[Athen] What scan read alternatives to WYNN do you all use?

[Stephen (Alex) Marositz]

Hello Doug

Although I have no insider information, I suspect that WYNN is no longer being actively developed. R&W Gold and K3000 have taken over the market on the desktop although Claro Software is a good solution too. https://www.clarosoftware.com/

I’ve compared scan results from a Pearl, flatbed scanner and the results I get with my phone. Mobile apps are superior to any desktop scanning solution in most cases at this point. An exception would be for long documents and books. Even then, with a phone mount fixed to a tabletop, apps do a good job. Check out:

·         Seeing AI from Microsoft. Good for single-page scanning. Drawbacks are that it is iOS only and probably best for low vision and blind users only. One thing to mention though, it’s free.

·         Claro Scan Pen from the afore mentioned Claro Software

·         Prizmo (for longer documents) and Prizmo go are very good apps but are Mac and iOS only.
There are others but that’s all I can think of for now for your use case.

I would say, from the prospective of someone who has worked at both the CC and university level, making sure students know how to access digital content is much more important that printed material. For instance, can they access Bookshare and Learningally? Can they use RoboBraille to upload documents on the fly? Can they use browser plug-ins to read e-mail and other webpages? Can they use the built in accessibility features of their mobile and desktop devices both to read and dictate text? Can they use the learning tools in MSOffice to review their own work and some of the other solutions mentioned above to bring in outside content and review that as well?

I hope these thoughts are helpful


Stephen Alex Marositz
ATI Coordinator
CSUDH
Ext 3077

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Doug Hayman
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2019 9:35 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] What scan read alternatives to WYNN do you all use?

Hoping to tap into your collective knowledge and experience.

I set users in our Scholars program up with a variety of assistive technology.  They get stand-alone systems that they can use for their final years of high school then take on to college.

Early on we used Kurzweil 3000 then moved to WYNN as the latter was less expensive and had similar features.

More recently I'd used WYNN with the Pearl document camera but have been a bit disappointed in the company's ability to upgrade the software.  The installer disk shows a 2013 copyright and appears to not be developed to keep up.

I'd had some issues wherein the bundle of WYNN/Pearl weren't playing well together.  One official tech support person suggested me downloading the demo of OpenBook and installing that on the same machine so that it would install the proper drivers for the Pearl document camera, something the outdated WYNN disk couldn't do.

Last spring upon running into the same issue and contacting them once again, one support agent said something along the lines of "Wow, I don't think they are going to keep making this product anymore."  He had me run some Pearl firmware tool that broke things, had to reverse that then go back to the OpenBook install hack.

I'd like to provide our scholars with something up-to-date that allows them to scan/read on their laptops to carry out the function that WYNN used to fulfill for us.

What would you all suggest as good alternatives for both software and scanning hardware that is lightweight/portable?

Thanks,

--
Doug Hayman <dhayman at u<mailto:dhayman at u.washington.edu>w.edu<http://w.edu>>
Senior Computer Specialist
DO-IT Program (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, Technology)
UW Technology Services
Box 354842
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 221-4165
http://www.washington.edu/doit
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