What Makes PREMIER ASSISTIVE Different?
As awareness of our products grows, increasingly we are being compared to other products in the assistive software arena. So what makes Premier Assistive products better than the competition?
Uniformity of design. Since Premier Assistive designs and engineers ALL of our own products, great care is taken to ensure that features and functions work in a consistent manner across its entire platform of technologies. Once you learn several of Premier's packages, you can quickly leverage your knowledge to begin using all the other packages in our suite. When you "cherry pick" individual packages from different vendors or use vendors that sell a variety of technology from multiple sources, this almost always results in a hodge-podge of applications that look, act and feel differently as they are used, thereby adding further confusion to users who may already be faced with many other challenges.
Use of common file formats. All of Premier Assistive’s products use “industry standard” file formats such as Microsoft WORD, RTF, HTML, TXT, WAV, MP3, AVI, etc. Use of “proprietary” formats by other vendors often renders their products incompatible with any others (e.g., screen readers).
Meaningful / relevant features. Other product vendors often complicate and over-engineer their products in order to justify keeping their prices exorbitantly inflated. Additionally, incorporating "non-value added" features make the products more difficult for individuals to use. In many cases, users may be forced to learn / navigate through and around features that they may never use. Premier Assistive's products contain all the essential features you should expect to see in assistive software without the "superfluous fluff" that others add to their products.
Suite of products. There are several key benefits to Premier Assistive’s Suite of products. (1) By having individual products that comprise the suite, users can select only those software applications that are relevant to their specific needs. No more buying / installing software that you don’t need as you would find in single, monolithic products that try to be “all things to all people”. (2) When compared to other vendors that have only 1 or 2 special purpose products, Premier’s suite is a complete offering. (3) Having a single vendor for your assistive software means you come to a SINGLE place for technical support.
Price. Dollar for dollar, there simply is no better value in the assistive software arena today than the offering from Premier Assistive. That’s not just us saying it; that’s the growing number of testimonials from schools, parents and qualified professionals across the country that recognize that there truly ARE effective alternatives to expensive assistive software.
To maximize the greatest good for the greatest number of people, assistive technologies must become “lifestyle tools”…..the same tools that are used everywhere by individuals every day, no matter where they are….in school, at home or on the job. This continuity that can come from common tools used across multiple environments can provide much-needed leverage to helping individuals with challenges achieve the degrees of independence that every person wants and needs, regardless of their personal situations. That can only be achieved when there is the right balance between technical maturity and affordability. There is plenty of historical experience from the automobile to TV’s to telephones that can be held up as prime examples of the benefits to society when technical elegance and affordability converge to result in widespread availability and acceptance. With Premier Assistive's progressive approach, we should expect assistive technology to follow that same path.
As with many fields of knowledge throughout history, breakthroughs often come not from incumbent experts, but from newcomers who approach existing problems, paradigms and thinking models with radical new ideas and proactive / aggressive concepts that knock "old thinking" off of dead center. It is exactly that kind of thinking that Premier Assistive has brought to the assistive technology marketplace over the last several years. Of course, new ideas without real-world implementation are also worthless. Again, Premier Assistive "puts its money where its mouth is". We position our solid technologies within a framework of progressive software licensing practices, combined with our affordable product pricing and grant programs, to ensure that more schools, businesses and individuals can truly afford the reading and writing technologies they need so desperately. These are true innovations that will meet the accelerating literacy needs in our society.
Respectfully,
Ken Grisham, President / CEO Steve Timmer, Chairman
PRODUCT SHOWCASE
Premier VideoCast Studio – JUST RELEASED!!
The Premier VideoCast Studio is a breakthrough in assistive technology. It is the first technology on the market that creates a Video Podcast of electronic books and documents. These video files can be loaded onto portable media devices, allowing individuals for the first time to see their books on video and take it with them wherever they go!
Premier VideoCast Studio includes the following:
- Premier VideoCast Software
- Premier Presentation Capture
- VPod Video Converter
Premier VideoCast Software: Turn electronic documents into portable multimedia files that play on hand-held media devices like the Premier Key to Access VPod, Microsoft Zune™, or Apple iPod™. Some of the many features and benefits include:
- Create audio/video books – Students can both see and hear the information being read. Content can include charts, tables and other graphics.
- Improve student’s visual tracking and word association skills, away from the computer.
- Easy Navigation—Books can be segmented by page so students can quickly navigate to a chapter and page.
- Repeat: Students can pause, rewind and fast forward through books quickly, making it great for review and searching.
- Creates industry-standard “WMV” and “AVI” video files.
Premier Presentation Capture: Captures the screen activity as well as the presenter’s voice and combines it into an AVI video file. Premier Presentation Capture is compatible with all types of interactive “digital” white boards, e.g., SMART BoardTM and Promethean.
