Blind Bargains announces 2010 Access Award Winners
Media Contact: J.J. Meddaugh
Phone: (269) 216-4798
Email: jj@blindbargains.com
Blind Bargains announces 2010 Access Award Winners
Kalamazoo, Mi, March 30, 2011 - A mix of mainstream companies and individual efforts have been recognized as winners of the 4th annual Blind Bargains Access Awards. Building on their mainstream success of 2009, Apple was the only company to receive three awards while three other companies and individuals received two each.
The 4th Annual Blind Bargains Access Awards recognizes the best products, websites, stores, and people in the blind community. Open nominations are held at the beginning of January. Visitors then vote from the top nominees in each category. This year, nearly 500 people participated in the nomination and voting rounds.
Apple's three awards include its first for Best Screen Reader for VoiceOver, a program quickly gaining a following by many users and professionals in the blind community. Apple also enjoyed continued success with its iOS devices, with the iPhone 4 being named as best hardware product. Apple also took home the Best Company honors.
"It's impressive to see a mainstream company take a leading role in developing assistive technology, and our readers have certainly recognized this," commented J.J. Meddaugh, editor for Blind Bargains, the site which administered the awards.
Horizons for the Blind captured two awards for its innovative Directions for Me service, giving packaging information for over 360,000 products. The site won for Best New Product or Innovation as well as for Best Website.
Popular Twitter app Qwitter took the award for best software for the second consecutive year while its founder, Christopher Toth, took home Person of the Year honors. Qwitter is a Windows-based Twitter client based primarily on global hotkeys. In 2010, support for Q-Audio, a method for users to include audio attachments with their tweets, was among the new features added to the free program.
Two categories have been dominated by the same winners for the four years of the Access Awards. Once again, The Fred's Head from APH blog has won for Best Blindness-related Blog while Independent Living Aids again took home honors for Best Store for Blindness-related Products. In a new category for this year's awards, the @fredshead Twitter account was voted as the Must Follow Twitter user of the year. The account is associated with the Fred's Head blog.
RS Games again won the honors for Best Accessible Game, this year for their adaptation of Uno. Users from around the world are able to play for free using their customized software or via a web-based interface.
Finally, the SeroTalk Podcast has won the award for Best Podcast for the first time. Produced by Serotek Corporation, the podcast presents technology-related news in a fast-paced, high-energy format.
For a complete list of winners and nominees, visit http://www.blindbargains.com/awardlist10.php
BlindBargains.com is one of the most popular media and information portals for the Blind and visually impaired. Users can follow the site for the latest assistive technology news, search for deals on millions of products, and listen to audio podcasts and interviews. The site is a free service of A T Guys, an assistive technology company providing sales, support, and training. A T Guys properties were excluded from nomination for awards.