, can be used with Apple's VoiceOver screen reader as well as many Mac OS X applications, including Preview, TextEdit, AssistiveWare's VisioVoice and Proloquo, ConvenienceWare GhostReader, and Adobe Acrobat. The voices also work great with the leading educational software, such as Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh version 3.0.4 and 4.0 and TextHelp's Read and Write Gold for Mac version 2.1.0 and later. This means that teachers can now use this best-of-breed software with the industry leading Infovox iVox voices to enhance the learning experience of their students. Finally, the voices also work with the Spoken Menu feature of Apple's new iPod nano, offering speech-feedback with British voices as the user navigates the iPod without having to look at the screen, as shown in this video.

AssistiveWare is proud to work together with an innovative partner such as iansyst in bringing high quality educational solutions to the British market.

For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the following pages:
Infovox iVox
Listen to samples
Buy a Mac from iansyst

Read the full press release.

KeyStrokes is not only used by Mac users with disabilities, but also by graphic designers who prefer typing with their tablet instead of a physical keyboard and by developers of touch screen kiosks.

KeyStrokes 4.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4 and later. The suggested retail price for KeyStrokes is 249 Euro excluding VAT (299 USD in North America). Registered KeyStrokes 3 users can use the new version, but to use LayoutKitchen and design their own keyboards an upgrade to a KeyStrokes 4 activation code is required. An upgrade from KeyStrokes 3 to KeyStrokes 4 (including LayoutKitchen) costs 99 euro excluding VAT (129 USD in North America). This upgrade is free for anyone who purchased KeyStrokes 3 in 2007 or 2008. For more info they should contact support@assistiveware.com.

Read the full press release.

Fast-forward to 2008. Acapela Group and AssistiveWare's partnership has resulted in two products with even higher quality voices, a greater range of languages and more features: Infovox iVox voices that can be used by any speech-using Mac OS X application in the same way as Apple's built-in voices; GhostReader, which can read documents and selected text in many languages and even convert text to iPod and iPhone-ready audiobooks.

Registered Speechissimo users can cross-grade with a discount of 20% for a limited time to GhostReader (normal price 39.95 euro/USD excluding VAT) or, outside North America only, to an Infovox iVox plus GhostReader bundle (normal price starting at 109 euro/USD excluding VAT). These offers run until 4th August 2008 and are only available for direct purchase through AssistiveWare's online store.

To apply for a discount coupon registered users of Speechissimo should fill out this web form.

Read the full press release.

GhostReader 1.5.1 includes the following enhances:

• Export to iTunes now: (1) Sets album, album artist, and year to default values; (2) Puts the date and time of audio creation in the iTunes comments field; (3) Uses the GhostReader logo as default album art.
• Fixes spinning cursor issue with Pages 2008
• Acapela Group provided fixes to the following voice issues: (1) Activation problem with American Spanish; (2) Occasional crash with the Italian Chiara voice; (3) Text encoding problems with Czech and Polish voices.

GhostReader can be used by anyone who prefers to listen to text rather then read it. Many professionals, writers, educators and students use it on a daily basis to save time, to proof read their own writing or to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages or to improve their reading and listening comprehension.

Read the full press release.

Proloquo provides a talking word processor, quick access scrolling vocabulary lists with drag and drop vocabulary construction for people who can read and write, and much more. Also released today, LayoutKitchen 2.1, which is already included as a keyboard editor for the KeyStrokes and SwitchXS on-screen keyboards, makes it easy to create colorful communication panels with photos and symbols for Proloquo. The natural-sounding Infovox iVox voices cannot only be used with Proloquo, but can be used with other software as well, including the Mac OS X built-in speech features.

Proloquo is used by adults and children who have difficulty speaking clearly or cannot speak at all due to, for example, Cerebral Palsy (CP) or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). To get an idea of how Proloquo is used in practice and the difference it makes, see the new short video "Communication is the central thing" available as episode 7 of the "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology" video podcast series, which can also be found in the iTunes store's podcasts section.

