Welcome P.1 Scanning and reading for All P.2 Are You a Gatekeeper P.3 Solutions for LD P.4 Solutions for Low Vision P.5 Solutions for Blindness P.

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1 Welcome P.1 Scanning and reading for All P.2 Are You a Gatekeeper P.3 Solutions for LD P.4 Solutions for Low Vision P.5 Solutions for Blindness P.7 Quantum Reading Learning Vision NSW & ACT: VIC: QLD: info@quantumrlv.com.au Does anyone else feel like their heads are spinning!?! Reviews, reports and proposals on education are being produced at a feverish pace, yet so often politicians and policy makers seem to overlook the basics. Good teaching requires good teachers. Good teachers require respect, resources, training and support. Gonski has given us a roadmap with his call for; Smaller class sizes Extra specialist teachers in areas such as literacy and numeracy Greater support for students with higher needs such as those with disabilities Additional training and classroom support for teachers ( So now we know where we want to go, how to get there, and just need someone to do the driving! Just as in education, assistive technology (AT) is always changing. We hope you enjoy this edition of our newsletter, our own roadmap to what is new and exciting in AT. In case you haven t already done so, check out our new website: quantumrlv.com.au. You can now buy all of our products online and we will be uploading brochures and manuals for you to download when you need them. You can also find out about our workshops and events. Visit News section for regular updates, latest articles and our blog. We look forward to seeing you there! Does it seem everyone is asking you to follow them on Twitter? Do you ever ask why?! Due to our strong international networks, we can bring you up-to-date news on new products, new resources, people and events. The story in this edition on the Eye-Pal Ace is a good example of news that is happening right now, and you are hearing about it before anyone else. We ve also been around for a while and our field consultants alone have over 160 years of experience (it s true!!). Hopefully we can offer you perspectives and insights that help guide your professional life.

2 We are very pleased to have Rebecca Clark join us recently in our Sydney office. For the last 10 years, Becky has worked at the Association for the Blind of WA, based in Perth. Among many other skills, she has an extensive knowledge of assistive technology and a great deal of experience helping people who are blind or vision impaired choose the equipment that is right for them, and training and supporting them in its use. You will have a chance to meet Becky in our webinars and training sessions planned for the near future! Also joining our Brisbane office is Brendon Donohue. This is a first job for Brendon since leaving school and he is assisting with our Software Support line and introducing some of our Braille products to students in Queensland. If there is one area of technology that has changed more than most it is scanning and reading. We already provide a wide range of options including the ClearReader, PEARL and OpenBook, SARA CE, Zoom-Ex and Zoom-Twix. Well there is now another option about to be released in the US and we think this one is worthy of a close look. It is called the Eye-Pal Ace and incorporates two cameras (both are 5 MP auto-focus HD cameras), a screen and all the controls within a single box that weighs just 1.6kg. Why Two Cameras? The first camera takes a picture of any A4 document and sends the image to be converted to speech and large print. The second camera enables live video, meaning you can use it as a regular electronic magnifier. Naturally, Brendon is a whizz with technology, which he explains here in his own words. I love all kinds of tech devices; I use JAWS, and a Focus 40 Blue daily. I also use ipads, iphones, and ipods. I love meeting and chatting with people and helping them out. I am totally blind, and have been since I was born. Hopefully you will get to meet both Becky and Brendon in the near future. We are thrilled to have them as part of our team. At around the size of a regular book (27cm x 26cm x 7.6cm), the Eye-Pal Ace can easily be carried around. It will run from batteries or mains power and has an auto-standby feature to preserve battery life. There are also two bright LED lights built-in that are positioned so as not to shine in the users eyes.

