AssistiveWare (http://www.assistiveware.com) has partnered with LVI Low Vision International to deliver enhanced access to Mac OS X for people with vision impairments.

The result of this collaboration is MagniLink iMax, a magnification and screen reader for Mac OS X, which serves as a companion to LVI's MagniLink Student portable video magnifier. The software provides magnification, image enhancement and pointer settings as well as screen reading with high-quality speech output.

With the inclusion of the Infovox iVox Text-To-Speech voices by Acapela Group, MagniLink iMax comes with automatic language identification in the screen reader mode and also includes ConvenienceWare GhostReader, an application for reading selected text and documents, which extends the built-in text-to-speech features of Mac OS X.

GhostReader contains shortcut keys for access to the text, and the user can listen to documents including file types such as Text, Word, HTML, PDF, ODT and RTF. What's more, you can convert texts to MP3-files to be played in iTunes, be uploaded to your iPod, iPad or burned onto a CD.

With features like split screen, dual screen support, full-screen mode, multiple high-contrast modes, a circular and a square lens-zoom, MagniLink iMax gives you the ability to set the screen mode based on your own preferences. The Contrast Enhancement Mode gives a clear picture with smooth character edges regardless of the magnification, says AssistiveWare CEO David Niemeijer.

MagniLink iMax is localized in English, Swedish, Danish, Finish, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian. It includes voices for a language of choice, additional voices are available for purchase. MagniLink iMax, which requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher, can be purchased as a stand-alone product or in combination with the MagniLink Student portable video magnifier. Pricing varies per country and language. A 30-day free trial is available from the LVI website (http://www.lvi.se/CM.php?PageID=131798).