Read the full press release.

GhostReader 1.5 is a major update with the following new features and enhancements:

• Adds new natural sounding voices for Czech, Polish, Swedish and Finnish while existing voices have been enhanced
• Adds a pronunciation editor, which can be used to modify the way a word is pronounced or to add new abbreviations
• Adds direct export to iTunes of documents and selected text for playback on iPhone or iPod
• Adds user-selectable encoding for export to iTunes (AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless)
• In Leopard now also reads DOCX and ODT documents
• Export to iTunes now runs in the background
• Enhanced responsiveness when speaking selected text or text below the cursor
• Speaking selected text now also works in floating windows such as those of the Leopard Help Viewer
• Speak Text Below the Cursor now speaks the alt. tags for images and buttons in web pages, Mail and widgets
• Speak Text Below the Cursor now also speaks just the paragraph below the cursor in Mail, TextEdit and Pages 2008
• Many other enhancements and fixes

GhostReader can be used by anyone who prefers to listen to text rather then read it. Many professionals, writers, educators and students use it on a daily basis to save time, to proof read their own writing or to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages or to improve their reading and listening comprehension.

Read the full press release.

Infovox iVox 1.2 is a free upgrade for existing users that adds a pronunciation editor that allows users to add abbreviations or change the pronunciation of words. It also introduces a number of new voices and languages: Eliska and Sabrine for Czech, Ania for Polish, Snorri for Icelandic, Sanna for Finnish, Elin for Swedish, and Baris and Ceren for Turkish. The Czech, Polish, Icelandic and Turkish voices require Mac OS X 10.5. The other voices require 10.3.9 or later.

Read the full press release.

The site has three main sections: (1) Feature articles about general gaming topics; (2) Reviews discussing individual games; (3) Short descriptions of games with a special focus on their accessibility.

"I have been designing universal access solutions for Mac OS X since 2002 and one of the most frequently asked question by users is not whether they can do their home work or write the next great novel, but about what games can be played," said David Niemeijer, AssistiveWare's CTO. "With AssistiveGaming.com we have created a platform where users can exchange their gaming experiences and can share tips and tricks."

"I have been gaming with a switch on the Mac since 1995, long before Mac OS X, long before sites like this even existed. I had no guidance, no advice," said Michael Phillips, AssistiveGaming editor and long-time Inside Mac Games contributor. "Part of me totally understands why this site is important, but another part finds it kind of sad. I notice that both assistive technology users and specialists are afraid to try new things, think outside the box, or worse, people never even consider the fact that gaming is possible at all."

Read the full press release.

KeyStrokes 4, the latest version of AssistiveWare's award-winning on-screen keyboard with multilingual word prediction, adds LayoutKitchen, which allows users to design their own virtual keyboards. Such virtual keyboards can be used not only for typing, but also to launch applications, speak, run AppleScripts and much more. This makes KeyStrokes more than ever the hub that gives users who cannot use a physical keyboard or who prefer a graphic tablet or touch screen full access to their computer. KeyStrokes 4 also adds Spanish and Russian word prediction dictionaries. KeyStrokes 4.0 runs on Mac OS X 10.3 and later (including Leopard). The suggested retail price for KeyStrokes is 249 Euro excluding VAT (299 USD in North America). Registered KeyStrokes 3 users can use the new version, but to use LayoutKitchen and design their own keyboards an upgrade to a KeyStrokes 4 activation code is required. An upgrade from KeyStrokes 3 to KeyStrokes 4 (including LayoutKitchen) costs 99 euro excluding VAT (129 USD in North America). This upgrade is free for anyone who purchased KeyStrokes 3 in 2007 or 2008. For more info they should contact support@assistiveware.com.

