Kurzweil Educational Systems, Inc. is an American based company that specializes in providing reading and writing software to assist people who are blind or partially sighted, or who have learning disabilities, such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. Founded in 1996, the company has pioneered the development of computerized assistive technology, and achieved worldwide recognition for its work. Kurzweil Educational Systems has also won several excellence awards within its industry. Its headquarters are based in Bedford, Massachusetts.
The company supplies two principal software products to its customers - Kurzweil 1000 and Kurzweil 3000. Kurzweil 1000 is a package which enables a visually impaired user to gain access to both electronic and printed material by speaking aloud text which has been scanned or copied; while Kurzweil 3000 is a tiered assistive reading, writing and learning medium aimed at students with learning disabilities or other disabilities that make reading or writing difficult.
Though the company was formed in 1996, text to speech software is actually something that dates back to the 1970s, when Dr Raymond Kurzweil developed his first Kurzweil Reading Machine, a device which could scan and speak text.
In 2005, Kurzweil Educational Systems was acquired by Cambium Learning Technologies. Cambium owns a number of other similarly related companies.
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