The Grid 2.5

An on-screen keyboard and a communicator in a single powerful program. The Grid provides communication with text or symbols, and complete access to a Windows computer system using switches, pointing devices or a keyboard. The program allows communication via Symbols, Text or the Onscreen keyboard.

Symbol Communication
As a symbol communication program, The Grid enables you to build sentences and speak phrases by selecting symbols. You can have a very simple set of words or phrases, or thousands of words arranged topically.

Text Communication
As you type, The Grid's intelligent prediction system helps you finish words and type quickly and accurately. The Grid allows completely free design of keyboard layout, and you can use tools such as phrase linking and word banks.

On Screen Keyboard
The Grid allows access to most Windows programs for people who have difficulty using a keyboard. Powerful options make typing and using other programs efficient, maximising speed and minimising frustration.

Integration
Communication and computer access in The Grid are fully integrated, allowing some of the following possibilities:
Helping the transition from communication with symbols to text
Grid Sets designed for symbol communication can be used for text communication in The Grid. This allows a user to move on and start spelling words, with the option to fall back on the symbol grid to find whole words to add to the text sentence.

Mixing communication with computer access
Whilst writing a document or browsing the Internet using The Grid's on screen keyboard, a user can switch into text communication and have a conversation, and then switch back to resume what they were doing.

Type into Windows programs using symbols
Symbol grids can be used to enter text into other programs, allowing symbol users to write emails or long documents. This is particularly powerful in conjunction with Writing With Symbols 2000.

Access options
The Grid is accessed with using switches or a mouse.

Switch Input
The Grid supports between 1 and 8 switches, and has a comprehensive range of switch options.
You can connect switches via the serial port or USB port, and there are a large range of switches available to suit all users.
The Grid uses scanning to select cells, so cells are highlighted in turn allowing the user to select the cell they want. The order in which cells are highlighted can be configured (including block scanning and overscan), and the scanning can advance automatically, when the switch is held, or when the switch is tapped. You can also assign actions to secondary switches such as accept, cancel, reverse scan (great if you missed one!) and directional scanning for users with many switches.

Mouse Input
The Grid can be accessed using a mouse or a mouse-like device, including a trackball, head pointer or touch screen.
You can choose how the the user will make selections, either when the mouse button or touch screen is pressed, released or held down for a specified time. Users who cannot click a button, such as head pointer users, can also 'click' when the pointer is stationary over a point on the screen, and this can be used to click in programs other than The Grid.

Vista compatible and supports all major speech technology
In addition to a choice of text-to-speech systems, The Grid can be used with digitized (recorded) speech and pre-recorded sound files.

This product is Vista and Windows 7 compatible