SwitchXS 2.5, which provides universal access to Mac OS X for users who cannot use a physical keyboard and mouse is now Universal Binary, ads full Leopard support, as well as many internal enhancements, and also includes the new LayoutKitchen 2. With SwitchXS 2.5, a user who cannot use a physical keyboard or mouse has full access to Mac OS X with just a single switch. SwitchXS 2.5 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later and is a free update for all registered SwitchXS users. The suggested retail price for SwitchXS is 249 Euro excluding VAT (299 USD in North America).

LayoutKitchen 2 makes designing on-screen keyboards for KeyStrokes and scan panels for SwitchXS much easier and faster with a new drag and drop button browser, SmartSnap and many other productivity enhancing features. The image browser is now searchable and includes over 600 images. LayoutKitchen 2.0 runs on Mac OS X 10.3 and later (including Leopard) and is a free update for all registered SwitchXS and LayoutKitchen users.

Read the full press release.

Previewed at BETT are final candidates of KeyStrokes 4, on-screen keyboard, SwitchXS 2.5 switch access solution and LayoutKitchen 2, keyboard and scan panel editor. These packages provide complete universal access to Mac OS X for users with physical impairments, allowing users who cannot use a  keyboard and/or mouse full access to virtually all Mac OS X applications.

Also previewed at BETT is version 1.2 of the Infovox iVox voices. These provide natural-sounding voices in a language of choice that can be used as the system voice for Mac OS X, used with the Mac OS X accessibility features, as well as with many educational and consumer software packages.

AssistiveWare will further be demoing GhostReader, the easy to use and affordable document and selection reader with high quality voices and iPod export functionality. Together with our partner Kallysta we will show how GhostReader can be used for language learning with a mobile teaching laboratory consisting of a MacBook and 15 iPods.

Read the full press release.

GhostReader trilingual license (74.95 Euro/US$ excluding VAT) is available at:

Worldwide:
ConvenienceWare

Europe:
Application Systems Heidelberg, Application Systems Paris

GhostReader boxed edition (54.95 Euro including VAT) is available at:

UK

Retail Stores: UK Apple Stores, Wyvern Business Systems

Germany, Austria and German speaking Switzerland

Retail Stores Germany: Compustore PC GmbH, M&M Trading, Mac House GmbH, Macconnect, MacFoyer, MACSYSTEMS GmbH, M-Shop Göttingen and many other Apple Resellers

Retail stores Austria: McShark Multimedia AG, Mac office, m-store Grafoprint GmbH and many other Apple Resellers

Online: Arktis, Amazon.de, Application Systems Heidelberg.

France and French-speaking Switzerland

Retail Stores: FNAC, iConcept, BeMac, ordiTICE and other Apple Resellers

Online: FNAC online, Amazon.fr, Application Systems Paris.

Belgium

Retail Stores: Mac Line

Read the full press release.

Amsterdam - 30 October 2007 - AssistiveWare and Acapela Group today announced an update to the British Infovox iVox voices for Mac OS X. This update improves the pronunciation of a number of Mac related terms as well as several other words. The voices work great with Leopard.

The Infovox iVox voices, once installed on the computer, appear in the Speech panel of the System Preferences and can be used by any application that has speech functionality, including Preview, TextEdit, Mail, VoiceOver, Microsoft Word (through its Speech toolbar), VisioVoice, Proloquo, GhostReader, Acrobat, AppleScript, Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh (version 3.0.4. and higher), TextHelp Read and Write Gold for Mac (version 2.1 and higher) and many others.

Our UK reseller Microlink PC now offers the British voices at a discount when sold with a new Mac and TextHelp Read and Write Gold for Mac.

Read the full press release.

Amsterdam - 24 October 2007 - AssistiveWare today announced "Users in Control: A Fresh Perspective on Accessibility". This new audio and PDF podcast series offers an insightful look at how people with disabilities are empowered through Mac OS X, while shattering preconceptions on disability and assistive technology (AT). Here the users of AT are in the driver's seat! Created by Mac users with physical, speech, or vision impairments, it seeks to inform, inspire, and provide a platform for new ideas.

