AssistiveWare @ Apple Expo

has announced that it will showcase upcoming assisitive technology product releases in the Apple Education booth of the Apple Expo later this month. The company will demo new versions of KeyStrokes 3.2 on-screen keyboard, SwitchXS 1.6 switch access solution and a completely new, multilingual speech product called Proloquo 1.0--all of which are expected to ship in October. KeyStrokes 3.2 will include a new version of the PolyPredix word prediction engine that reduces typing efforts by up to 45% from previous versions. The free update will also add German, Italian and Norwegian localizations (in addition to the existing English and French localizations).

SwitchXS is the company's single or multiple switch-based computer access solution, providing full emulation of mouse and keyboard for use with any standard Mac OS X application. Version 1.6 will include a scan panel editor to create custom scan panels. In addition to the existing English and French localizations, version 1.6 will add Japanese language support. This will be a free update for existing users.



AssistiveWare plans to debut Proloquo 1.0, a multilingual speech solution that works with Apple's build-in voices, but also with the high quality Acapela Multimedia voices, which currently include UK & US English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Russian and other voices. Proloquo, a multipurpose speech application, offers a range of text to speech features that can be tailored to the user's individual needs.



Proloquo can be used for simple text-to-voice conversion, to echo text typed into any application, as an advanced speech engine for SwitchXS and KeyStrokes (with control over speech rate, pitch and exceptions), and as a full-fledged communication solution for people who cannot speak. Users can type text into Proloquo and let it speak (parts of) that text, or simply define sets of custom words and phrases that are spoken with a simple mouse click.

by MacNN Staff