Atlas Speaks Aids Those Who Are Visually Impaired

September 15, 1995|By Bill Husted, Knight-Ridder/Tribune.

Most maps are worthless if you are blind. That's a double frustration for visually impaired computer users, in the face of the popularity of mapping programs and computerized navigation systems.

And that's the problem Menlo Park, Calif.-based Etak set out to solve with its new program called Atlas Speaks. It provides spoken information and clues to maps of 3,000 counties and 20,000 U.S. cities.

One of the program's beta testers, Robert Sweetman, a tax attorney in Southern California, said he uses Atlas Speaks to "trace routes ahead of time so I can walk or take a bus or taxi to my destination. I now have a better understanding of my home and work area."

The program also is designed to work with a product called Strider, also from Etak, that is a lightweight portable navigation system that fits in a backpack. It uses military satellites to get an exact fix on location.

Both programs are perfectly useful to the sighted as well. For instance, you'd be able to continue driving without taking your eyes from the road and still get location information from Atlas Speaks and Strider.

The Atlas Speaks program can be obtained on a single CD-ROM that contains one geographical region--for instance, the Southeast--for $495. For the same price you also can get a floppy disk program that covers about five counties (depending on size). Four CD-ROM sets that contain maps of the entire United States, except Alaska, go from $995.

Strider isn't available yet, but will sell at $1,500 to $2,500 depending on how it is equipped. It will include the Atlas Speaks software when it is introduced in the fall.

The telephone number for Etak is 415-328-3825.