More information on this podcast can be found at: http://atpodcasts.com.

You can listen to the podcast in iTunes.

The audio version of the podcast was created using GhostReader with the Infovox iVox voices.

This new audio and PDF podcast compliments the "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology" video podcast found at http://www.frontiersofassistivetechnology.com.

Read the full press release.

Amsterdam - 15 October 2007 - Acapela Group and AssistiveWare today announced that based on the overwhelming response on the Give Your Mac a Voice Promotion, Acapela Group has decided to permanently lower the price of the Infovox iVox voices, which can be used with virtually any speech using application on Mac OS X. Originally introduced as a solution for the low volume accessibility market, it was found that also many educators and consumers wanted to use these naturally sounding voices to listen to documents, create personal podcasts and to help struggling readers. With the new prices the best voices ever on the Mac are now within reach of educators, students, people with disabilities as well as any other Mac user who likes to hear his Macintosh speak.

With the imminent introduction of Mac OS X Leopard, with its enhanced support for third-party add-on speech synthesizers, more people then ever will be able to enjoy the benefits of the natural-sounding Infovox iVox voices as Acapela Group will be able to introduce voices for even more languages. Voices are already available for the following languages: American English, British English, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian and Swedish. All of these voices are Universal Binary and compatible with Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher (including Mac OS X 10.5 aka Leopard).

The Infovox iVox voices, once installed on the computer, appear in the Speech panel of the System Preferences and can be used by any application that has speech functionality, including Preview, TextEdit, Mail, VoiceOver, Microsoft Word (through its Speech toolbar), VisioVoice, Proloquo, GhostReader, Acrobat, AppleScript, Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh (version 3.0.4. and higher), TextHelp Read and Write Gold for Mac (version 2.1 and higher) and many others.

Infovox iVox voices are sold per language with each language consisting of one or more male and/or female voices. All languages contain the American English Heather voice as a bonus. Starting today, all languages except the Scandinavian ones are available for a suggested retail price of US$ 99 in North America and 99 Euro excluding VAT everywhere else. This is for the first language. Additional language packs are available for a suggested retail price of US$ 49.50 in North America and 49.50 Euro excluding VAT everywhere else. Scandinavian languages are available for a suggested retail price of 219 euro excluding VAT and as an additional language for 109.50 euro excluding VAT. Multi-user and educational classroom and school licenses are also available for Infovox iVox.

Infovox iVox is also available bundled with AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare products. For educators, students and anyone else who wants to get the most out of the excellent voices, Infovox iVox is available as a bundle with GhostReader, the selection and document reader with iPod export, for 109 Euro/US$. For Mac users with vision impairments, Infovox iVox is included with VisioVoice for 249 Euro/US$ excluding VAT. For people who cannot speak, Infovox iVox is now included with Proloquo for 249 Euro / 299 US$.

Read the full press release.

Amsterdam - 10 October 2007 - AssistiveWare® today announced the release of VisioVoice® 1.1. VisioVoice enhances access to Mac OS X for people with vision impairments through a system-wide talking interface and typing echo, text and image zoom windows, large cursors as well as a document and selection reader. VisioVoice provides naturally sounding voices through the included license of Infovox iVox for one language of choice. VisioVoice can also convert text, Word, PDF, HTML and RTF documents to audio files and iPod and iPhone-ready audiobooks. The new version of VisioVoice will be demoed at the Closing The Gap conference next week.

VisioVoice 1.1 new and improved features:

• Now provides a typing echo as the user types into any application.
• The text zoom window now updates as the user types.
• Talking interface enhanced to work not only with the mouse but also with full keyboard access.
• Talking interface and typing echo support was added for Pages and Keynote (iWork '08 and later).
• Improved support for reading text in Safari with VisioVoice's talking interface.
• Improved PDF import with smart-stripping of end-of-line hyphens.
• Japanese localization was added as well as a Japanese translation for the Mac OS X 10.4 version of Apple's VoiceOver screen reader for blind users. Use with DTalker 3.0 Japanese voices.
• Enhanced compatibility with VoiceOver: if the included Infovox iVox voices are used with VisioVoice, VoiceOver will no longer cut-off speech generation.
• Now Leopard-ready.
• Many other improvements and fixes.

