Supporting Student Learning with Fusion Suite

During this age of virtual learning, it is important for everyone to have access to a computer in school. APH Product Manager, Rachel Bishop, partnered with Douglas Gerry, National Director of Software Sales at Vispero, to offer Fusion Suite for purchase with Federal Quota funds. A combination of Job Access With Speech (JAWS) and ZoomText, Fusion includes magnification, visual enhancements, screen reading capabilities, and braille output to assist those with low to no vision.

The new Fusion Suite is an upgrade from past APH offerings. Previously, users bought one of three products: JAWS or ZoomText Annual Student Licenses, and Fusion Suite, which ran JAWS and ZoomText together. The JAWS and ZoomText licenses included a single activation and use of that software for one year, while the Fusion Suite involved purchasing three software activations for JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion. To streamline these purchases, APH created a new one-year license called Fusion Suite. Now, instead of having to purchase one of three separate products, users can buy one product and have access to all three of those screen readers simultaneously.

Once they pay for Fusion Suite, customers will receive an email with a link to create an online portal, which allows them to view their license and activate JAWS, ZoomText, or Fusion on their computer. The ability to download one of these programs at any time makes the process simple and convenient and ensures teachers no longer have to remember to purchase a certain type of software for each student as they are all available in one place. “Whether it’s JAWS, ZoomText, or Fusion, [students] have control over which product they want to use,” said Douglas. “They also get two activations: one that they can use for home and one that they can use in school.”

If they have the account information, parents can easily log into the portal and help young students activate and deactivate the screen readers on any computer. For example, if a student gets a new laptop, they can deactivate JAWS, ZoomText, or Fusion on their old device and activate their preferred software on their current one. This also applies if they are spending time at Grandma’s house and utilize her PC to do their homework. At school, teachers and IT professionals can assist students with this process.

Students have varying levels of vision and require different screen readers at different times. Someone with low vision may use ZoomText to magnify items on the screen and then experience eye fatigue. They can quickly sign into the portal, deactivate ZoomText, and switch to JAWS or Fusion. Students losing their vision can utilize Fusion to learn the JAWS keyboard commands while continuing to complete other tasks with ZoomText. Another use case for Fusion over ZoomText would be if a student has the magnification turned up so high that it’s not conducive to productivity. “You have access to all of [the screen readers] at any time, at any stage of your vision impairment,” said Justine Taylor, APH’s Low Vision Product Manager, who also assisted with Fusion field testing.

Since they receive an email with every purchase, EOTs who buy Fusion Suite can quickly forward the information to their teachers who distribute it to students. The online portal makes it simple for EOTs to keep track of how many licenses they have as well as how many are activated. The year-long license benefits students as they use their computers during the school year and throughout the summer, and EOTs can continue to purchase them on an annual basis.

Field testers reported multiple advantages of the new Fusion Suite. One Assistive Technology (AT) Specialist said, “The [portal] was very user-friendly.”

Another AT Specialist and TVI added, “I am comfortable navigating and found the new version to be straightforward and easy to manage.”

Purchase Fusion Suite today.