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News-Sentinel | 09/15/2006 | City company helps family in ‘Extreme’ way
A Fort Wayne company’s products will be among those used to assist a family featured on Sunday night’s special edition of the ABC television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
Each week, the show design team, led by Ty Pennington, remodels or rebuilds a home to help a family challenged by physical, financial or other problems.
In Sunday’s show, which airs at 8 p.m., the team assists a Bergenfield, N.J., family in which the father and two daughters are blind, the son is deaf and the mother has just been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, said Dan Weirich, vice president of marketing and engineering at G.W. Micro in Fort Wayne. Deaf actress Marlee Matlin is the program’s guest host.
G.W. Micro became involved in the project because it is one of two major U.S. companies making computers, software and other products to assist people with vision problems, Weirich said. Company officials haven’t been allowed to see the TV show in advance, so they don’t know whether their products will be shown or talked about by the “Extreme Makeover” team.
Among the products G.W. Micro donated are its Window-Eyes screen reader and its Small-Talk Ultra hand-held computer, Weirich said.
Jeremy Curry, a training specialist for the company, delivered the products to the work site.
“It was remarkable how everyone came together to help out this very deserving family and make this one of the most technologically advanced homes in the world,” Curry said in a statement released by G.W. Micro.
The Window-Eyes technology reads aloud all the information that appears on a computer screen, Weirich said. The Small-Talk Ultra is completely portable and designed for people who are blind or have vision problems.
“Think of it as a laptop that talks, but this thing is small enough you can hold it in your hand,” Weirich said of the Small-Talk Ultra.
The computer speaks letters as the person types, and it can read back an entire story, letter, e-mail or notes the person types into it, Weirich said.
The family also can use it to communicate with the deaf son, who will be able to read words on the computer screen as his family types them.
The daughters can use the Small-Talk Ultra to take notes in their school classrooms, Weirich said. At home, they can use it for Internet research, online shopping, e-mail and trading instant messages with friends.
It wasn’t clear how or if the father will use the device, Weirich said, but it has helped other people who have vision impairments to work as writers or with data.
Learn more
To find out more about G.W. Micro, call 489-3671 or go to Welcome to GW Micro on the Web.
A Fort Wayne company’s products will be among those used to assist a family featured on Sunday night’s special edition of the ABC television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
Each week, the show design team, led by Ty Pennington, remodels or rebuilds a home to help a family challenged by physical, financial or other problems.
In Sunday’s show, which airs at 8 p.m., the team assists a Bergenfield, N.J., family in which the father and two daughters are blind, the son is deaf and the mother has just been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, said Dan Weirich, vice president of marketing and engineering at G.W. Micro in Fort Wayne. Deaf actress Marlee Matlin is the program’s guest host.
G.W. Micro became involved in the project because it is one of two major U.S. companies making computers, software and other products to assist people with vision problems, Weirich said. Company officials haven’t been allowed to see the TV show in advance, so they don’t know whether their products will be shown or talked about by the “Extreme Makeover” team.
Among the products G.W. Micro donated are its Window-Eyes screen reader and its Small-Talk Ultra hand-held computer, Weirich said.
Jeremy Curry, a training specialist for the company, delivered the products to the work site.
“It was remarkable how everyone came together to help out this very deserving family and make this one of the most technologically advanced homes in the world,” Curry said in a statement released by G.W. Micro.
The Window-Eyes technology reads aloud all the information that appears on a computer screen, Weirich said. The Small-Talk Ultra is completely portable and designed for people who are blind or have vision problems.
“Think of it as a laptop that talks, but this thing is small enough you can hold it in your hand,” Weirich said of the Small-Talk Ultra.
The computer speaks letters as the person types, and it can read back an entire story, letter, e-mail or notes the person types into it, Weirich said.
The family also can use it to communicate with the deaf son, who will be able to read words on the computer screen as his family types them.
The daughters can use the Small-Talk Ultra to take notes in their school classrooms, Weirich said. At home, they can use it for Internet research, online shopping, e-mail and trading instant messages with friends.
It wasn’t clear how or if the father will use the device, Weirich said, but it has helped other people who have vision impairments to work as writers or with data.
Learn more
To find out more about G.W. Micro, call 489-3671 or go to Welcome to GW Micro on the Web.
