DSPS Connection

May 1998

JBliss Imaging Systems

Versatile Image Processor (VIP)(TM), one of the programs currently being used in the High Tech Center, is a group of software programs by JBliss Imaging designed to make reading and writing easier and faster for students with visual impairments.

Low vision is an impairment that cannot be corrected sufficiently with glasses, contact lenses or surgery to allow the person to function without accommodation. Often the result of conditions like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration, the causes of visual impairments are often unclear, except that they get more common as people age. As many as 10 million people in the United States have low vision and about 300,000 people develop vision problems every year. As the baby boomer generation ages, the problem will become more prevalent. According to some estimates, about 50 million people will have low vision by 2030.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), the most common types of reading machines, offer simple magnification which includes the grain of the paper. They often require the user to move the text back and forth by hand under the lens. It is extremely difficult and fatiguing to read documents or books of any length using these machines.

VIPInfoSoft (TM) does not just magnify a page of text. The software electronically processes scanned text and graphics in full color and automatically converts digitized letters into one of several formats, depending on what works best for the reader's eye condition, as not all eye conditions benefit from simple magnification.

With a few keystrokes, readers can easily manipulate the text, choose the size, color, font, scrolling speed, letter spacing, line lengths and viewing mode. Students can also synchronize highlighted text with synthetic speech to speed through documents, e-mail and websites.

By Sharon Barrett,
Interim Learning Disabilities Specialist.