Media Story Starters About People Who are Visually Impaired

The Annual Braille Challenge Encourages Braille Literacy

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Refreshable braille technology has made braille more abundant, relevant, and portable than ever, and Freedom Scientific continues to lead the way with cutting edge braille solutions.

Statistics clearly show that blind people who use braille have a far greater chance of gaining employment than those who do not. That’s just one reason why the Braille Institute of America promotes excellence in braille with The Braille Challenge® reading, writing, and spelling contest for all students from 1st through 12th grade.

In The Braille Challenge, contestants complete exercises in speed and accuracy, reading comprehension, spelling, proofreading, and interpreting charts and tactile graphics.

Preliminary rounds are taking place near you between January and early March 2010, and the best of the best, the top 60, will be invited to Los Angeles in June for the final.

Freedom Scientific is pleased to sponsor The Braille Challenge once again, awarding national winners in each of the five categories, plus the teacher of the year, a PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PC complete with refreshable braille display.

If you are a 1st through 12th grade student in the United States or Canada, or you are a teacher of the visually impaired, now is the time to start preparing for this year’s Braille Challenge.

For information about The Braille Challenge and a schedule of events, visit the Braille Institute’s Braille Challenge pages at www.BrailleInstitute.org

Blind Rabbi and Psychologist Sets His Sights on Washington, D.C.

TRENTON, NJ – Dennis Shulman was raised with the expectation that he could succeed at any endeavor he chose to undertake. Today at 58, the New Jersey resident is an ordained rabbi, published author, internationally recognized clinical psychologist, and is making a run for the U.S. House of Representatives. He also is blind.

Succeeding at the level Shulman has chosen for himself since his college years when he lost his sight has been an ongoing challenge, he says. Freedom Scientific’s breakthrough computer screen reading software – JAWS for Windows® – undoubtedly made it easier, he adds.

“JAWS makes my world accessible, and I take full advantage of this tremendous gift of accessibility to reach my fullest potential.”

JAWS is screen reading technology that uses speech synthesizers to read the content of a computer screen aloud to those with vision loss. It also provides braille output via a braille display – making JAWS an accessibility solution for people who are both deaf and blind, as well. Using JAWS, blind people can easily create, edit, and navigate through documents. They can use Microsoft® Office Suite, MSN Messenger®, Internet Explorer™ 7, and a host of other applications that have become so important to living and working in today’s world.

“With JAWS, blind computer users can do anything sighted computer users can do. It is so very, very empowering,” says Shulman.

Shulman could write the book on empowerment – and may still, although his most successful book, to date, is a unique Judaic-psychoanalytical examination of the book of Genesis.

After losing his sight at a college age, he relied on sighted readers, tape recorders, and a slate and stylus to graduate magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1972 from Brandeis University in Massachusetts. He took on Harvard University next, earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, before winning a training fellowship from the National Institute for Mental Health.

“Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a very different world,” says Shulman. “Not only didn’t we have computers or the Internet, there was very little in the way of accommodation for people with disabilities or physical limitations. Obviously, there was braille, and eventually cassette recorders and the like, but not much else. As a blind student, you had to be a problem solver in order to succeed.”

Then came the World Wide Web. “The Internet delivered instant access to all the information and resources of the world – one of the mightiest tools ever created,” he says, “but, being blind, I could not use it.”

When Shulman discovered Freedom Scientific’s screen reading software, “Finally, I, too, had access to the tremendous power of knowledge that computers and the Internet can provide,” he says. “The tremendous frustration of inaccessibility – a battle many people with physical limitations have faced for far too long – was finally pushed aside.”

Shulman soared. On top of his other accomplishments – including a Special White House Commendation for his humanitarian work – he became the founding director of a prestigious training institute that attracts students from around the world. He still maintains an active psychology practice, while stumping the state of New Jersey in an underdog challenge to become its congressman.

“With JAWS on my laptop, I manage my hectic schedule very effectively. It has radically changed the way I do my work, the way I access information, the way I communicate, the ways I bank and shop … everything really. It’s not just me; blind people around the world have used the power of JAWS to achieve great things and make significant contributions to humanity. For blind people, accessibility is more than a matter of convenience; it is, in fact, a human right.