3 The positioning of the lights and cameras also facilitates writing, though we have yet to try this ourselves. The Eye-Pal Ace has been developed by Abisee in the US, makers of the Zoom-Ex and Zoom-Twix. So they have plenty of experience in scanning and reading. With the Eye-Pal Ace they claim only a three second delay between scanning a page and having it read back to you. There are obvious applications for the Eye- Pal Ace for seniors who may be losing their vision. However, we believe it may also provide some interesting options within education for students with a print disability. Let us know if you have a student who may wish to trial the Eye-Pal Ace. Text-to-Speech (TTS) has finally become mainstream. There are countless devices that talk to us, however it is for students with a print disability that TTS has become essential. Blind students use JAWS, low vision students use MAGic and ZoomText and students with dyslexia use WYNN, and they all share the same speech synthesiser. With the introduction of Karen and Lee, two Australian synthetic voices, high quality and legible synthetic speech is available to assist students at any stage of their learning. TTS is one of the tools that students need in their AT tool boxes. It provides efficient, simple and low-cost access to the printed word. It is also a good example of a technology that we will see become more commonplace in general education. OpenBook converts printed documents or graphic-based text into an electronic text format on your PC, using quality speech and the latest optical character recognition (OCR) technology. It is an essential tool of independence for many students and will convert Word files, HTML, and PDF files into text, speech, Braille or audio files. Combined with a digital camera such as PEARL, it will also provide classroom access to printed documents and text books. OpenBook is useful for students who are blind or vision impaired as well as students who have a cognitive disability like dyslexia. It can also be a useful resource for teachers who need to quickly and easily transform printed or electronic information into formats suitable for their students. Download a demo from our website or contact us to request a demo CD. This is a quick heads up that we will shortly be announcing the Quantum 2013 Scholarship Program. As usual there is a wonderful array of prizes to be won. Winners will be announced at the end of this year. If you know of anyone that should receive news about the Scholarship Program please let us know to include them in our distribution list.

4 There are many reasons why a person will be in the position of gate-keeper in special education. A gate-keeper can be a person who gets to control the flow of ideas and experiences available to a student, particularly in relation to technology. Gatekeepers can be individual teachers or in positions of considerable influence, being the arbiter of technology choices for whole school districts. Here are some examples of gate-keepers; 1. Resource Bound Gate-Keeper. This person wants to be able to offer more options but simply doesn t have them. This is probably the most common variety in Australia today. While they have some resources there aren t enough to do all that is needed and this has led to a general outlook of having to make do with what we have. 2. Poverty Bound Gate-Keeper. This definition applies to most of the developing world where there are just no resources. Some would argue though that there are still a few pockets in Australia where this applies and where students are left to operate with little or no technology resources. 3. Neocon Gate-Keeper. This gate-keeper has a strong attachment to an earlier time and sees no reason to change time honoured traditions. These people encourage a group think mentality and are generally actively intolerant of new ideas. 4. Stressed Out Gate-Keeper. This gatekeeper is simply overwhelmed with the amount of work they are faced with and resist taking on new ideas and experiences simply because they don t have the time. This can be self-perpetuating as innovation and new ideas are often time saving. 5. Oblivious Gate-Keeper. This gate-keeper simply doesn t know what the options are, not by choice but due to geographical isolation, lack of funding to attend conferences and a critical lack of professional development. 6. Well Intentioned Gate-Keeper. This gatekeeper makes decisions about technology options based on their own skill level. They feel they must first be the expert to pass down that information to their students. Often these people find it hard to accept that the student is going to be better at technology than they ever will be. Perhaps there are other types of gatekeepers? The bottom line is that we need to be sure that our attitudes aren t a barrier to students achieving the skills and experiences they will need in our digital world. TypeAbility is a typing tutor that teaches the entire computer keyboard in 99 user-friendly lessons. By the end of the lessons, the student will have mastered all the letters, numbers, punctuation, as well as navigation and editing in dialogs and text documents. TypeAbility is great fun for all ages! At the end of each lesson, TypeAbility tells a joke. Students love this, and they can make TypeAbility repeat that joke as many times as they wish. TypeAbility 4.1 for JAWS, is compatible with JAWS 8 and higher. TypeAbility is also compatible with the screen magnification program MAGic. With MAGic, students with low vision can not only listen to, but also see their typing lessons.

