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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sales Contact: Bryan Carver, Inside Sales Director Media Contact: Brad Davis Blind/Low Vision Group 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000 www.FreedomScientific.com Freedom Scientific Offers Suite of New Deaf-Blind Solutions (St. Petersburg, Florida, June 24, 2005) - Freedom Scientific announced today several new deaf-blind solutions based on its popular PAC Mate™ BX and QX series accessible Pocket PCs. Deaf-blind PAC Mate users will now be able to communicate more effectively with friends and colleagues in the classroom, over the Internet, via telephone, and face-to-face using refreshable braille displays and messaging and TTY software. First, the upcoming PAC Mate 3.0 release has added support for AOL® Instant Messenger™ (AIM®). “MSN Messenger has been available on the PAC Mate in earlier releases and is great for deaf-blind users holding conversations long distance over the Internet or within any room with a wireless Internet connection," said Brad Davis, Vice President of Freedom Scientific. “With the telephone services for the deaf that Hamilton Internet Protocol (HIP) Relay™ services using AOL Instant Messenger can provide, we paid particular attention in Release 3.0 to ensure that all AIM functions are fully accessible using braille only.” Now deaf-blind users have full access to AIM using a PAC Mate with a braille display, including message review and management of the Buddy List, so that they can contact the HIP Relay service to make TDD relay calls right over the Internet to anyone with a telephone. AIM 2.0 can be downloaded from the Web and installed on the PAC Mate. Links to compatible downloads are listed at www.pacmategear.com. Second, to support deaf-blind users making direct telephone calls, Freedom Scientific announced its new FSTTY package, which includes a TTY modem and a new software application that can be used with a PAC Mate BX or QX and a 20-cell or 40-cell braille display to place and receive telephone calls. FSTTY contains several features that make TTY calls more efficient than ever before: Easily copy text from PAC Mate files or from the Contacts list into an active TTY conversation. Easily copy text from a call into other PAC Mate files. Save a record of your TTY call to a file for later reference. The FSTTY package is available now from Freedom Scientific for $1,200. When combined with a PAC Mate BX or QX with a 20-cell braille display, this yields a total solution price of $4,995, about $1,000 less than the closest competitive TTY solution for the deaf-blind. The total solution, including 40 cells of braille, is priced at $6,795. Last, Freedom Scientific announced that it will round out its deaf-blind offerings with FSCommunicator, a portable solution that will provide instant face-to-face communication between a deaf-blind user and another person - featuring braille output for the deaf-blind user and visual output for the other person. FSCommunicator will be available by year-end, and further details will be the subject of a separate announcement later this summer. For more information, please contact Freedom Scientific at 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000, or visit the Freedom Scientific Web site. About Freedom Scientific Freedom Scientific is the world's leading manufacturer of assistive technology products for those who are blind and vision impaired and products for the special education and learning disability markets. Freedom Scientific® and PAC Mate™ are either trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Select the following link for a PDF version of this press release:    Select the following link to install Adobe Reader:		News Main Page   More articles   @FreedomScientific Newsletter   Subscribe to Newsletter FREE   Upcoming Events   Contact Media Relations