The California State University, Northridge (CSUN) Conference, renowned for showcasing the latest international trends in assistive technology products, has released a preview of the Smartbook before the conference begins on 14 March.
The Smartbook focuses primarily on the use of Braille, talking books and text-to-speech functionality, with its use of Android allowing other applications or apps to be downloaded for increased functionality.
The Orion SmartBook has been developed with the support of a number of partners including American Printing House for the Blind, Ivona Text to Speech, Option Wireless Technology and the National Federation of the Blind.
It is expected to be released in Australia, with the release date of the product still to be announced. The cost of the product has also not been revealed, but the use of the free operating system Android provides an opportunity for LevelStar to reduce the price when compared to its previous Icon model.
The move to Android by assistive technology manufacturers signals a growing trend among them to ensure that people with disabilities have access to mainstream software regardless of whether the device being used is a mainstream or specialist access solution.
Further information can be found on the Ppatal blog post
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