SADiE Partner in EU Pro-Guide Project for VIPs

Stretham, Cambs. UK. November 2007 - The SADiE audio editing systems have been used by blind and visually impaired people for many years due to its ease of use and comprehensive editing abilities. "When SADiE was approached a year ago to become a partner in the EU Pro-Guide project we jumped at the opportunity", says Steve Penn, SADiE product specialist. "The Pro-Guide project aims to improve facilities and opportunities for visually impaired sound engineers and musicians. It is often found that visual impairment can result in a compensatory aural enhancement leading to the very acute hearing abilities that we find in this user base. We like to think that they prefer SADiE because of its clean uncluttered signal path. However, there are many visually impaired and blind audio professionals around the world with precious little being done to assist them in their daily tasks."

The technical side of the Pro-Guide project greatly enhances SADiE’s accessibility features. Visually impaired computer users can operate PCs by means of “screen reader” software, which uses a number of techniques to gather information from the screen and report that information via speech-synthesis or Braille displays. At the same time mouse clicks can be replaced by hotkeys or voice commands. Alongside SADiE's hardware control surfaces which were designed with VIPs in mind, the new features will be a real boon to the community.

SADiE v5.6.1 adds enhanced accessibility by reporting much more information to the screen reader. Where previously some screen reader scripts had been written for specific workflows in SADIE, there is now much more scope for producing an interface that gives the user as much control as a sighted operator.

In the early part of 2008, the Pro-Guide project will be releasing a set of scripts for Jaws (one of the most popular screen reader products) that exploit SADiE’s new accessibility features.

For more detail and news about the Pro-Guide project, take a look at the project web site.

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SADiE UK manufactures a range of professional digital audio and video equipment for the recording, broadcast, film and CD mastering industries.

SADiE UK (Studio Audio & Video Ltd), The Old School, Stretham, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB6 3LD, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1353 648 888; Fax: +44 (0)1353 648 867; e-mail sales@sadie.com; web http://www.sadie.com