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May - June 2008 – Volume 7 Issue 2 – @Freedom Scientific Newsletter

@Freedom Scientific is a free newsletter packed with the latest information about Freedom Scientific technology. Please feel free to send us your feedback.

  1. Freedom Scientific Sponsors the NFB and ACB National Conventions
  2. Coming Soon: The Feature-Packed SARA™ 9.0
  3. The ONYX™ Deskset – Now Even More Versatile
  4. Step Up/Trade Up to the PAC Mate Omni™
  5. Everyone Can WYNN™
  6. Reconditioned Products at Bargain Prices
  7. News You Can Use – Delivered Via FSCast
  8. Upcoming Opportunities for JAWS® and MAGic® Training
  9. Ask Tech Support

Freedom Scientific Sponsors the NFB and ACB National Conventions

Once again this year, Freedom Scientific is proud to be a sponsor and exhibitor at the national conventions of both the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind. Throughout these conventions, members of Freedom Scientific’s staff will be on hand to offer product demonstrations, free training, technical service, and on-site repairs. We will hold drawings each day for free Freedom Scientific products.

The NFB Convention will be held June 29 through July 5 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel, 2201 Stemmons Freeway, Dallas, TX, 75207. Please plan to visit Freedom Scientific at booth numbers B93 - 97 and B118 - 120.

The ACB Convention will be held July 5 through July 10 at the Galt House, Fourth Street at the River, Louisville, KY, 40202. Please plan to visit Freedom Scientific at booth numbers 4 - 8.

At Both the NFB and ACB Conventions, Freedom Scientific Will Offer:

Free PAC Mate Training

Here’s a terrific opportunity to get free, one-on-one PAC Mate training from Freedom Scientific’s PAC Mate specialists and other PAC Mate power users who are eager to share their knowledge with you. This is your chance to get hands-on experience and to ask any questions you may have. No appointment is necessary. Just stop by the PAC Mate training suite where a team of trainers will assist you. Please inquire at the Freedom Scientific booth for the training suite location.

Drawings for Free Freedom Scientific Products

Freedom Scientific will hold drawings throughout the conventions for Freedom Scientific products, including: FSReader™ DAISY players (one every hour during exhibit hours), PAC Mate Omni, and OpenBook™.

We certainly look forward to meeting you at the Freedom Scientific booths during the conventions, but if you’d like to pre-register for a chance to win, please visit our NFB contest registration page or our ACB contest registration page. You do not need to be present to win; however, you must be a registered convention attendee to be eligible.

Product Service and Repairs

Freedom Scientific service technicians will be on hand at both conventions to provide maintenance for the following Freedom Scientific products:

*Upgrades to the PAC Mate Omni will not be completed on-site at the conventions. If you wish, you may leave your PAC Mate with the service team, and it will be shipped back to you — in a matter of days — once the upgrade has been completed.

Please note: Not all product repairs will be completed on site. Some repairs, such as braille cells, will require the product to be taken in for service and shipped back to the owner. Customers will be asked to back-up their own files prior to service repairs.

Freedom Scientific’s NFB Convention Schedule


Product Information Sessions


What’s New in JAWS 9.0 and MAGic 11.0
Sunday, June 29
8:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Senators Lecture Hall
Join Eric Damery, Vice President of Software Product Management, for an exciting and informative session covering all the recent developments in JAWS and MAGic. The session will feature demonstrations, explanations, lots of tips and tricks, and even a special sneak preview of JAWS 10.0. As always, bring your questions; Eric has answers!

Monday, June 30, and Tuesday, July 1
3:45 PM - 5:30 PM
PAC Mate Training Suite (Please inquire at the Freedom Scientific booth for the training suite location.)
Eric Damery will repeat many of the topics from the Sunday session, including the great new features found in JAWS 9.0. This is a very good opportunity for you to join us in a smaller group for questions and answers.

PAC Mate Omni 6.1

Sunday, June 29
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Senators Lecture Hall
Jonathan Mosen, Vice President of Blindness Hardware Management, demonstrates the capabilities of the PAC Mate Omni, including exciting third-party applications and the new features of PAC Mate Omni 6.1. This presentation is loaded with new information you won’t want to miss.

