Scanning for access to print
DBVI Vision Quest June 23, 2013 AT Presentation:
The following is a brief outline of resources related to scanning printed material using a PC, or smart device. This page also includes additional resources for Bookshare and iOS basic instruction, also part of this AT presentation.
Types of Hardware:
Personal flatbed scanner
Inexpensive, lightweight personal scanner, scans slowly and requires additional software to make OCR (Optical Character Recognition) accessible.
Business or Library scanner
Expensive scanner/copiers that quickly scan material and may email documents as attachments in PDF or Word formats. There is one at UMO library.
Camera?
Stand-alone devices such as ZoomX use a digital camera instead of scanner and OCR software to convert image into text. Many smartphones have OCR software to work with the camera.
Scanning Software:
OCR (is it accessible OCR?)
Accessible Examples:
Kurzweil 1000 $995
http://www.kurzweiledu.com/kurzweil-1000-v13-windows.html
DocuScan Plus $299
http://www.serotek.com/docuscanplus
Hadley Seminar on DocuScan Plus http://hwcdn.net/k4w2w6y8/cds/seminars/DOCUSCANPLUS.mp3
Text Cloner Pro $99 http://www.readingmadeez.com/products/TextClonerPro.html
Scan and Read $149
http://www.readingmadeez.com/products/ScanReadPro.html
Camera Solutions
ABISEE Eye-Pal Scanning
www.abisee.com/
Podcast on Eye-Pal Scanning solutions
http://blindaccessjournal.com/2013/02/atia-making-friends-with-eye-pal-scanning-and-reading-products/
iOS and Android Apps
TextGrabber + Translator (iOS devices)
http://www.abbyy.com/textgrabber these may be used with the StandScan and StandScan Pro for improved document scanning
Text Detective (iOS devices)
http://www.blindsight.com/textdetective
Mobile OCR (free for iOS and Android)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartmobilesoftware.mobileocrfree&hl=en
Bookshare
Free to student’s including Hadleys School for the Blind students or community Adult Ed students.
Reading Bookshare books in Daisy Format
https://www.bookshare.org/_/gettingStarted/readingTools/overview
Read Out Loud for the Mac and PC
Victor Reader Soft for PC
Read2Go for iOS
http://www.applevis.com/apps/ios/education/read2go
Voice Dream for iOS
http://www.applevis.com/apps/ios/education/voice-dream-reader-text-speech
Darwin for Android
http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw130305
Go Read for Android
http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw140305
Accessible Reading Apps for iOS Devices
The following is a resource that lists apps for iOS devices for reading and scanning
http://www.pacer.org/stc/pubs/Accessible-Reading-Apps-for-iOS-Devices.pdf
iPad Basic Instruction Links
Quick Reference Guide for VoiceOver on iOS
http://support.sas.com/misc/accessibility/education/ios/quickref.html
Apple accessibility page
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/ios/
Apple dedicated line for accessibility issues: 877-204-3930
Dan’s Post on SIRI Commands
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/viphone/T5dbJMg8aMI
Homework for the week of June 23, 2012:
Listen to the Hadley podcast on DocuScan
Listen to the podcast on ABISEE
What can you find on these software scanning applications for the PC and Mac: WYNN, Open Book, Read and Write Gold? A good place to begin this research is at the Bookshare.org web site, under the tab, “Getting Started,” “Read Books.” Include a brief description of the software and a link to the company’s web site.
Scan a page from the most recent Atlantic Monthly magazine using the library scanner
Download one of the free apps that work with Bookshare: Voice Dreams lite, or Blio. There is no need to purchase anything for either. Blio may ask if you wish to purchase additional text-to-speech voices, but please do not.