Read the full press release.

On Wednesday, a 3 hours special session on Assistive Technologies for Mac OS X is scheduled in Apple Expo's main conference room from 14:00 to 17:00. For details see: http://www.assistiveware.com/events.php

During the other days, daily presentations on solutions for people with disabilities will take place in the School Performance Area of the Education Solutions Center. For a schedule and to sign up see the ordiTICE site.

Finally, AssistiveWare will demo its assistive technology products for people with disabilities in the ordiTICE booth ED007-008 of the Education Solutions Centre. New versions of its flagship products, VisioVoice, KeyStrokes, SwitchXS, and LayoutKitchen will be shown in advance of their public release later this year.

Read the full press release for further details.

GhostReader is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their Word, PDF, RTF and text documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audiobooks by exporting to iPhone and iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use GhostReader to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward, rewind, skip sentence/paragraph and re-listen to sentence/paragraph functionality. In some applications, such as Safari, GhostReader enables users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text. Sit back and relax while GhostReader reads for you!

Read the full press release for further details.

Amsterdam - 11 September 2007 - Acapela Group and AssistiveWare today announced the excellent new Alice text-to-speech voice that will be available as part of Infovox iVox's French voice pack. With the new Alice and existing Bruno, Julie and Claire voices the Mac has never sounded so great and so French! Until the end of October the updated French voice pack is available at a 55% introductory discount. Infovox iVox as well as the full range of AssistiveWare products will be demonstrated at the Apple Expo in Paris in the ordiTICE booth at the Apple Education Solutions Center and during a number of presentations. See http://www.assistiveware.com/events.php

The new Alice voice is also used by graphic designer Leigh-Anne Tompkins in the just released amazing new video "We can because we think we can" (the French edition uses Alice, the English edition uses Heather). The new video is available as episode 6 of the "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology" video podcast series, which can be found in the iTunes store's podcasts section and at http://www.frontiersofassistivetechnology.com

Infovox iVox provides naturally sounding voices that work with virtually any Speech Manager compliant Mac OS X application, including Preview, TextEdit, AssistiveWare VisioVoice, ConvenienceWare GhostReader, and Adobe Acrobat. The voices also work great with the leading educational software, such as Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh Version 3.0.4 and 4.0 and TextHelp's Read and Write Gold for Mac version 2.1.0 and later. This means that teachers can now use this best-of-breed software with the industry leading Infovox iVox voices to enhance the learning experience of their students.

Until the end of October, Infovox iVox with the French voices is available for 99 euro/USD excluding tax and includes the high quality French voices Alice, Claire, Julie and Bruno as well as the high quality Heather US English voice as a bonus (this constitutes a 55% discount on the regular price and a 34% discount on the "Give Your Mac a Voice Promotion" prices). The French Infovox iVox is also available as a discounted bundle with GhostReader for 109 euro/USD. The recently updated British English voices are also still available for these prices. For prices for other languages as well as for school and classroom licenses, see the AssistiveWare web site. The updated French voice pack is a free update for existing users.

Read the full press release for further details.

Amsterdam - 23 August 2007 - Acapela Group and AssistiveWare today announced the brilliant new Peter text-to-speech voice that will be available as part of Infovox iVox's British voice pack. The already available naturally sounding Graham and Lucy voices have been significantly improved as well. With these voices the Mac has never sounded so great and so British! Until the end of October the updated British voice pack is available at a 55% introductory discount.

