Assistive Technologies

The following list of assistive devices and software is based on work by the staff of the Accessibility and Usability Group (formerly the Adaptive Technology Information Center (ATIC) Lab) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 2003 and 2010.

Note: The majority of the links on this page leave the Boston-IA web site and access technology provider web sites.

Hardware, Software, and Other Tools

Screen Reading Software
Product: Web Site:
JAWS (Windows): http://www.freedomscientific.com
Window-Eyes: http://www.gwmicro.com
IBM Home Page Reader: (no longer available, IBM Easy Web Browsing trial version at IBM)
outSPOKEN: (no longer available, new products by Optelec)

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Braille Translation/ Embossing
Product: Web Site:
Duxbury Braille Translation: http://www.duxburysystems.com
Tiger Braille Embosser: http://www.viewplus.com

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Magnification Tools
Product: Web Site:
Biggy (Mac or Windows): http://www.rjcooper.com/biggy/
CCTV Video Magnifier: http://www.telesensory.com
inLARGE (Mac): (no longer available, new products by Optelec)
VisAble Scientific Calculator: (site not available)
ZoomText (Windows): http://www.aisquared.com

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Scanning and Reading Software
Product: Web Site:
Kurzweil 1000 (Windows): http://www.kurzweiledu.com
Kurzweil 3000 (Windows): http://www.kurzweiledu.com
CAST eReader: (no longer available, other products by CAST)

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Notetakers and Language Tools
Product: Web Site:
Alphasmart: (no longer available, new products by Renaissance Learning)
Franklin Speaking Language Master: http://www.franklin.com
iO Digital Pen: http://www.logitech.com

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Organizational Tools (Diagramming)
Product: Web Site:
Inspiration: http://www.inspiration.com

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Mouse Clicking Software Utilities
Product: Web Site:
MouseTool (Windows): http://www.mousetool.com
SmartClick (Mac): http://www.rjcooper.com/smartclick/

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Typing Break Software
Product: Web Site:
Stretch Break (Mac or Windows): http://www.paratec.com
Xwrits (Athena): http://www.lcdf.org/~eddietwo/xwrits/

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Voice Recognition Software
Product: Web Site:
Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows): http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/
IBM ViaVoice (Mac or Windows): (replaced by IBM Embedded ViaVoice technology)
iListen (Mac): http://www.macspeech.com

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Alternative Keyboards

Split and Contoured Keyboards
Product: Web Site:
Comfort ErgoMagic Keyboard: http://www.comfortkeyboard.com
Goldtouch Keyboard: http://www.goldtouch.com
Microsoft Natural: http://www.microsoft.com
Adesso Tru-Form: http://www.adesso.com
SmartBoard: http://www.datadesktech.com
TouchStream Stealth: (From Fingerworks. No longer available, similar technology now incorporated into Apple products.)
Kinesis: http://www.kinesis-ergo.com
DataHand: http://www.datahand.com

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One-Handed Keyboards
Product: Web Site:
HalfKeyboard: http://halfkeyboard.com
BAT Keyboard: http://www.infogrip.com
Twiddler: http://www.handykey.com

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Other Keyboards
Product: Web Site:
TypeMatrix: http://www.typematrix.com
BigKeys (for low vision): http://www.bigkeys.com

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Alternative Pointing Devices

Trackballs
Product: Web Site:
Kensington Trackballs: http://www.kensington.com
Mouse-Trak Trackball: http://www.mousetrak.com
Logitech Mice and Trackballs: http://www.logitech.com
Macally iBall: http://www.macally.com

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Touchpads
Product: Web Site:
Cirque Touchpad: http://www.cirque.com
FingerWorks iGesture: (From Fingerworks. No longer available, similar technology now incorporated into Apple products.)

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No-Hands Pointing Devices
Product: Web Site:
NoHands Mouse (foot mouse): http://www.footmouse.com
NaturalPoint trackIR (head pointer): http://www.naturalpoint.com

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Other Pointing Devices
Product: Web Site:
3M Ergonomic Mouse (joystick): http://www.3m.com
Graphire Tablet and Stylus (pen tablet): http://www.wacom.com
Gyration Ultra (optical mouse): (no longer available, new products by Gyration)

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