Pneuma Solutions Blog

Matt and I recently had the opportunity to chat with Jonathan Mosen on his Mosen At Large podcast. As any long-time listener can attest, the show is consistently packed with great information and thought-provoking discussion. Among other things, Episode 139 featured a demonstration of Scribe for Meetings, and the quality of his  presentation is, as always, impeccable. We think the best way to understand the Scribe experience is by trying it out for yourself, but if you want to hear a quality, unbiased hands-on demonstration, then Jonathan can be counted on to deliver a balanced perspective. Check out the specific segment here: After listening, if you have any questions, we’d be glad to take those in the comments section below. … [Read more...] about Hear a Demo of Scribe for Meetings

Recently on the Mosen At Large podcast, a listener wrote in with a thoughtful question. He wrote: “I’d like to share some thoughts / questions about Pneuma Solutions  scribe and its promise to make documents accessible, hoping to get a  broader understanding and perhaps develop a fair opinion. Here is another company that promises fully automated accessibility for an affordable price, but I wonder what do they really mean by accessibility, how far their AI can go and how much of the remediation process they have been able to automate. I cannot imagine it going beyond OCR, automatic image descriptions and the addition of some structural tags for headings, lists and possibly simple tables. Can they fix color contrast issues? Can they check that the font is appropriate? How do they deal with data presented in diagrams and charts? I don’t know of any AI that can make data visualization accessible. How do they deal with situation where the document contains explanations based on color or graphical elements such as your typical product manual? In summary, is what they offer true accessibility or just a handful of automatic improvements for screen reader users? Are the files they … [Read more...] about Responding to Concerns About Scribe

We are proud to announce that Ohio State University (OSU), the third-largest university in the United States by enrollment, has recently implemented Scribe for Meetings, a product of Pneuma Solutions. Starting this summer, print-impaired students will be able to enjoy access to on-screen slides in Zoom lectures, in real time, just like their peers without print disabilities. Until now, accessibility for on-screen slides in academic lectures, whether in-person or remote, has been a tedious affair at best. Print-impaired students were required to work with instructors to provide the slides in advance, so the student could read the slides in an accessible format on their computer or mobile device during the class. If alternative formats like Braille or Large Print were needed, students and teachers were at the Mersey of an overburdened office of student accommodations to produce the material in a timely manner, especially on short notice. Even in the best case, when the instructor provided the slides before the lecture, print-impaired students often struggle to follow along with the live presentation, because they wouldn’t necessarily know what slide the instructor was displaying at … [Read more...] about Ohio State University raises the bar for Academic Accessibility by adopting Scribe for Meetings

Since we released Scribe for Meetings out of public beta last month, we’ve continued to enhance its features. Now, online presentations are even more accessible to attendees with a diverse range of print disabilities. Here’s an overview of the new features you’ll find in Scribe for Meetings. DVR Mode gives you more control. First, we know attendees need to be able to read slide presentations at their own pace. So, we added DVR mode (Dynamic Visual Representation). DVR Mode lets an attendee pause the live presentation, move to the previous or next slide, then rejoin the live presentation when ready. With DVR mode, an attendee can even review the slides they already saw when screen sharing is inactive, or after the meeting is over. New Read Aloud feature We’ve developed a feature called Read Aloud. This feature helps those who aren’t comfortable with a full-featured screen reader. It also aids print disabled individuals who can’t effectively read print because of a physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disability.  While viewing a slide, either live or in DVR mode, an attendee can click a single button to have Scribe for Meetings read the slide aloud. … [Read more...] about New Scribe for Meetings Enhancements Make Online Presentations Even More Accessible

Here at Pneuma Solutions, we’re always on the prowl for the latest technology that could redefine the way we interact with the world. Some of this technology we adopt into our own workflow for your benefit. At other times we have to stand back in admiration at the ingenuity other teams are leveraging to make the world more inclusive. A student team at Johns Hopkins is developing a screen reader that takes a unique approach to rendering text. The prototype is called A Set of Eyes, and it seeks to provide an intelligent means of engaging with elements on environments like websites. According to one of the students, Jonathan Edwards: “The term “screen reader” is kind of a misnomer—it’s not really a piece of software that “reads” your computer screen.  It actually scrapes the webpage’s underlying HTML code and reads back to you what that code is out loud. ... Our approach involves using computer vision and machine learning to detach the screen reader from the underlying code and also provide users with a flexible user interface—meaning they can practically talk with our screen reader to get information on the page.” Our very own David Calvo is spearheading the project. … [Read more...] about A Set of Eyes Helps You Engage with Your Computer Screen

After months of development and user testing, Scribe for Meetings is ready to leave the lab and change the World forever! Pneuma Solutions, the leader in Accessible Cloud Technologies, brings you the only solution for making remote meetings and webinars accessible to the millions of visually and print impaired users World wide! Affordable and fully featured, Scribe for Meetings is the only technology that levels the playing field for remote meeting and webinar attendees with visual impairments! For the first time ever, real-time access to presentations is no longer an unattainable wish! with more platforms already under active development, we have launch the much anticipated service for Zoom meetings and webinars. Like captioning, ASL, or language translation, Scribe is a must have if you intend on serving an audience with a print impairment. Inclusion? You bet!! Higher ED, medical, government, clubs, and businesses big and small can instantly transform inaccessible meeting presentations into legally compliant accessible content for print impaired audiences. Individuals can subscribe and bring there own accessible solution to the party as well. This is not some magic bullet … [Read more...] about Scribe for Meetings Is Out Of Beta and Available World Wide!

It’s a privilege to call Deborah Kendrick a long-time friend. I have followed her coverage of the assistive technology industry for years now, and her level of well-balanced, thorough attention to detail is unwavering. If Deborah does not believe in a product or service, she will admit as much. So it was a privilege to sit down for a chat with Deborah that resulted in not one but two coveted spots in the March issue of Access World, a highly respected publication known for in-depth coverage of technology developments of interest to blind consumers. In the first Access World article, Deborah puts together a portrait of a guy I still affectionately think of as the boy genius. We learn more about the young man who evolved into the programming marvel that helped put more assistive technology into the hands of blind people. He was the engine behind all the innovation we brought about at Serotek Corp, and he is the driving force behind the revolutionary blueprints we are cooking at Pneuma Solutions. No article will ever fully capture the respect I will always have for Matt Campbell, but I am grateful there is an article that highlights a few of his accomplishments as a tech wizard, a … [Read more...] about Pneuma Solutions on Access World

Recently, Mike and Matt had the privilege of sitting down for an interview with Stuart Lawler of the Sight and Sound Technology Podcast. If you have not had the opportunity to listen, we welcome you to check out the episode. In it, you’ll learn about the little details that did not make it into the big announcement of Mike’s return. Outside of the innovation, Mike is known for storytelling. Some of you feeling a little nostalgic for the old SeroTalk Podcast will enjoy listening to Mike recount the winding down of Serotek and a little of the backstory surrounding the intervening years. It turns out Mike was not sitting on his laurels. Scribe had been percolating for a while, but only now do we get a better account of the chain of events that led to the line of products you see today. Matt claims to be a Jack of all trades, master of none. Yet, listening to him speak, you quickly realize the latter half of that statement is a significant understatement. Matt powered the former Serotek products across several major operating systems, and it doesn’t take long to understand just how firmly Matt drives the conversion from vision to execution. Best of all, if you have been curious … [Read more...] about Mike and Matt on Sight and Sound Technology Podcast