PAC Mate Training

Monday, June 30, through Thursday, July 3
During Exhibit Hours *
PAC Mate Training Suite

* Please note: On Monday, June 30 and Tuesday, July 1, PAC Mate training will conclude at 3:45 PM when the JAWS sessions begin.

Product Service and Repairs

Monday, June 30, through Wednesday, July 2
During Exhibit Hours

Freedom Scientific’s ACB Convention Schedule

Product Information Sessions

OpenBook™ 8.0 Overview and Discussion
Sunday, July 6
9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
PAC Mate Training Suite - Wilson Room (third floor of the Suite Tower)
Dusty Voorhees will demonstrate the exciting new features available in the latest release of OpenBook. Learn about the low vision enhancements, new keyboard layout, updated OCR options, new voices, and new reference features.

What’s New in JAWS 9.0 and MAGic 11.0
Monday, July 7, and Tuesday, July 8
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
PAC Mate Training Suite - Wilson Room
Presenter: Eric Damery

PAC Mate Training
Saturday, July 5, and Tuesday, July 8
During Exhibit Hours
PAC Mate Training Suite - Wilson Room

* Please note: On Monday, July 7 and Tuesday, July 8, PAC Mate training will conclude at 3:30 PM when the JAWS sessions begin.

Product Service and Repairs

Saturday, July 5, through Monday, July 7
During Exhibit Hours

QAC Sight Village Conference: July 15 – 17 in Birmingham (UK)

Once the NFB and ACB national conventions wrap up, Eric Damery, Dusty Voorhees, and Jonathan Mosen will travel to Birmingham in the United Kingdom to participate in the Queen Alexandra College Sight Village Conference being held July 15 through July 17.

Eric, Dusty, and Jonathan will make presentations throughout the three-day event. Get the complete schedule on our Freedom Scientific events page. When they are not making pre-scheduled presentations, Eric, Dusty, and Jonathan, together with representatives of Sight and Sound Technologies, will be available to take questions and conduct specifically-requested demonstrations in room G5 at the conference site.

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Coming Soon: The Feature-Packed SARA 9.0

The newest version of the SARA Scanning And Reading Appliance is coming in July with a batch of new, user-requested features. To upgrade your SARA to version 9.0 contact your local dealer or request an update DVD from Freedom Scientific.

Some of the key new features in SARA 9.0 include:

Visit the SARA product page to learn more about the easy-to-use, affordable, and very versatile SARA.

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The ONYX Deskset – Now Even More Versatile

The ONYX Deskset is a lightweight and portable magnification tool that has become a favorite for use at school, at work, and at home.

In response to user requests, both the ONYX Deskset 17 and ONYX Deskset 19 now feature monitors with easy height and tilt adjustments, and each now comes complete with a rolling carrying case to make transportation a snap.

Visit ONYX multiple-view cameras to get all the details about the ONYX Deskset 17 and ONYX Deskset 19, as well as the other models that comprise the ONYX low vision suite.

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Step Up/Trade Up to the PAC Mate Omni

If you have not yet upgraded your PAC Mate BX or QX, visit the PAC Mate Omni upgrade page to learn about the new features and take advantage of our low upgrade prices.

We know how critical your PAC Mate is to your day-to-day productivity, so we want to minimize the time you will be without it. Use our Web form to schedule your update, and we will upgrade and ship your PAC Mate Omni back to you in five days or less.

If you’ve been thinking of trading in your closed-proprietary notetaker for a PAC Mate Omni, there is no better time. Freedom Scientific has announced a limited time special trade-in opportunity for users of HumanWare notetakers in the United States and Canada. Until October 31, 2008, save more than 50 percent on the PAC Mate Omni model of your choice. To get the details on this special offer go to Open Plan news.

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Everyone Can WYNN

The goal at Vermont Technical College (VTC) is to make sure students have appropriate tools to help them reach their full learning potential. That’s why their instruction team has made WYNN literacy software available to all of their students, not just those with diagnosed learning disabilities.

