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For IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 28, 2001

Integration
The blind PC users club

The companies and organisations mentioned in this press release are: Abbyy software house, Baum Redec, Freedom scientific Inc. , Kurzweil educational systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., the Rehabilitation Centre, Logos LTD.

We thank the reporters of Computerra and Dialog magazines, and of Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper for participation at our round-table discussion.

On September the 26th the meeting of the Integration club was held in a reading room of the Russian State Library for the Blind. During the meeting the Round-table discussion was conducted on a subject of "Reading devices-problems and prospects of use in work". To join the discussion we had invited Ms. vorobyova - director of the rehabilitation Centre Research institute, Mr. Stepanov - CEO of the Logos ltd, Mr. Van'shin - Director of the Institute of industrial rehabilitation and personnel training, Mr. ovtin - Chairman of the Moscow city board of the Russian Society of the Blind, Mrs. Makeyeva - Director of the Russian State Library for the Blind, Mr. Kuznetsov - President of the Russian Association of Visually impaired Students and Professionals. The meeting was attended by several members of the press.

The managers of the club were surprised and express their regret at the absence of the invited heads of the Russian companies manufacturing adaptive devices for the blind. Not only did Mr. Stepanov and Ms. Vorobyova neglect the invitation, but neither did they send their official representatives, who could have told about the devices commonly known as "Reading machines".

Nevertheless, the products manufactured by the above-mentioned companies was presented at the meeting by the experts having large experience in using the discussed devices.

Three presentations were made on using the "reading machines" manufactured in Russia. Those presentations were by Mrs. Kaprova, Mr. Yurin and Mr. Kaslin. The speakers pointed out the positive and the negative features of the Russian devices. The majority of questions was asked about the software part of the reading complexes and their prohibitive prices. The common opinion of the club members and of the participants of the round-table discussion was that it is a must for the Russian manufacturers of the "reading machines" to look for the most radical ways to reduce the prime cost of their products. Moreover, it was recommended to carry out an overall software update of the complexes, as they are still equipped with rather out-of-date Optical character recognition packages.

Generally, these machines consist of the following components:

1. The Rehabilitation Centre research institute's "reading machine" - A computer on the basis of the Pentium III 600 MHz processor, OS Microsoft Windows 98 and Finereader version 3.0 OCR. The complex includes an integrated speech interface specially designed by that company. It is based on the "Speaking Mouse" Speech synthesis. Besides, the complex includes a scanner, a printer and a 17 inch display. The complex is priced at 200,000 roubles.

2. The "reading machine" "Info 200" manufactured by Logos ltd - a computer on the basis of the Pentium III 700 + MHz processor, OS Windows 98SE, Jaws for Windows version 3.7 screen access software and Finereader version 4.0 OCR package. The complex includes a scanner, A printer and a display. It is priced at about $5800.

This description may not mention every detail of the hardware and software of the complexes, but this press release is not meant to be scrupulously technical.

Further on During the round-table discussion two speakers - Mr. Van'shin an Mr. Shevkun - presented the foreign developments in the field. Those were Booklover and Vira - Two hardware-software "reading machines" from Baum Redec and Freedom Scientific. Basically, they are stand-alone complexes with preinstalled software and a simple Control panel. Their software includes Finereader version 5.0 OCR package and a speech synthesizer. The Booklover has already been equipped with a high-quality Russian speech synthesizer. The indisputable advantage of these "reading machines" is in their compactness and the simplicity of controls. The price of these complexes is less than $3000.

Besides, two software packages for reading the printed texts - Kurzweil 3000 by Kurzweil educational systems and Open book 5.0 from Freedom scientific Inc - were presented. Such "reading machines" do not require any extra hardware and can be installed on any computer with OS Microsoft Windows an a sound card on it. Both packages include several OCR programs, a text editor, a a lot of other useful utilities making it easy to read printed texts. Users can read and edit files in various formats and save the data as text or mp3 files. Such packages are AS suitable for an advanced user as for a most inexperienced novice. The prices of these software products vary between $400 and $1000. It must be noted that Kurzweil 3000 has already been equipped with a Russian synthesizer from Microsoft, and users can choose any SAPI-compatible synthesizer.

During the discussion After the presentations some interesting comments were made by Mr. Kuznetsov, Mr. Van'shin, Mr. Novikov and Mr. Kaslin. The staff members of the Russian State Library for the Blind shared their experience in using the "reading machines" and informed the club members of the latest news of the library. Especially positive reaction was caused by the presentations of the foreign devices. Russian manufactures were seriously criticised regarding the outdated software and overprices of their products as well as the neglect of the end users' interests in developing and distributing of the former. It was recommended to carry out an evaluation of Russian developments in this field and of the pricing policy of Russian manufacturers. An advisory panel was formed, which is supposed to carry out evaluations of existing and developing adaptive and information technologies for the blind and visually impaired computer users. In the nearest future, the panel will prepare a decision on existing Russian "reading machines", which will be sent out to the government and the related organisations. The panel consists of K. A. Lapshin, A. A. Kochetkov, Y. I. Kotov, O. V. Shevkun, D. A. Kaslin, A. V. Fedotov an V. V. Sokolov. The panel encourages the related organisations to carry out evaluations of existing and developing adaptive and information technologies for the blind and visually impaired computer users.

The next meeting of the club is scheduled for late October - early November 2001. We thank those who attended the meeting for their efficient participation.

K. Lapshin President Integration club

A. Kochetkov Vice-president Integration club

For more information please call - Tel/Fax: +7 (095) 355-3375 or email: andrey_kochetkov@mail.ru. Visit the club's site at http://integr.hypermart.net

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