Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for the Blind

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PDAs can be divided into two categories: some are running a proprietary suite of applications optimized for blind users, using the Windows CE operating system as an underpinning. Examples of this type are

• Pocket Hal is a full screen reader, complete with Braille support for the Pocket PC
• Braille Sense or BrailleNote's KeySoft interface, with applications optimized to work with a braille display. This is a photo of BrailleNote PDA for the blind and visually impaired:

The second type are those running on the standard Pocket PC suite of applications. Examples are

• Pac Mate or any Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition- or Windows Mobile 5.0-powered devices running Mobile Speak Pocket.
• Maestro, a pocket PC made accessible using text-to-speech technology and a tactile keyboard over the PDA touch screen.