“I can state, unequivocally, that JAWS changed my life in ways I could not imagine. I am, to this very day, still shocked at all the things I can do thanks to JAWS. If not for JAWS, I’d never have pursued writing a book – The Genius of Genesis. I’d never have pursued becoming a rabbi. Given the hundreds and hundreds of hours of reading and research involved in these pursuits, I do not believe I would have tried it, and, therefore, I’d never have grown into the person I am now.

“With JAWS, the possibilities for continuing personal and professional growth are limitless.”

Download Dennis Shulman images in high and low resolution and the article in Microsoft Word (33 MB).

The images and article will download as a self-extracting zip file that will unpack the contents to a folder in your C drive named Freedom Scientific.

Gold Medal Triathlete Motivates Others to Shine

BEND, OR – Somewhere along the line, Nancy Stevens lost the word “slow” from her vocabulary. She has seldom lost anything else. Nancy is a medal-winning triathlete and a member of a winning Olympic Paralympics cross country ski team, a long-distance cyclist – and when she takes a breath, she uses it to present motivational speeches throughout the world.

Nancy credits her nonstop lifestyle to competing with her older brothers while growing up. The fact that she’s blind made no difference then. It makes no difference now.

“Even though I was born blind, I never knew anything different,” she says. “I was a part of a very active family and had older, sighted brothers to try to keep up with. I have been very fortunate to have the support of family, neighbors, sponsors, my sighted race partners, guide dogs, and many others. But two of my biggest enablers take the form of assistive technologies that make the world accessible to a blind person. My enablers are JAWS® screen reading software and my PAC Mate Omni™."

JAWS for Windows® from Freedom Scientific is screen reading technology that uses speech synthesizers to read the content of a computer screen aloud to those with vision loss. It also provides braille output via a braille display, making JAWS an accessibility solution for people who are both deaf and blind, as well. Using JAWS, blind people can easily create, edit, and navigate through documents. They can use Microsoft® Office Suite, MSN Messenger®, Internet Explorer™ 7, and a host of other applications that have become so important to living and working in today’s world.

The PAC Mate Omni, also from Freedom Scientific, is an accessible Pocket PC for the blind. PDA screen information and functions are managed with built-in speech via JAWS, or in braille through a detachable braille display. Powered by Windows Mobile® 6, it delivers access for the blind to essential mainstream applications such as Pocket PC versions of Word, Excel®, Calendar, Outlook®, Inbox, PowerPoint, Contacts, Internet Explorer®, and Windows Media Player®. Synchronized with Nancy’s PC, it keeps her constantly updated, organized, and discovering new opportunities to excel.

“While JAWS and the PAC Mate Omni don’t help me to run, bike, or swim faster or to ski more skillfully,” Nancy says, “they have enabled me to know all I need to know about any situation or activity and be poised to take full advantage of opportunities as they arise.”

Some of the opportunities Nancy has sought have won her world records, including the short-course triathlon, a race involving a one-mile swim, 26 miles on a bike, and a 6.2-mile run. She has earned world championships and gold medals as a triathlete and a trip to the Nagano Paralympics as a member of the US cross country ski team. She adds to her awards the satisfaction of completing a 3,000-mile bicycle trip from Portland, Oregon, to New York City.

When not competing, Nancy has participated in rapid-water kayaking, rock climbing, hang gliding, and even some cliff diving in Hawaii. As Nancy says, “Doing these things means I never have to look back and say, ‘I wonder what it would have been like if only I had …’”

“Like anyone else,” says Nancy, “I need to work to pay the bills. As much fun as competitions are, they don’t put food on the table. When I first looked to enter the work force full-time, I realized that, as a blind person, my options were somewhat limited. I recognized that we live in a computer-driven world, and I knew that the better my computer skills were, the more options I would have. So I sought help in learning to use a computer and was pointed toward JAWS. With JAWS reading the displayed information aloud to me, I was able to quickly learn computing and the use of the Internet to make myself much more marketable to employers. JAWS enables blind people, like me, the opportunity to compete with sighted people and to be every bit as productive in any workplace endeavor or environment.

