News & Announcements Archive

March 2008: CSUN Prize Winners Announced!

Thousands of people attended the California State University at North Ridge International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities (CSUN) last week in Los Angeles. Hundreds visited our exhibit and entered De Witt & Associates’ prize drawing. We are pleased to announce the winners of three PC Talking Typing Tutor multisensory interactive touch typing software programs marketed worldwide by De Witt & Associates, five accessible Zen Stone MP3 players from Creative Labs and a grand prize of the new widely acclaimed HumanWare Victor Reader Stream.

And the winners are…

• PC Talking Typing Tutor
  • Jim Allan, Texas School for the Blind
  • Yvonne Davis, California State University at Los Angeles
  • Denise Shuler, Maryland Technology Assistance Program
• Zen Stone MP3 Players
  • Josephine Delvey, Evergreen Valley College, San José
  • Freddie Peaco, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Washington, DC
  • Megan Shanley Albuquerque Public Schools,
  • Adam Tanners, University of Hawaii
  • Ted Wattenberg, San Joaquin Delta College
• HumanWare Victor Reader Stream
  • Roger Cusson, Seeing Hands Enterprises, Lisbon, Maine

We were delighted to have all who visited our exhibit booth. Remember, if you are in the market for De Witt & Associates TrainingWare™, PC Talking Typing Tutor or the Serotek System Access Users Guide, they are on sale through March 31st for 10% off. Send us an Email at info@4dewitt.com for more information and we’ll be happy to work with you.

March 2008: Recently Annemarie Cooke visited folks in Georgia at the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta and the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Athens. Two weeks ago, she met staff of the New Mexico Commission for the Blind in Albuquerque where Annemarie also made a presentation at the conference of the International Dyslexic Association’s South West chapter.

March 2008: At the end of February Rick Fox and Joe Adamo exhibited at the CTEVH convention in Los Angeles. Rick led a workshop on "Fine Tuning Your Training".

March 2008: De Witt & Associates will again be at the CSUN International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, March 12-15 at the Los Angeles Marriott Hotel. Come see us at our Exhibit Booth 408 in the Saddle Brook Room.

• Help us plan our future projects as the nation’s leading training organization for blind and low vision computer users. Share your thoughts by filling out our short questionnaire at the booth.
• Toss your hat (or business card) in the ring to win one of nine great prizes!
• Joining us at the CSUN Conference will be De Witt & Associates’ President & CEO, John De Witt, Vice President Annemarie Cooke along with senior associates Joe Adamo, Patti Mitchell and Adina Viezel.

January 2008: ANNEMARIE COOKE JOINS DE WITT & ASSOCIATES AS VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION AND SALES

Annemarie Cooke, a long-time marketing professional and advocate in the disability field, has joined De Witt & Associates, a leading assistive technology training, support and education firm based in Midland Park, as vice president for administration and sales.

For more than 16 years, Cooke served as senior external relations officer for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, a national not-for-profit organization that is the country’s major producer of academic textbooks and other education materials serving people who cannot read standard print effectively because of a visual, physical or learning disability.

During her RFB&D career, Cooke represented the organization at numerous national and regional conferences and meetings, and made presentations to thousands of people in the education and disability communities.  She also worked in government relations and served as a liaison for RFB&D with its nearly 200,000 members who use its audio textbooks.

John De Witt, president & CEO of De Witt & Associates, in making the announcement said, “At De Witt, Annemarie will oversee national sales and marketing strategies for the company’s unique catalog of TrainingWare™ which comprises instructor and student modules for teaching/learning various assistive technologies. 

“Our materials and staff teach people who are blind, visually impaired or who have learning disabilities to use the Internet, e-mail and various Microsoft applications,” De Witt continued. “Her unique skills as a journalist, knowledge of the disability community and personally as a user of assistive technology, make Annemarie a natural for this position.”

Cooke will spearhead marketing and sales for the company’s consulting services to business and industry, governmental and non-profits and individual consumers. As part of De Witt’s contract with the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI), she also will mentor De Witt’s staff assigned to teach employment-related computer skills to adult rehabilitation clients at the CBVI’s Joseph Kohn Rehabilitation Center in New Brunswick.

Founded in 1989 by blind entrepreneur John DeWitt, the company is the leading private employer of blind professionals in the state of New Jersey. The firm’s TrainingWare™ is now in use in 34 states and 10 other countries by over 75 organizations. De Witt & Associates has just completed 15 years of service to New Jersey’s blind and visually impaired residents under its major contract with the CBVI.

People who are blind or have some remaining vision use synthetic speech, text enlargement and refreshable Braille displays in order to access information on a computer screen.

Prior to joining RFB&D in 1991, Cooke worked for more than 17 years as a city desk reporter at The Daily Home News of New Brunswick, now the Home News Tribune headquartered in East Brunswick. She received many national, regional and local awards for her journalistic work.

Cooke is a 1974 graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University, with a major in American Studies. Her community service includes membership on the board of directors of Elijah’s Promise of New Brunswick, a soup kitchen and culinary employment-training program. She also   is a board member and past president of the NJ chapter, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.

July 2007: De Witt & Associates’ President John De Witt and Senior Associate John Hess Participated at the BUILDING YOUR FUTURE, 2007 VISIONS Employment and Technology Institute on Saturday, July 28th In Rockland County, New York.

Mr. De Witt was one of three participants on a panel moderated by Visions’ Executive Director, Nancy Miller. The panel was titled “Learn From the Best: Blind Entrepreneurs” and was entirely made-up of blind individuals who have been successful at launching and sustaining their own businesses.  The discussion focused on start-up costs, business plans, marketing strategies and use of the web.

