FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Stasny (mailto:yspeak@stazsoftware.com)
STAZ SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES FREE UPGRADE FOR 'YSPEAK', DISABILITY ENABLING APP
Diamondhead, MS, USA - 2002/03/29 - STAZ Software, Inc., makers of the
modern, fast FutureBASIC^3 for the Mac OS, are pleased to announce a free
update to YSpeak, an enabling tool for the disabled.
ABOUT YSpeak
"YSpeak [when your Mac can do it for you?]" was programmed by Phil Yates.
In January 2000, he was diagnosed as having Motor Neurone Disease (also
known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Lou Gehrig's Disease, and
Maladie de Charcot). Phil had the Bulbar-onset version of the condition,
which meant that his speech was affected first.
As a British IT specialist with expertise in speech-driven simulation
systems, Phil decided to put this experience to use in the development of
YSpeak. He showed an early version of the program to several speech
therapists and all expressed great enthusiasm. He decided to make it easily
obtainable.
YSpeak is a free computer program for speech- and motor-disabled users. It
is designed to assist communication in a variety of ways and reduces user
input to a minimum.
The original version of YSpeak was developed over a period of about two
months with the support of many FutureBASIC programmers worldwide. Phil
passed away in August 2001.
Phil's software is now maintained on the STAZ Software web site.
(http://www.stazsoftware.com/yspeak/).
ABOUT THE UPGRADE
- command-a now works for select all.
- command key for auto complete word switched from command-a to command-; .
- opening and closing the help window could cause a crash.
- the predict window sometimes ended up offscreen.
- command-up and -down arrow no longer changes the sound volume. These
routines were unstable and have therefore been eliminated.
- the code was tightened in many areas to keep it up to date and insure
stability.
The upgrade is available today from the special YSpeak section on STAZ
Software's web site at: (http://www.stazsoftware.com/yspeak/download.php).
The source code to the application is also available under special license.
Please see the web site for all details:
(http://www.stazsoftware.com/yspeak/support.php)
Best,
-STAZ ~)~
800.348.2623 Orders http://www.stazsoftware.com
228.255.7086 FAX mailto:staz@stazsoftware.com
For over ten years FutureBASIC has been empowering a wide range of Mac
programmers worldwide to create fast, professional applications. Today's
state of the art release brings that power and ease of use to Macs from the
Classic 68K machines, to the modern Mac OS X.
