AFB Reviews Maestro

AccessWorld tested HumanWare’s Maestro and Jay Leventhal, Jim Denham and Heather McComas wrote a detailed review on this first accessible off-the-shelf personal digital assistant (PDA).

“Rather than designing a product specifically for people who are blind or have low vision, some companies are working on different ways of adapting mainstream PDAs. The major advantage of adapting an off-the-shelf product is a drastic reduction in price. The primary disadvantages are the inaccessibility of the PDA’s touch screen and the visual nature of indications of when the PDA is on or off and whether the battery is currently charging. The Maestro solves these problems by adding speech output to selected applications through the Eloquence synthesizer and uses a tactile keypad overlay as an alternative to the PDA’s touch screen for data entry,” according to AccessWorld® which tested the Maestro on an HP iPAQ PDA.  

The reviewers are not all positive about the product: “Clever adaptations and the inclusion of Trekker on the same PDA will make Maestro an enticing option for people who already have a computer but are searching for a small, lightweight device for keeping track of contacts, staying on schedule, and reading documents. The installation procedure, the time-consuming way of entering data on the keypad, and the need to connect Maestro to a computer make it difficult for us to recommend it as a device for beginners. Increasing the number of accessible applications on the PDA will make Maestro a much more attractive product.”

HumanWare Canada responded to the review with: “We would like to thank AccessWorld® for reviewing Maestro and for letting more users know about our products. As was mentioned in this review, Maestro provides different ways to input data. For short data entry, the tactile keyboard is an alternative as efficient as the Graffiti or other stylus methods that are available for sighted users on the PDA. We will continue working to provide expanded and more efficient note-taking capability. Version 1.1, to be released soon, will allow the use of Bluetooth QWERTY and Braille external keyboards, as well as contracted Braille. In addition, HumanWare is preparing new applications. Among them are an email manager, a Web browser, media player, and Victor Reader http://internallink (our DAISY book player). For new features and accessories, keep checking our website.”

Read full article on AccessWorld® July 2005 Edition.