“The other enabler that has been so important to me is the PAC Mate Omni accessible Pocket PC. With it, I can maintain my on-the-go lifestyle and still remain constantly connected to the world. It is vital to my sense of independence. I rely on it to be my lifeline to the rest of the world.

“I love being able to correspond with friends and family anywhere in the world. As hectic as my life sometimes gets, my PAC Mate Omni keeps me organized, on task, focused, and, most importantly, on the move.”

“For all that it does,” adds Nancy, “it’s so compact, enabling me to take it anywhere and everywhere – and, believe me, I do!

“For me, personally, I’d never be where I am today – active, independent, and loving life – if it were not for JAWS and my PAC Mate Omni. With them, all things are within my reach.”

Download Nancy Stevens images in low resolution and the article in Microsoft Word (200 KB).

The images and article will download as a self-extracting zip file that will unpack the contents to a folder in your C drive named FreedomScientific.

Keeping on Course in College with Vision Loss

GREENSBORO, NC – Kolby Garrison is a typical high-energy college freshman. She pulls a full course load of classes in pursuit of a degree in music education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She engages in an active social life. She plunges head-first into numerous campus groups and activities. She enters into any and all experiences college life can provide.

With the irrepressible spirit of youth, Kolby’s blindness doesn’t stop her. Her visual impairment doesn’t even slow her down.

“I think the best part of college is the opportunity it affords students to interact with other people and experience new things,” she says. “In my opinion, going to college is the greatest opportunity most of us get for personal growth, and I don’t want to miss out on any part of it.”

What Kolby calls a “zealous pursuit of doing as much as possible” is widespread among today’s college students. Like most students, she balances classwork, social life, campus activities, and keeping in touch with family, while packing every ounce of enjoyment into her downtime. She understands how campus life can become so frantic that most students must depend on PDAs – or Pocket PCs – to keep them on course.

Managing a mainstream PDA with a touch screen and stylus to maneuver through applications, enter and retrieve data, and complete tasks would prove a daunting task, indeed, for anyone with vision loss. Instead, Kolby uses a special Pocket PC that is adapted for the visually impaired. It’s called the PAC Mate Omni™.

With the PAC Mate Omni, developed by Freedom Scientific, PDA screen information and functions are managed with built-in speech – via JAWS® screen reading technology – or braille, through a detachable braille display. Powered by Windows Mobile® 6, it delivers access for the blind to essential mainstream applications such as Poocket PC versions of Word, Excel®, Calendar, Outlook®, Inbox, Contacts, Internet Explorer®, PowerPoint, and Windows Media Player®. Synchronized with Kolby’s PC, it keeps her constantly updated, in touch, and on target while she’s on the go. She’s always on the go.

“I use the PAC Mate Omni to keep track of my daily schedule, to maintain my contacts, to send and receive e-mail, to record classroom lectures and notes, to prepare and review assignments, to read books, to listen to music, to access the Internet, and just about everything else I do. I take it with me anywhere and everywhere I go.

“I have yet to encounter a situation or obstacle here at college that my PAC Mate Omni could not help me handle. I love it, and I use it more than I ever imagined I would. We are inseparable, and it has become the one device I rely on more than anything else.

“The PAC Mate Omni enables me to function so seamlessly that it’s almost as if people don’t even realize that I am blind, because I can do everything they do. That’s a great feeling, since no one wants to feel different or limited. I’m just a typical college student pursuing life full steam ahead.”

Most valuable, says Kolby, is the accessibility to classroom learning that her PAC Mate gives her.

“Getting a college degree would be very difficult without my PAC Mate Omni,” she says. “It has enabled me to set high goals, and it provides me with the resources I need to reach them. I think some of my sighted friends are actually jealous of all the technology and functionality the PAC Mate Omni puts at my fingertips.

“The accessibility the PAC Mate Omni provides means that I can fully participate in every aspect of college life – academic and social – and that’s very important to me. The PAC Mate Omni is much more than an accommodation; it’s my lifeline to the world."

Download Kolby Garrison images in low and high resolution and the article in Microsoft Word (25 MB).

The images and article will download as a self-extracting zip file that will unpack the contents to a folder in your C drive named FreedomScientific.