Compared to other blindness products, the new Victor Reader Stream provides a level of personal and professional empowerment unparalleled for the relatively reasonable cost. As a certified teacher of the visually impaired who does consulting work, it is gratifying to demonstrate the Victor Reader Stream to parents and to students who are blind and to let them know the wide range of options that are available. As little as ten years ago, if a student was losing his/her vision and had not entirely mastered the skill of reading Braille, it would most likely be necessary to pull the student out of the classroom in order to provide them with an accessible reading experience. Now, thanks to bookshare.org and NFB Newsline, along with the amazing bookmarking feature of the new VR Stream, I can confidently assure many pre-Braille readers of their continued ability to remain in and to participate in a mainstream classroom environment. Without the staggering cost inherent in the majority of blindness products, HumanWare has put the reality of auditory accessibility into many more hands and lives than would have otherwise been possible.

I have used VoiceNote and BrailleNote products for the past ten years. Before that, the Keynote Companion saw me through university. I now use the BrailleNote Apex for wordprocessing, email, diary and recording phone records. It even gets a workout on my laptop as a braille display from time to time. When people see me working on an Apex, they are immediately assured that they can have confidence in my ability to get the job done.

Ever since I placed that reader in my hand, I have done nothing but make up for lost time. The time I lost reading, thumbing through bookshelves and filling my mind with knowledge. The use of my VR Stream has impacted and improved my life as a teacher and learner in unspeakable ways.

I have updated my second generation Victor Reader Stream to version 4.3 and am impressed with the new features, in particular internet radio. HumanWare have given us plenty of stations to get started and it is easy to search for and add new stations to the favourites list. I am amazed how quickly we can now tune in to stations from around the world.

Congratulations on the new Stream software. I thought the NFB-Newsline was cool. This latest release with the Internet is amazing. I love that it was so intuitive to figure out. I didn't read my notes and just figured it out easily.