World Record Set!
RUN FOR LITERACY
Dr. Steve Timmer, a USA Blind Athlete and founder of Team Premier, set the world record for the 10 Mile on August 9, 2008 in St. Johns, Michigan. At the 10th annual Mint City festival Dr. Timmer set the new record of 1:12:06 for 10 miles in the B2 category, shattering the old record of 1:16:00.
Co-owner and co-founder of Premier Literacy, Dr. Timmer has dedicated much of his professional life to literacy and accessibility and wanted to find a way to raise awareness of the increasing demand for digital literacy in school and at the workplace.
Dr. Timmer, who lost his vision as he entered adulthood, has spent all of his adult life facing adversity and overcoming challenges. Never one for complacency, Dr. Timmer recently began training to become the fastest blind marathon runner in the world. He has dedicated his personal and professional life to finding solutions and maximizing potential.
Team Premier is an extension of that dedication. In his quest to become the fastest blind marathon runner in the world, Dr. Timmer hopes to raise awareness of the increasing demand for digital literacy in school and in the work place. He also hopes to recognize those organizations whose sole purpose is to support individuals with disabilities - organizations which are often under-funded. As Dr. Timmer works to realize his goal of becoming the fastest blind marathon runner in the world, he will be running in various long-distance competitions across Canada and the United States. As he "goes the distance", Dr. Timmer invites literacy organizations to join him in bringing awareness to literacy issues - to be a part of Team Premier.
Learn how you can raise funds and receive FREE literacy software for your organization. Check out Run4Literacy.com.
PRODUCT SHOWCASE
- Mac Version - Literacy Productivity Pack
- PDF Builder
- Accessibility Suite - Version 9.0
AVAILABLE NOW!
LITERACY PRODUCTIVITY MAC PACK
Your browser may not support display of this image.Our popular Literacy Productivity Pack is now available for Macs with an Intel chip. Get a suite of 9 literacy tools to help you read and write more effectively. Read web pages, emails, PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, e-books, and create audio files of your electronic documents to play on your MP3 player!
The Literacy Productivity "Mac Pack" retails for $249.95.
PDF BUILDER
Your browser may not support display of this image.Do you need help quickly combining pages of content from multiple PDF files to create customized electronic content for your classroom? PDF Builder lets you work with any type of PDF file, e.g., Adobe Acrobat files, scanned documents saved in PDF format, etc.
It only takes a few seconds to create a hybrid PDF file. You can even export the combined version in multiple formats such as Rich Text Format, HTML, Text, BMP and JPG (image only).
PDF Builder may be purchased separately for $89.95. It is also part of the Accessibility Suite included in Premier Literacy's In-School Program.
ACCESSIBILITY SUITE - Version 9
Be sure you have the latest version of our Accessibility Suite! In addition to supporting Office 2007 documents, the latest version of the Accessibility Suite also has enhancements to many of the existing applications. It also now includes PDF Builder, a great solution for teachers building e-curricula for their classroom.
You'll also find these great additions in the latest version of the Accessibility Suite:
- Translation built into E-Text Reader.
- Talking Pointer added to Toolbar and translation built into Universal Reader Plus in Accessibility Suite.
- Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) support, All-In-One scanner support, Summarization, Highlight/Extract functionality and a PDF import utility added to Scan and Read Pro.
- Ability to import PDF files directly into Text-To-Audio for conversion into Wav or MP3 audio files.
- Ability to highlight and automatically read text in non-native PDF files. Additionally, you can now scan documents directly into PDF Equalizer.
Expanded tool portability---coming soon!
Watch this section of the Fall Newsletter for more details.
TEACHER RESOURCES
If you're looking for e-books, sources of digital content, and more, check out the Educator Resources on our website. Below are just a few of the many resources available to you.
Pics4Learning is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students. The Pics4Learning collection consists of thousands of images that have been donated by students, teachers, and amateur photographers.
Pics4Learning is developed as part of the Partners in Education program by Tech4Learning, and the Orange County Public Schools Technology Development Unit.
This free online library contains thousands of books, including many classics, for students and teachers and is searchable by author.
The OKAPI tool is an internet application that helps you create curriculum-based assessment reading probes or run a readability analysis based on the Spache or Dale-Chall reading formulas. This tool is part of the Intervention Central website where you can find many other tools for educators.
The IRIS Center Resource Locator
Find free resources and instructor materials that "translate research about the education of students with disabilities into practice." Materials cover a wide variety of evidence-based topics including RTI, behavior, learning strategies and progress monitoring.
NOTE: All sites included in this section should be reviewed by you prior to use. Premier Literacy's listing of a site does not constitute its endorsement of the content of these sites or of their policies or products. Please use these at your discretion.
GOOD NEWS FROM YOU
We often hear Good News about how Premier's tools have helped a variety of users. Send us your Good News about how Premier's products have helped you or someone you know, and get your name entered in a drawing for a FREE Premier To Go USB drive with 10 literacy tools pre-loaded ($299.95 retail).
TESTIMONIALS:
Many students in one teacher's class are below reading level. Much of the text read for class is difficult for the students to comprehend. Using Premier Literacy's Text-To-Audio tool allows them to convert the text into audio files so they can listen to the text being read. This has greatly enhanced their understanding of the materials.
Another teacher said summarization in E-Text Reader is great! It works wonders for people who don't have the capability to summarize on their own and allows individuals to hear an abbreviated version that may be more appropriate for their reading ability.
Universal Reader Plus made a huge difference to a low vision user who needed to scan and read documents. She said that the software is wonderful and makes her computer usable. Another user who is a student at a university with Premier products installed said she uses the tool to take her exams on campus and found that she liked it so much that she purchased her own copy to use on her home computer.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Grisham, President/CEO
Premier Literacy