5 WYNN's unique features and benefits were created with input from educators, researchers, and individuals with learning difficulties such as dyslexia. WYNN was designed to be useful for all users, and the new Version 7 really excels at supporting the needs of learning disabled and struggling students. WYNN's new Notecard feature will be of use to all students, enabling them to rephrase and rewrite text into notecards, and help organize and study information. Quantum Solutions for Learning Disability WYNN 7 has the following exciting new features: PAL Literacy Toolkit: tools to help students work with all text and particularly content-area text PREPARE cognitive process: wellresearched learning strategy that supports the educational process, including reading, comprehending, notetaking, and writing Notecards and Writing Templates: support writing to meet common literacy standards Updated user interface: new toolbar button design provides an additional option for users; legacy toolbar buttons for those more comfortable with WYNN s traditional design Additional toolbar buttons for Save to MP3 and other most requested features: some of WYNN s more popular features, including Save to MP3, Book Search, and Send to Word, now have their own toolbar buttons Enhanced network install capabilities: WYNN s network installation, including silent install, has been updated and enhanced for easier deployment in busy school districts Plus many more new features. WYNN continues to maintain its other unique differentiators for the benefit of all of our users, such as its clean, clear user interface, Web Browsing features, NavBar for managing open documents, and visual customisation. As always, WYNN uses Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to enhance success. Other New User Features Include source citation in extracted documents. Any time you extract highlights or bookmarks to a document, WYNN now includes the name of the source document, or URL of the Web page, for that extracted text. This allows you to keep track of your sources for later use in citations. Extract and convert highlights to outline. In addition to WYNN's ongoing ability to extract highlights to a new document, you can now extract highlights to an outline. Extract and convert bookmarks to outline. You have the same choices for extracting bookmarks as highlights: by colour, or in document order. Save Voice Notes to MP3. You have always been able to create Voice Notes in WYNN documents. Now you can save these notes to an MP3 file for studying later. Add two additional highlight colours. WYNN 7 now has five highlight colours. Lavender and orange were added to the existing blue, green, and magenta colours.

6 MAGic is the magnification software from Freedom Scientific. Of great importance in education is the seamless transition between MAGic and JAWS, with total compatibility and shared commands and resources. This is particularly important for students with a degenerative eye disease, but it also greatly reduces the administrative and management overheads. Here are some exciting new features of V12. All New User Interface. This new design makes it easier to quickly find and use the enhancements that you want without having to navigate through numerous menus. HD Text Smoothing provides the clearest and sharpest magnification of text and images on your screen HD Mouse Pointer. With the new High- Definition mouse pointer styles, you can further customize your mouse pointer for improved visual recognition. Mouse Enhancements Improvements Speech on Demand allows you to limit the amount of speaking performed by MAGic All New Mouse, Cursor, and Color Schemes Application Specific Voice Profiles. Voice profiles have been modified to make it very easy to select, create, change, and save voice settings for use with MAGic or specific applications Enhancements for Multi-Monitor Users All New Basic Training for MAGic 12 Research It! is a feature that provides quick access to information while also making it easy to return to your primary task Skim Reading lets you quickly browse through long documents by reading the first sentence or first part of each paragraph Quantum Education Solutions for Low Vision Layered Keystrokes offer a fast and convenient way to perform actions such as navigating tables, muting speech, starting Research It, or performing screen captures Navigation Quick Keys Quick Settings Multiple Sound Card Support Aria Support Enhanced Citrix and Remote Desktop Support Support for PowerPoint, Thunderbird, Firefox, UTF-8 Files MAGic ships with the FS Reader Software which is a Daisy Reader software for your PC. Freedom provides extensive training and support documentation that can all be read using FS Reader. Their training resources are exceptional. This new addition to the Optelec Compact range of hand-held magnifiers provides a 7-inch high definition screen. It is a good midway point between handheld and desktop and will provide on-the-go reading for students in secondary and tertiary education. It has two easy reading modes and a sturdy leather carry case is included. Call us if you would like a demonstration.