Below are some of the practical applications for Premier Presentation Capture:
- Educators can create video libraries of examples and alternative explanations that students can download and review on demand. Students could access full lessons even if they've missed class.
- Lessons could be pre-recorded for a day when a substitute teacher is presenting the material.
- Individuals who have short term memory loss, have trouble taking notes, or who can not attend class regularly would be able to use the videos while doing homework. They can play, pause and replay the information as many times as they need to improve their comprehension of the material.
Premier Presentation Capture Interface
VPod Video Converter: The video converter is a batch video converter which converts virtually all video file types, making them compatible with Premier Assistive Technology’s Key to Access VPod.
As you can see, Premier VideoCast Studio gives you some powerful capabilities to introduce video-based presentations to your daily instruction. In the future, look for additional suggestions and solutions from Premier on how you might incorporate videos to enhance the students' learning experience.
GOOD NEWS from YOU – Our Premier Users
I am tutoring a 4th grader who is repeating 4th grade despite the fact that his mathematics skills are 2 years above grade level. He simply reads too slowly to keep up with the reading program required by his school system. We ordered a laptop, scanner and Scan and Read Pro. What would have taken him an hour to read can now be read and understood in 20 minutes using this program where he can stop and reread or stop and look up the meaning of the word and continue on without leaving the computer. His grades in school have gone from borderline to mostly A's and a few B's. Following along with the window while reading lets him move more quickly and the dictionary feature allows him to build his reading vocabulary without losing interest in the reading because of the struggle to recognize all the words.
*****
One Premier user who has difficulty seeing uses Talking Checkbook and says it “Just can’t be beat!!!!!”
*****
A student doing his own comparison of Premier products with other assistive technology really liked an option within the Universal reader, the Talking Pointer. There were no other products where he had ever seen the capability to read anything anywhere in any application. For example, the Talking Pointer reads the following: Microsoft spell check, pop up boxes, tabs, menus, etc. He found this to be very helpful.
*****
Premier Assistive’s software is in use in a number of higher education institutions in Canada. One of the students using Premier’s software at a community college in Nova Scotia said that “It’s kind of nice knowing there’s technology out there like this because you’re not struggling anymore, you’re not wondering what people are going to be thinking. You’re actually being recognized as a person and what your yearnings are and it’s really nice.”
*****
A user stated that software from another company in the assistive technology space “is a beast and takes up a lot of file space”. Premier’s Suite is much smaller and you can install only the applications that you want to use since they are each able to run nicely on their own. The other company’s programs must be loaded in their entirety, even if you don’t use some features.
If you have a "Good News!" story about how Premier’s software is being used or how it has helped you or someone you know, please send your story or comments to us. We’d love to include them in a future newsletter.
Please send your “Good News!” to Ronda@readingmadeeasy.com.
SPECIAL OFFER
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER SPECIAL
For our featured product this month, Premier VideoCast Studio, you can take advantage of either of the following two offers through December 31, 2007:
- Purchase Premier VideoCast Studio (suggested retail price of $199.95) for only $99.95 plus S&H.
- Alternatively, purchase Premier Assistive's VPOD at the suggested retail price plus S&H, and you can receive a FREE copy of Premier VideoCast Studio.
Be sure to mention the October Newsletter and Promo Code VC2007 when ordering.
For more product information, check out our website or call us at one of the numbers below:
TO ORDER in the US, call:
815-927-7390, Option 1
TO ORDER in Canada, call:
902-482-4680, Option 1
OTHER EXCITING NEWS
NOW AVAILABLE! Accessibility Suite (version 8.0).
Upgrade your current Suite by calling Premier Assistive. See the contact information below.
Don't forget to upgrade to be Vista-compliant!
Take Your Technology with You! Check out Premier Assistive's portable devices:
Premier To Go
Key to Access MP3 Player
Key to Access VPod
FREE PRODUCT DOWNLOADS
Check out our website for free fully-functioning downloads of our products. Try them out!
You'll get 25 accesses to a product to see how it works!
Contact Us
Premier Assistive Technology
Executive Offices
1309 N. William St.
Joliet, IL 60435
Phone: 815-927-7390
Fax: 815-722-8802
Sales@Readingmadeeasy.com
www.readingmadeeasy.com
Premier Assistive Technology R&D Lab
13102 Blaisdell Dr.
Dewitt, MI 48820
Phone: 815-927-7390
Premier Assistive Technology – Canada
PO Box 875, STN A
Sydney, NS
B1P 6J4
Phone: 902-482-4680
Fax: 902-270-5224
info@Readingmadeeasy.ca
www.readingmadeeasy.ca