Schools and classrooms are very diverse places. In any grouping of students, there will be numerous and noticeable differences in learning ability and learning methods. “We all learn and process information differently,” says Roberta Brosnahan, Vice President of the Learning Systems Group. “Because WYNN transforms print and electronic text into simultaneous auditory and visual messages — in presentation formats students can tailor to their unique needs — it makes information easier to comprehend and retain.

“The team of educators at VTC recognized the diversity of learning styles in their classes and looked for assistive technology solutions they could use to address those differences more effectively than ‘cookie-cutter’ approaches to teaching,” adds Roberta. “That’s what led them to WYNN. The many study enhancement features and ease of use of WYNN won them over and led them to expand its use on their campus.”

WYNN has been made available to all students to help them draft and proofread their writing assignments, and it is now an option for use in taking tests as well. “More and more of our instructors recognize that not only do learning styles differ, test-taking styles differ as well — and not just for students with learning difficulties,” says Dorothy Barrett, Writing and Communications Center Tutor at VTC.

“When instructors note that certain students demonstrate a solid grasp of the subject material, but their test scores do not reflect their knowledge level, they can encourage those students to test using WYNN. Many teachers have noted big improvements in test scores — some as much as 20 points higher on a test. WYNN helps students overcome test-taking anxiety and increase their test scores; it’s just a fact,” adds Dorothy.

Get the whole story on how WYNN literacy software has made a significant impact on learning, writing skills, and test results for the students at VTC at the WYNNing Word.

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Reconditioned Products at Bargain Prices

Be sure to visit the Reconditioned Products page on the Freedom Scientific Web site to learn about the current selection of factory reconditioned products for sale at special discounted prices. Among the products now being featured are reconditioned models of the SARA Scanning And Reading Appliance offered at a savings of more than $1,000, compared with brand new models.

The SARA is the only stand-alone scanning and reading solution with low vision features.

Other factory reconditioned products now available include Focus and PAC Mate Braille Displays and several Millennium and PAC Mate models, all with special pricing.

All reconditioned products come with the same factory warranty and 30-day money back guarantee as our new products.

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News You Can Use – Delivered Via FSCast

If you missed it at the 2008 CSUN Convention, you can hear Jonathan Mosen’s presentation “PAC Mate Omni, Beyond the Basics” in the May edition of FSCast. This session also features information about JAWS 9.0 and MAGic 11.0.

Listen to the April episode of FSCast for interviews with users of MAGic screen magnification software as they share thoughts on the many and varied ways MAGic helps them maximize their productivity.

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Upcoming Opportunities for JAWS and MAGic Training

If you have not attended a JAWS screen reading software or MAGic screen magnification software workshop in the past few years, now is a great time to get caught up on the latest features and techniques. The Training Department is offering two workshops in August:

The training will take place at our St. Petersburg, Florida, headquarters. Each workshop features five days of hands-on, instructor-led training. The workshops cost $995 each, and they include lunch and snacks, workshop materials on CD, and the use of our training lab computers. Send three or more people from the same organization and save 10 percent. Visit the Training Headquarters for all the details.

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Ask Tech Support

The Tech Support team has recently fielded several inquiries about checking the availability of attendees when scheduling meetings and appointments in Outlook on an exchange server or when using shared calendars.

To check someone’s availability, do the following:

Go to Freedom Scientific Technical Support to search for information related to support questions or to contact the Support Team with questions about using a Freedom Scientific product.

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GET A FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP TO AUDIBLE.COM

Freedom Scientific assistive technology product users – including those who use JAWS for Windows® and the PAC Mate – can get a free trial membership to Audible.com®, allowing them to sample from 34,000 hours of valuable spoken word audio. Audible.com subscribers enjoy daily audio subscriptions to national newspapers, weekly business and science magazines, and more than 6,000 audio books. To learn more, go to the Audible.com information page.

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.

@Freedom Scientific is published by
Freedom Scientific
11800 31st Court North
St. Petersburg, Florida 33716-1805
800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000
www.FreedomScientific.com

Do you have hardware or software technical support queries? Address them to our Support Department.