all categories Deals, Sales, and News

With proof of visual impairment, Braille Bibles International offers what appears to be the solar-powered talking bible for a $20 donation. That's $70 less than the price of this bible through online retailers. There is a limit of one bible per person. These are audio King James bibles and are powered by sunlight or incandescent light. An MP3 audio bible is also available on two CDs for $10, or an audio bible on 60 CDs for $20.

An EBay seller has listed a working DecTalk USB speech synthesizer for an opening bid of $399.99. Or, BuyItNow for $499.99. This modern synthesizer is supported by popular screen readers and is perfect for mobile users. Auction ends October 1 if not sold sooner.

After a bit of a break over the summer, we've returned to bring you the deals, news, and resources you've come to expect. Watch for new features, improvements, and much more in the coming year. Welcome back to another exciting year of Blind Bargains.

Just in time for the start of the fall semester, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic has introduced a feature known as AudioAccess. It offers downloadable versions of it's wide selection of book titles, primarily textbooks for students of all ages. The service is free to members.

The new issue of Accessworld has been posted to the AFB website. The July 2008 edition has a heavy emphasis on access to mainstream technology, including looks at MP3 players and in-flight entertainment systems. You'll also find the latest news and technology insights. AccessWorld is published bimonthly and is available free on the web.

Another free screen reading option has recently been introduced, which offers speech access from virtually any computer, regardless of the operating system. WebAnywhere is the latest entrant in the field of web-based access products, and offers access to websites using a centralized program. The software was developed at the University of Washington and is currently available in English, though other languages are planned. Programmers may be interested to know that the source code of this project has been released, making this what we believe to be the first web-based screen reading product with publicly available source code. We'll be watching this one as it develops over the coming months.

An new update has been released for the LevelStar Icon and BraillePlus PDA's. Among other features, vesion 1.11 adds support for the Audible book format so users can download and listen to books from Audible.com. Also, a new feature called the workspace has been added, which allows for users to view recent RSS feeds, files, or a welcome screen. Some bugs with some National Library Service books were also fixed.

Well, the day has finally arrived. It's been an unprecedented 14 months since the release of any version of Window-Eyes, and now users around the world will get to decide if the wait was worth it.
Follow the link to read the entire article.

GW Micro has released the hugely anticipated free public beta of Window-Eyes 7.0. The big news for this release is the robust support for scripting, as demonstrated by the dozens of scripts already available on their Script Central site. These include highly-advanced scripts for the Winamp media player, a handy script which speaks chat history and other info in Skype, and many scripts for performing tasks from converting units of measure to looking up dictionary terms. Not to be overlooked, this version also includes improved support for international languages, a website place marker feature, better support for Firefox 3, and new commands to navigate through web pages.

AccessibleWorld.org will be featuring a presentation on the new features in the Victor Reader Stream 2.0. The interactive chat will be held on Monday at 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific in the tech talk room, which we've linked to on this post. We don't have any concrete details on new features as of yet, but Windows Media and braille support have been ideas talked about in the past. If you have any insight, you can send us a note. You can send us a tip anonymously if you wish for this or any other breaking news story.

Thanks to reader Nancy, we've fixed some of our pages when browsing through past deals. Formerly, you couldn't browse through more than one page of old deals. The links at the bottom of the page now work, however, so you can browse through deals back to our beginning in 2006.

Over at our sister site, ATGuys.com cut the price on the Mobile Speak Pocket screen reader to $295. That's a $200 drop and the lowest price we could find. This screen reader works with many Pocket PC phones such as the HTC Tilt and XV6800. Update: the price has fallen to $265.50 through July 31.

Serotek is offering a huge prize package to one lucky person who fills out a short survey on accessibility products. The winner of the Summer Sizzle contest will receive, among other items, a complete System Access screen reading package, an Asus EEE ultraportable PC, a copy of Mobile Speak (any version), and a Victor Reader Stream. The survey is only one page and is quite simple. Contest ends September 1.

An EBay seller has posted a working Braille Lite 2000 with a current bid of $66. With about $12 for shipping, it's one of the best recent deals we've seen on this popular vintage notetaker. Auction ends May 27.

The accessible GPS market is getting even more crowded with the announcement of a beta program for Code Factory's Mobile Geo. This forthcoming software will run on Windows Mobile and Pocket PC smart phones and is based on the features of the Sendero GPS. Code factory is currently looking for beta testers, and we've linked to the details. Update: the link has been fixed.

Normally, we wouldn't waste space for a mention of a minor revision of a product, but revision 29 of Keysoft 7.5 for the BrailleNote family of PDAs is certainly worth a mention. Humanware has quietly rolled out support for the much faster and current 802.11G wireless protocol, with included drivers for a couple of different wireless cards. Other minor bug fixes are also included. The update is free for users of Keysoft 7.5.

This is the title of a new blog focusing on accessibility news and updates. Initial topics covered include accessible GPS software, notetakers and PDAs, and screen reader news. It seems to be well-updated so far, and we'll add it to our blogs to watch.

If you're looking for a phone compatible with Mobile Speak or Talks but don't wish to shell out hundreds of dollars, try the Nokia 3230 in stock at CellHut.com Using coupon code NK323, the price falls to $149.98 with free shipping. It's an older discontinued model but still comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and bluetooth. Combined with screen reading software, it's an inexpensive way to read and send text messages or browse your call log, among other features. Deal ends May 23.

The GW Micro blog points us to an upcoming resource for the pending Window-Eyes 7.0 called Script Central. It's a website with dozens of scripts which could enhance the next version of the popular screen reader. Scripts range from enhancements for Winamp to a weather applet. You can actually browse the page now, but the scripts will be pretty useless until the public beta is released.

ILA has posted several new items to their specials page. Among them is the Ove Glove Hot Surface Handler, a kitchen glove which can withstand very high temperatures, a Seiko braille watch, several magnification aids, and a big-button phone. Deals end May 31.