7 With the release of Version 10, ZoomText is now offering integrated support for HD webcams as CCTVs, recording text to audio, background reading, and new standards in web navigation. Additionally, the new ZoomText Mac brings the power of ZoomText to the Macintosh platform. Here are some of the new features of ZoomText 10 Magnifier: ZoomText Camera. The new ZoomText Camera feature allows you to use any high-definition (HD) webcam to view and magnify printed items and other objects right on your computer screen. ZoomText s Enhanced Web Finder allows you to search webpages for specific words or phrases, or skim through pages to find items of interest. Full Windows Logon Support (now available in Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP). Flexible Magnification. Full range of magnification levels up to 36x. Powerful Zoom Windows. Eight different zoom windows allow you to choose which part of the screen is magnified. Dual Monitor Support Enhanced Screen Colors Visible Pointers and Cursors Focus Enhancements. Makes it easy to locate and follow the control focus when you navigate through application menus, dialogs and other application controls. Smooth Navigation Desktop Finder Text Finder helps you locate words, phrases and topics of interest. Application Settings. Save unique settings for each application that you use. ZoomText 10 Magnifier/Reader includes all the features of ZoomText Magnifier, plus: The ZoomText Recorder allows you to turn text from documents, webpages, , etc. into audio recordings that you can transfer to your mobile device ZoomText Background Reader allows you to listen to documents, webpages, , etc. while you simultaneously perform other tasks. NeoSpeech Synthesiser Voices Complete Screen Reading. ZoomText automatically speaks program controls, including menus, dialogs, list views and messages. Automatic Document Reading. ZoomText s AppReader automatically reads documents, web pages and within the parent application. ZoomText s DocReader reads documents in a special environment where text is wrapped and reformatted for easier viewing. Reading Zones allow you to instantly see and hear selected locations in your applications. Define up to 10 zones per application that you can trigger via pop-up menu or keyboard commands. Full Internet Accessibility. ZoomText reads any web page, in the proper reading order. You can read automatically or manually navigate by word, line, sentence and paragraph. Text Navigation. Navigation keys make it easy to read while creating and editing documents. With simple commands you can read by character, word, line, sentence and paragraph, even while selecting text. Typing Echo. Each key or word that you type is automatically spoken. You can choose to have all keys spoken or only selected groups of keys. Mouse Echo. Mouse echo automatically reads text that you point to. SpeakIt Tool allows you to read selected areas of the screen by clicking or dragging the mouse.

8 The Focus Braille Display Series Used with JAWS screen reading software, Focus Braille displays comfortable and quiet refreshable Braille keyboard, efficient controls, and high quality refreshable Braille cells allow users to navigate through computer files, create and edit documents, and access the Internet, compose and read , and fully interact with PC applications without the use of the QWERTY keyboard. Select your personal Braille firmness with VariBraille Braille Study Quantum Education Solutions for Blindness Mode Ready to work out of the box with your Apple ios device including iphone, ipad and Mac computers. The Focus Braille Displays will operate seamlessly with all of these devices, giving students unparalleled flexibility and access to information, social media and communications. Focus Braille displays now come in a variety of sizes and types, including models from 14 to 80 Braille cells. The three models pictured above are: Focus 80 Blue, Focus 40 Blue and the Focus 14 Blue Ultra-Portable Braille Display. All models feature; Ergonomic control layout 8-dot style Braille keyboard Convenient thumb key panning buttons and NAV Rockers Smooth, paper-like feel Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity Adjustable key repeat for rapid scrolling and panning USB 2.0 connectivity Charge battery via USB Works with JAWS BrailleIn for Contracted Braille input in Windows Paper-Like Braille with Ultra-Responsive Keyboard and Bluetooth in all sizes Works with Talks and Mobile Speak The last worldwide survey of screen readers was conducted by the organisation WebAim in It found that JAWS was used by around 70% of blind people making it the predominant screen reader by far. JAWS is a professionally supported software program that has a range of advantages over its freeware counterparts, particularly in the area of Braille support. Increasingly we are seeing State Education systems use freeware programs like NVDA as an alternative to JAWS, not because they are better, but only because they are free. This is a short sighted and cynical saving. There is nothing wrong with NVDA, however JAWS is better, and it is what students will encounter in higher education and employment. It s also a matter of equity and will remain so until all students are using freeware for all their vital educational goals.