Freedom Scientific Blog

FSCast 158, Eric Damery unveils JAWS 2019, Stuart Lawler talks Sight and Sounds expansion to Ireland

Jonathan Mosen September 16, 2018

The next major release of our screen reading software, JAWS 2019, is about to enter public beta as this podcast is published. Eric Damery takes us through some of the new features available immediately, and those planned for the JAWS 2019 cycle. Jonathan Mosen speaks with Stuart Lawler, who has a new role with Sight …

Firefox Extended Support Release now requires JAWS 2018 or newer

Jonathan Mosen September 10, 2018

Firefox has now reached a stage in its evolution where it is necessary for JAWS users to be either running JAWS 2018 or later or switch to an alternative browser. If you’ve been reading our blog for some time, you’ll recall that we’ve kept you informed regarding our close collaboration with Mozilla with respect to …

Introducing FSCamDSBridge, the software that makes your Freedom Scientific camera product available to any Windows app

Jonathan Mosen September 5, 2018

Freedom Scientific produces several highly-regarded camera products that work seamlessly with our software. For example, using our PEARL portable reading camera is one of the fastest, simplest and most accurate ways to take a picture of any print and turn it into text, thanks to OpenBook and optical character recognition features in JAWS® and Fusion™. …

FSCast157, archive of the August 2018 FSOpenLine

Jonathan Mosen August 31, 2018

This episode of FSCast contains a recording of the first FSOpenLine session. If you are listening in a podcast app that supports chapter marks, each question and section is its own chapter, making it easy to skim through to the topics that interest you. Topics covered in the August FSOpenLine include, the move to our …

FSCast 156 is now available

Jonathan Mosen August 23, 2018

We’re launching a new global call-in show called FSOpenLine, and we’re looking forward to your participation. Learn all about it at the start of this episode. Jonathan Mosen then demonstrates the support for Microsoft’s Skype 8 released in the August update for JAWS 2018, and explains how to make sure you have the correct version. …

Announcing FSOpenLine. Join the conversation on our new call-in show

Jonathan Mosen August 23, 2018

What is FSOpenLine? FSOpenLine is Freedom Scientific’s new call-in show, and an adjunct to our podcast, FSCast. Since 2006, we’ve used FSCast to inform you of the latest developments here at Freedom Scientific, and in recent years we’ve added a listener comment line. We enjoy getting your feedback, and want to provide an additional interactive, …

More news from Computers for the Blind on obtaining an affordable computer complete with JAWS, ZoomText and Fusion

Jonathan Mosen August 14, 2018

In June, we blogged about our partnership with Computers for the Blind, an initiative that sees JAWS and ZoomText pre-installed on all machines they distribute. Each application can be run on its own, or at the same time through Fusion. We recently heard from David Jeppson, CFTB’s Executive Director, who told us of a new …

Skype Classic will live on for now

Jonathan Mosen August 6, 2018November 2, 2018

Updated November 1, 2018: Skype 7 is being phased as of November 1, 2018… On July 20th, we wrote a blog post relaying Microsoft’s decision to retire its Skype 7 series software, also known as Skype Classic, on 1 September. We also outlined the steps we’re taking to make Skype 8 as efficient an experience as …

Meet Kenia Flores, our 2018 NFB Scholarship winner

Jonathan Mosen August 2, 2018

We were pleased once again to provide a scholarship as part of the National Federation of the Blind’s scholarship program. The award’s recipient this year is Kenia Flores, a JAWS user whose goal is to become a civil rights attorney. Kenia credits NFB for expanding her world-view of what blind people can achieve. She …

JAWS, ZoomText and MAGic now freely available in Hungary

Jonathan Mosen July 30, 2018

As we’ve blogged previously, we’re always looking for innovative initiatives to ensure that our powerful software is available to all who need it. One such approach is to work with national governments and other entities to establish country-wide licenses. In Colombia and Spain, any blind person can already use JAWS, ZoomText and MAGic at no …