2009 Access Awards Winners and Nominees

After tabulating hundreds of votes, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Blind Bargains Access Awards. For each category, you will find the winner as well as the other worthy nominees. Congratulations to all of our winners and nominees.

View the official press release

1. Best New Product or Innovation. This award goes to the best new product or innovation of 2009. The product or innovation must have been introduced during 2009.

Winner: Apple Accessible iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch
Other nominees: GW Micro BookSense
Orbit Research iBill
Qwitter Client
Serotek Accessible Event

2. Best Company. This award is for the best company serving the blind community. They must have been in business for at least part of 2009.

Winner: Serotek
Other nominees: American Printing House for the Blind
Apple
GW Micro
Sendero Group

3. Best Screen Access Program. This award goes to the best screen reading or magnification product of 2009, regardless of the operating system. This includes both computers and mobile devices.

Winner: Freedom Scientific Jaws for Windows
Other nominees: Apple VoiceOver
GW Micro Window-Eyes
NV Access NVDA
Serotek System Access

4. Best Hardware Product. This is for the best hardware product for the blind or visually impaired. It must have been released or upgraded in 2009.

Winner: Apple Accesible iPhone and iPod Touch
Other nominees: GW Micro BookSense
Humanware BrailleNote Apex
Humanware Victor Reader Stream
National Library Service Digital Talking Book Player

5. Best Software Product. This is for the best software product for the blind or visually impaired, other than a screen access program (see above). It must have been released or upgraded in 2009.

Winner: Qwitter Client
Other nominees: Empowerment Zone McTwit
Klango Network Klango Player
KNFB Reading Technology KNFB Reader Mobile
Sendero Group Sendero GPS

6. Best Accessible Game. This is for the best accessible game for any operating system. It must have been released in 2009.

Winner: RS Games Monopoly
Other nominees: All inPlay Blackjack
Blastbay Studios Q9 Action Game
Blind Adrenaline Blackjack
Driftwood Audio Entertainment Entombed

7. Best Blindness-related Website. This award goes to the best website serving the blind community.

Winner: Blind Cool Tech
Other nominees: Accessible Twitter
AccessWatch
National Federation of the Blind
White Cane Day

8. Best Blindness-related Blog. This award goes to the best blog serving the blind community.

Winner: Fred's Head Companion
Other nominees: Perspectives from a Blind point of View
The Ranger Station
Serotek Blog

9. Best Blindness-related podcast or radio program. This award goes to the best podcast or radio program serving the blind community.

Winner: Blind Cool Tech
Other nominees: ACB Radio Main Menu
BlindWorld Podcast
SeroTalk Podcast

10. Best Store for Blindness-related Products. This award goes for the store, online or offline, that best serves the blind community.

Winner: Independent Living Aids
Other nominees: American Printing House for the Blind
Blind Mice Mart
Future Aids Braille Superstore
HandyTech North America

11. Person of the Year. This special award goes to the person who has most influenced the blind community or blindness in general in 2009.

Winner: Louis Braille
Other nominees: Dr. Fred Schroeder
Larry Skutchan
Mike Calvo
Mike May

Background

The 2009 Blind Bargains Access Awards was administered in two phases. An open-ended nomination form was first presented to readers. From these forms, the top vote-getters in each category were picked for the voting round. Winners were determined solely based on vote totals.

Blind Bargains and other properties by A T Guys, LLC were excluded from the contest.

No monitary value is attached to any awards given.

All decisions by the Blind Bargains staff are final.