Infovox iVox provides naturally sounding voices that work with virtually any Speech Manager compliant Mac OS X application, including Preview, TextEdit, AssistiveWare VisioVoice, ConvenienceWare GhostReader, and Adobe Acrobat. The voices also work great with the leading educational software, such as Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh Version 3.0.4 and 4.0 and TextHelp's Read and Write Gold for Mac version 2.1.0 and later. This means that teachers can now use this best-of-breed software with the industry leading Infovox iVox voices to enhance the learning experience of their students.

Until the end of October, Infovox iVox with British voices is available for 99 euro/USD excluding tax and includes the high quality British voices Peter, Lucy and Graham as well as the high quality Heather US English voice as a bonus (this constitutes a 55% discount on the regular price and a 34% discount on the "Give Your Mac a Voice Promotion" prices). The British Infovox iVox is also available as a discounted bundle with GhostReader for 109 euro/USD. For prices for other languages as well as for school and classroom licenses, see the AssistiveWare web site. The updated British voice pack is a free update for existing users.

Read the full press release for further details.

GhostReader is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audio books by exporting to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use it to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward and rewind functionality. In some applications, such as Safari, GhostReader enables users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text. Now users can sit back and relax while GhostReader reads the text under the cursor.

Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, Czech, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Turkish and Swedish. GhostReader itself is localized in English, French and German.

Version 1.1 offers the following new features:

• New languages with high quality female voices: American Spanish (Rosa) and Canadian French (Louise)
• New languages with medium quality voices: Turkish, Icelandic and Czech
• New high quality voices for Dutch (Max) and British English (Peter)
• Adds a German localization (English and French were already available)
• Enhanced listening experience with buttons to re-listen the current paragraph or sentence or to skip to the next one
• For school use preferences can now be locked and the content of the reader window can be exported to an RTF document
• Many other interface and usability enhancements
• Expanded Help facility

Read the full press release for further details and pricing.

This new video is available as episode 5 of the "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology" podcast series, which can be found in the iTunes store's podcasts section and at http://www.frontiersofassistivetechnology.com

Read the full press release for further details.

In the 3.5 minute video, Michael Phillips shows computer access and gaming at the extreme. With one thumb he rules them all! Mike Phillips lives in Tampa, Florida, United States of America.

This new video is available as episode 4 of the "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology" podcast series, which can be found in the iTunes store's podcasts section and at http://www.assistiveware.com/podcasts.php

Read the full press release for further details and pricing.

Infovox iVox, the naturally sounding voices that work with any Speech Manager compliant Mac OS X application, and TextParrot the powerful and affordable document and selection reader have made a profound impact in the classroom since their release last year. To give even more teachers and students at all levels of education access to the software attractively priced classroom, lab and school licenses are available starting today.

Additionally, AssistiveWare and Acapela Group have worked closely with the leaders in educational software, Kurzweil Educational Systems in the US and TextHelp Systems in the UK to ensure that their upcoming versions are fully compatible with Infovox iVox. Kurzweil 3000 for Macintosh Version 3.0.4 and 4.0 are fully Infovox iVox compatible and TextHelp's Read and Write Gold for Mac version 2.1.0, due for release in late June, is also fully compatible with Infovox iVox. This means that teachers can now use this best-of-breed software with the industry leading Infovox iVox voices to enhance the learning experience of their students.

Read the full press release for further details and pricing.

With the "Give Your Mac a Voice Promotion" AssistiveWare and Acapela Group would like to give more people a chance to enjoy the naturally sounding Infovox iVox voices on their Mac in their language(s) of choice.

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The California State University Northridge (CSUN) International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference is the largest conference on assistive technology in North America with visitors from all over the world. AssistiveWare and it's North American distributor, Origin Instruments Corporation, will use this occasion to preview major new versions of AssistiveWare's software for Mac OS X.

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Infovox iVox, a product from Acapela Group created in collaboration with AssistiveWare allows the naturally sounding, high quality voices of the Acapela Group to be used by any Speech Manager compliant application on Mac OS X, including applications such as TextEdit, Preview, Acrobat Reader, Proloquo, TextParrot and AppleWorks, as well as many educational titles. Infovox iVox, which is distributed worldwide by AssistiveWare, can also be used with Tiger's built-in VoiceOver screen reader, and Dutch and French users now have the possibility to hear all the VoiceOver menus and messages in their own language by using Infovox iVox together with AssistiveWare's VisioVoice.

