AssistiveWare Released SwitchXS 2.2

SwitchXS is a switch access solution that provides virtually complete access to Mac OS X and all standard Mac applications for people who cannot use a mouse or keyboard. SwitchXS provide the best access solution ever on the Mac (and beyond) for people who are, for example, quadriplegic due to an accident, or suffering from neuromotor diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) or Cerebral Palsy (CP) with very limited limb movement. It offers full mouse and keyboard emulation by means of a so-called scanning mode. With each click on the switch the user selects an action, such as "move the cursor up" or "type B", from a "scanning" menu.

SwitchXS 2.2 is a major update with the following main new features:

• SwitchXS now speaks Japanese when the user has the Japanese DTalker application (http://www.createsystem.co.jp/dtalkerMacOSX.html) installed on their machine. This way, SwitchXS can provide voice cueing during scanning in Japanese. What is more, when combined with the PCS for LayoutKitchen communication symbol collection SwitchXS can now be turned into a complete switch accessible communication solution for Japanese Mac users who cannot speak. For English, French, German, Spanish and other languages SwitchXS can be combined with our Proloquo software (http://www.assistiveware.com/proloquo.php) for the same purposes.
• To save efforts, SwitchXS now remembers which panel was last used in each application and can (optionally) automatically load that panel each time a particular application is used.
• For beginning switch users, a "simplified scanning" feature was added that instantly scans any panel linearly instead of applying traditional row-column scanning. This is great for beginning switch users and at the same time saves parents and educators time, because they do not have to make dedicated linear scan panels, but can turn on linear scanning for all scan panels.
• The color of the rotating cursor beam can now be set by the user.
• Includes LayoutKitchen 1.0.4.
• An expanded user manual.

SwitchXS works with any HID compliant USB gamepad, joystick and keyboard, and starting with Mac OS X 10.3 also with any HID compliant USB mouse or trackball. SwitchXS also works with USB switch interfaces emulating any of the above devices. SwitchXS is currently available in English, French and Japanese but works fine with most other languages. The suggested retail price is US$ 299. [Bill Fox]