Previous Winners
2010
RNIB, United Kingdom for Pen friend.
It is the
first product to use optical identification technology (OID) to create a low
cost method for blind people to label and identify almost any items. The
Penfriend comes with a supply of small adhesive labels. These can be stuck to
items such as CDs, cans and packets of food, print documents, clothing and
thousands of other products. The user then makes a recording containing all the
information they wish to label the item with and then the pen is simply touched
to the label and the recording is triggered.
To learn more about this product, please click here.
2008
Guide software from Software Express, United Kingdom, provides an accessible suite of the common PC applications such as email, web browsing, word processing, scanning and spread sheet operations.
2005
Polara Engineering Inc., Fullerton, California, USA, for the development of the Navigator II which provides a pedestrian who is blind, sight impaired or deaf blind with equal access to information that is required to negotiate busy street crossings.
2004
Earl L. Bryenton, President, Brytech Inc., for the development of numerous talking bank note readers that help blind, visually impaired and deafblind Canadians identify their paper currency accurately, allowing them to carry out their day-to-day financial transactions with confidence.
2003
Pulse Data International, Christchurch, New Zealand, for the development of the BrailleNote – a family of Microsoft Windows CE-based personal information management systems that include a word processor, e-mail, a planner, a book reader and a web browser that provides users with portable Internet access.
2002
VisuAide Inc, Fredericton, N.B for developing a digital talking book player called Victor Reader Pro
2001
TECSO, Quebec, Canada for the development of the interactive tutorial series: Listening to Windows 95 and 98, Listening to the Internet, and Listening to Word
2000
TED HENTER, President, Henter-Joyce, Inc., Florida, U.S.A. for the development of JAWS for Windows. This Screen Reader Software is used by blind and visually impaired individuals to access the Windows environment
1999
OCUTECH, INC., North Carolina, U.S.A. for the Ocutech VES-Autofocus Telescope System, a miniature telescope mounted on top of eyeglasses which enlarges images four times
1998
DR. KENNETH JERNIGAN, President Emeritus, The National Federation of the Blind, Maryland, U.S.A. for the development of Newsline for the Blind, a nation wide newspaper service by telephone
1997
EDWARD R. BETTINARDI, Innoventions Inc., Colorado, U.S.A. for the development of Magni-Cam
1996
SYNTHA-VOICE COMPUTERS, INC., Ontario, Canada for Window Bridge
1995
JOSEPH E. SULLIVAN, Massachusetts, U.S.A. for the Duxbury Braille Translator
1994
RAYMOND KURZWEIL, Massachusetts, U.S.A. for The Reading Edge
1993
CARETEC, Vienna, Austria, for ColorTest
1992
TELESENSORY, INC., California, U.S.A. for Vista
1991
WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, Massachusetts, U.S.A. for Descriptive Video Service (DVS)
1990
ROBOTRON PTY LTD., Melbourne, Australia - Milan Hudecek, for the “Eureka A4"
1989
BLAZIE ENGINEERING, Maryland, U.S.A. - Deane Blazie, for “Braille ‘n Speak”
Also available in French, audio cassette and braille.