Infovox iVox is a Universal Binary and can be used on PowerPC and Intel Macs. The products include all voices available for a language of choice. Version 1.1 adds American Spanish and Canadian French. The following languages were already available: US English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. All non-American English languages include one American English female voice as a bonus.

Version 1.1 contains the following enhancements:

• New languages: American Spanish and Canadian French


• New high quality Dutch male voice: Max


• Added support for less commonly used Speech Manager functions


• Improved handling of complex sentences for French


• Improved handling of compound words for Swedish


• A number of other fixes and enhancements

Read the full press release.

Anne Robertson became blind as a small child. She is now a professional French to English translator. In this short video, she shows how she uses VoiceOver, the latest Mac OS X screen reader from Apple, in combination with naturally sounding French and British English text-to-speech voices of Acapela Group's Infovox iVox to do her work. She explains how, thanks to AssistiveWare's VisioVoice, which includes a French translation of VoiceOver, she has been able to speed up her translation work as she can now listen to text in one language while she is typing in another language. Anne Robertson lives in Orry la Ville, France.

This new video is part of the "Exploring the Frontiers of Assistive Technology" podcast series, which can be found in the iTunes store's podcasts section and at http://www.assistiveware.com/podcasts.php

Read the full press release.

TextParrot is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audio books by exporting to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use it to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward and rewind functionality. It even allows users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text and sit back and relax while TextParrot reads the text under the cursor.

Starting today, TextParrot is now available with naturally sounding voices of up to three different languages. Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. TextParrot itself is localized in English and French, other localizations are in preparation.

Read the full press release.

The first product, released today, is TextParrot^® 1.0. TextParrot is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audio books by exporting to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use it to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward and rewind functionality. It even allows users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text and sit back and relax while TextParrot reads the text under the cursor.

Read the full press release.

Read the full press release.

AssistiveWare specializes in software that provides full access to Mac OS X for students with physical, speech, languages and vision impairments. With the AssistiveWare software a student with a disability can fully participate in school activities, whether it involves creating a video in iMovie or using the standard educational software all the other kids use. Everything is possible.

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VisioVoice^® is a product for blind and vision impaired Mac users providing a number of speech and vision related features to enhance access to Mac OS X. These include: (1) the conversion of Text, Word, HTML, PDF and RTF files to audio files or iPod-ready iTunes tracks; (2) a document and selection reader with fast forward and rewind functions; (3) Large cross-hair and target cursors; (4) Text and Image zoom windows; (5) Spoken interface elements as the user navigates across the screen; (6) Multilingual support to Apple's excellent VoiceOver technology (initially French and Dutch).

VisioVoice is bundled with Infovox iVox, a new product from Acapela Group created in collaboration with AssistiveWare. InfoVox iVox allows the naturally sounding, high quality voices of the Acapela Group to be used by any Speech Manager compliant application on Mac OS X, including applications such as TextEdit, Preview, Acrobat Reader, Proloquo and AppleWorks, as well as many educational titles. Infovox iVox, which is distributed worldwide by AssistiveWare, can also be used with Tiger's built-in VoiceOver screen reader, and Dutch and French users now have the possibility to hear all the VoiceOver menus and messages in their own language by using Infovox iVox together with VisioVoice.

Read the full press release.

Version 1.0.1 contains the following enhancements:

• The Document Reader now also works with encrypted PDFs
• The Text Zoom and Talking Interface are now more responsive and more accurate
• The Selection Reader now works more reliably with text selected in Safari
• Voice volume and speech rate settings now work correctly [fix]
• Highlighting of spoken words now also works correctly for accented characters [fix]
• Several other fixes and improvements

Read the full press release.