We’re thrilled to announce that Synapptic has just won its first major award. At a ceremony in London on 24 th September, the company received an Award for Excellence at the Macular Society’s Annual Conference. The award, for Best Technology Innovation, was a brand new category created only this year. Adrian Sach, creator of the products and Technical Director of Synapptic, accepted the award on behalf of the company, along with Sales Director Ken Bridge.

About the award, Adrian said, ‘Winning this award has given us a real boost, because it shows that our products are making a practical difference to the lives of people struggling to use technology.’ He went on to explain, ‘Our aim has always been to remove barriers to technology, so that people with sight loss can have the confidence to use a mainstream device and have access to the same features as everyone else.’

Presenting the award was Cathy Yelf, CEO of the Macular Society, who described the technology as ‘transforming’ and added that, ‘This great technology is [also] backed up by excellent customer service.’ The charity works nationally to provide support and information to those affected by Macular Degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide.

Meanwhile, we’re continuing to develop our products, following feedback from visually impaired users, particularly those with macular degeneration. Soon-to- be-released features include an all-new Eccentric Reading mode, where text can be scrolled automatically across a screen, the speed and size of which can be determined by the user. In addition, a ‘pinch and zoom’ feature has been added to magnify text and images using the touchscreen and enhancements to the Reading Machine feature enable users to convert any printed text to speech, including menus and food labels, which can also be magnified onscreen.