Raymond Kurzweil is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health technology, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.
A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind, and are useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or have a learning disability. Screen readers are software applications that attempt to convey what people with normal eyesight see on a display to their users via non-visual means, like text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille device. They do this by applying a wide variety of techniques that include, for example, interacting with dedicated accessibility APIs, using various operating system features, and employing hooking techniques.
The MathWorks, Inc. is an American privately held corporation that specializes in mathematical computing software. Its major products include MATLAB and Simulink, which support data analysis and simulation.
The Perkins Brailler is a "braille typewriter" with a key corresponding to each of the six dots of the braille code, a space key, a backspace key, and a line space key. Like a manual typewriter, it has two side knobs to advance paper through the machine and a carriage return lever above the keys. The rollers that hold and advance the paper have grooves designed to avoid crushing the raised dots the brailler creates.
JAWS is a computer screen reader program for Microsoft Windows that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a refreshable Braille display. JAWS is produced by the Blind and Low Vision Group of Freedom Scientific.
Sphere is a 1998 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed and produced by Barry Levinson, adapted by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson. It is based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. The film was released in the United States on February 14, 1998.
Unified English Braille Code is an English language Braille code standard, developed to encompass the wide variety of literary and technical material in use in the English-speaking world today, in uniform fashion.
Bergen County Academies (BCA) is a tuition-free public magnet high school located in Hackensack, New Jersey that serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades from Bergen County, New Jersey. The school was founded by John Grieco, also founder of the Academies at Englewood, in 1991.
ZoomText is a screen magnifier for Microsoft Windows developed by Ai Squared which was acquired by Freedom Scientific in 2016. The first version was released for DOS in 1988, and the first version for Windows was released in 1991. ZoomText is available in two editions: ZoomText Magnifier and ZoomText Magnifier/Reader, which includes a built-in screen reader.
Computer Lib/Dream Machines is a 1974 book by Ted Nelson, printed as a two-front-cover paperback to indicate its "intertwingled" nature. Originally self-published by Nelson, it was republished with a foreword by Stewart Brand in 1987 by Microsoft Press.
The University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science is the undergraduate and graduate engineering school of the University of Virginia. Established in 1836, the school is the oldest university-affiliated engineering school in United States, and oldest engineering school in the Southern United States.
NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open-source, portable screen reader for Microsoft Windows. The project was started by Michael Curran in 2006.
T. V. Raman is a computer scientist who specializes in accessibility research. His research interests are primarily in the areas of auditory user interfaces and structured electronic documents. He has worked on speech interaction and markup technologies in the context of the World Wide Web at Digital's Cambridge Research Lab (CRL), Adobe Systems and IBM Research. He currently works at Google Research. Raman has himself been partially sighted since birth, and blind since the age of 14.
Dearborn Center for Math, Science and Technology (DCMST) is a specialized secondary education center with a four-year advanced, research based, science and math curriculum located in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. The school was founded in 2001, with its first graduating class in 2005. Most of the school is located in the Henry Ford Community College building, but some of the Michael Berry Career Center (MBCC) building is also used by DCMST. About 75 students are selected each year from the three high schools in the Dearborn City School District. Once in the program, students are committed for four years. In freshman and sophomore year, students attend their three classes at DCMST in the afternoon from 11:15 to 1:55. Juniors and seniors attend in the morning from 7:35 to 10:15. The other three hours are spent at student's home school. DCMST is a member of the NCSSSMST, an alliance of specialized high schools in the United States whose focus is advanced preparatory studies in mathematics, science and technology. The school is also accredited by the North Central Association (NCA) as all other Dearborn Public Schools are.
Orca is a free and open-source, flexible, extensible screen reader from the GNOME project for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Using various combinations of speech synthesis and braille, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support AT-SPI.
Telesensory Systems, Inc. (TSI) was an American corporation that invented, designed, manufactured, and distributed technological aids for blind and low vision persons. TSI's products helped visually impaired people work independently with computers and with ordinary printed materials.
Harold D. Prewitt, Jr (Hal) is an artist, photographer, race car driver, businessperson, inventor of personal computer products and early pioneer in the personal computer revolution. He resides in South Beach.
The Lighthouse of Houston is a private, non-profit education and service center dedicated to assisting blind and visually impaired people in the Houston, Texas metropolitan area to live independently. The Lighthouse serves approximately 9,000 people each year and is a member agency of the United Way of Greater Houston.
Tesla STEM High School is a magnet high school in Redmond, Washington operated by the Lake Washington School District. It serves as a lottery-selected choice program and offers a STEM-based curriculum.
Freedom Scientific is a company that makes accessibility products for computer users with low vision and blindness. The software they create enables screen magnification, screen reading, and use of refreshable braille displays with modern computers. The company is a subsidiary of Vispero and is based in Clearwater, Florida.
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