Apple Computers’ VoiceOver built-in screen reader was demonstrated during two sessions by John Hess. John is a daily user of VoiceOver with the Macintosh. He and another De Witt associate, Joe Adamo, have conducted hands-on workshops for teachers of the visually impaired in New York City and New Jersey.

De Witt & Associates also exhibited at the Institute examples of its popular TrainingWare™ curriculum for “Training the Trainer”.

The Building Your Future Institute was offered by VISIONS Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired with funding made possible through a grant from the Reader’s Digest Partners for Sight Foundation.

July 2007: De Witt & Associates exhibited at the 2007 AHEAD conference in Charlotte, North Carolina from July 18th through the 20th. We had a great time and met plenty of wonderful people from all around the US who serve students with disabilities attending colleges and universities.

Our exhibit at AHEAD gave those attending an opportunity to learn more about Premier Assistive Technology, De Witt & Associates’ latest updates to its TrainingWare™ and PC Talking Typing Tutor.

We were pleased to find that staff training at colleges and universities is a need that De Witt & Associates is able to accommodate. Click here for our web page on TRAINING.

The folks from the University of Wisconsin’s Badgers Accessibility Services (BAS ) discussed with us their nationwide project for locating and creating or scanning documents that will be accessible as either audio or text files for K-12, institutions of higher learning or municipalities. BAS is perfect for small schools who cannot afford to provide staff and high speed equipment to scan textbooks for students that need them, especially students with learning differences. For just 25 cents per page, BAS can scan any book you send them. Turn-around time is about five days. For more information about BAS, visit their website at http://www.bas.wisc.edu/index.html.

We had a chance to see the production version of GW Micro’s new Voice Sense. This Braille input PDA includes a full featured MP3 player, DAISY book reader, voice recording capability, 1 Gig of data storage, FM radio tuner, network capability, Bluetooth connectivity, Web Browser and much more. One truly impressive feature of the Voice Sense is its removable battery, which makes it easier for a user to replace it without sending the entire device back to the factory.

We also saw the ultra-light SenseView video magnifier, billed as the worlds smallest. The screen’s clarity was fantastic and its ability to magnify up to 22.5 times makes this magnifier a must see for consumers considering a hand-held unit.

Last but not least, we spent some time with the folks at Ai Squared reviewing ZoomText’s new dual monitor capability. We were very impressed by ZT’s ability to provide a concise magnified imaged across two monitors. We were also impressed with the flexibility Ai Squared has provided with this feature. The user can choose to look at an enlarged image on one screen while looking at a full screen on the other monitor, or the user can have both monitors enlarged at the same time, creating a panoramic view of the screen’s contents.

Overall, AHEAD 2007 was a great show and we can’t wait to see everyone again next year in Reno, Nevada

July 2007: De Witt & Associates’ President John De Witt and Senior Associate John Hess will be participating at the BUILDING YOUR FUTURE, 2007 VISIONS Employment and Technology Institute on Saturday, July 28th In Rockland County, New York.

Mr. De Witt will be one of four participants on a panel moderated by Visions’ Executive Director, Nancy Miller. The panel is titled “Learn From the Best: Blind Entrepreneurs” and is entirely made-up of blind individuals who have been successful at launching and sustaining their own businesses. The discussion will focus on start-up costs, business plans, marketing strategies and use of the web.

Of particular note, Apple Computers’ VoiceOver and Zoom built-in screen reader and magnifier will be demonstrated during two sessions by John Hess. John is a daily user of VoiceOver with the Macintosh. He and another De Witt associate, Joe Adamo, have conducted hands-on workshops for teachers of the visually impaired in New York City and New Jersey.

De Witt & Associates also will be exhibiting at the Institute examples of its popular TrainingWare™ curriculum for “Training the Trainer”.

The Building Your Future Institute is offered by VISIONS Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired with funding made possible through a grant from the Reader’s Digest Partners for Sight Foundation.

July 2007: De Witt & Associates announces new products and prizes at AHEAD 2007! Come and visit us at AHEAD’s Booth 73 for a chance to win a copy of Premier Assistive Technology’s Literacy Productivity Pack and to see our new products and special AHEAD pricing! We look forward to seeing you there at the Charlotte Convention Center from Wednesday, July 18th through the 20th.

Getting Started with the Internet and Word Using JAWS, Versions 7.0 and above! This TrainingWare™ title is completely updated and is the perfect resource for disability offices to help their visually impaired students utilize computer resources.

Come and see the revolutionary Literacy Productivity Pack from Premier Assistive Technology! All the essential tools you need for effective reading and writing at a price everyone can truly afford!

Premier to Go! If you cannot leave your literacy challenges behind, why leave your assistive technology tools behind. The unparalleled benefit of Premier to Go is that you have access to the technology where ever you go – no installation required!

Special AHEAD pricing! Come see us at our booth and receive special AHEAD pricing on all TrainingWare™ titles. For just $300 you can provide everyone on campus with the benefit of one of De Witt & Associates’ renowned TrainingWare™!

July 2007: De Witt & Associates’ TrainingWare™ For Assistive Technology Trainers: Consistent training right out of the box! Reaches 4-Year Milestone…

Since we introduced our TrainingWare™ for Assistive Technology Trainers in June of 2003, 74 organizations in 32 states and 10 other nations have been using these training materials. Schools for the blind, colleges and universities, state services for the blind and visually impaired and private agencies have verified our objective to "Help your staff bring their training to an even higher level."

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For more information, call us at 877/447-6500 (toll-free) or info@4dewitt.com.