Software

Below are links with short description to software developed by Sao Mai. All of our software are free! We are a non-profit organization and need your support to improve, develop new assistive products and provide support services for the blind. Please read our letter of appeal to know ways you can help us.

In order to help more users from other countries to easily access to our software, we also would like to call for help to translate them into other languages.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us for any feedbacks, suggestions or any cooperation!

Sao Mai Braille (SMB)

Another powerful tool for Braille transcribers to quickly format and translate popular document types for their Braille production! SMB utilizes a well-known LibLouis library for the translation and has its own built-in formatter with styles to handle Braille formats. It supports to edit and translate into Braille for text, Math equations, tactile graphic and music. It supports to translate into Braille for more than 150 different language tables.

With sincere thanks to: Overbrook School for the Blind and The Nippon Foundation for their very important initially financial support for the development since 2018; and, later with support from DAISY Consortium to support the development of new music Braille translation features from 2021-2022.

SM Music Braille

A Braille music translation software component to integrate into other executable software! It supports more than hundred of transcription options, gives very high-quality Braille result, available for multiple platforms!
Visit SM Music Braille page to try its online version, or download Sao Mai Braille to see how it's integrated as a complete Braille translation solution for transcribers.

SM Music Reader

The first free and fully accessible Android + iOS app to support both sighted and visually impaired people to read same music scores! With its very unique features of drawing, playing MIDI sound, speaking and Braille music translation, we hope that SM Music Reader will close gaps between the sighted and the blind to read same music scores at the same time. Visually impaired users can access to thousands of free music scores from our library. It also includes some useful music tools such as Guitar tuner, the metronome and optical music recognition engine.

With sincere thanks to Overbrook School for the Blind and The Nippon Foundation for their initially financial support.

SM Braille Viewer

An Android app to handle the Braille translation and connect with Braille display to show the result.
It supports to open and translate popular text file types including TXT, RTF, DOCX, HTML, PDF, EPUB; and to send Braille-ready files like BRF and BRL directly to the Braille display without translation. In addition, the app works like an engine to receive text from third-party apps, translate into Braille and show the result on Braille display.

Sao Mai Typing Tutor (SMTT)

An inclusive environment for not only blind computer beginners but also for the sighted to learn and improve their typing skills. Lessons are easy to customize or add new with its own lesson builder tool; and computer instructors can easily keep track of their trainees’ learning/practicing activities via the user manager.

Sao Mai VNVoice

The first Vietnamese SAPI-5 speech engine for Windows built with two female voices, Minh Du and Mai Dung and has been used by visually impaired users in Vietnam for years. It was really a breakthrough tech solution for Vietnamese blind people to access to computer back to 2002.

Burmese Text-To-Speech Engine for Myanmar

This project was implemented and has been coordinated by the Sao Mai Center for the Blind, with the implementing collaboration with the Myanmar Assistive Technology Research and Development Center. The project is sponsored by The International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI), Overbrook School for the Blind and The Nippon Foundation.

The Burmese TTS is developed for Android and Windows platforms, complying with Google TTS and Microsoft SAPI standards so all screen reading software should support and read Burmese documents. The TTS also has feature to let users configure the second voice to read text written in other languages than the Burmese default one like English and Parli.

It's the first fully usable text-to-speech engine to work with screen reading software for the blind in Myanmar.

DoudouLinux - An Educational Game System for Kids

In 2014 Sao Mai Center, with Sao Mai Education Fund and Mantovan Association of Bolzano, Italy, outlined a new project to benefit Vietnamese children. The project consists in the Vietnamese translation and localization of software for children to develop their cognitive, motor and social skills. The product is called DoudouLinux and is already available for download in more than 40 languages.

NVDA: Vietnamese Screen Reading Software

NVDA is a free and open source screen reader program for Windows, developed by the NV Access and its community. Since the early development period of NVDA, Sao Mai has been working closely with NV Access to develop add-ons and localize NVDA into Vietnamese.
In 2018, we worked with NV Access to translate their training modules with NVDA into Vietnamese, including the NVDA basics, Microsoft Office with NVDA (Word, Excel and more to come). With the hope to have a productive and supportive NVDA user community in Vietnam, Sao Mai has published one official website at www.nvda.vn. We are looking forward to more and more visually impaired users to join!

Other Sao Mai Soft (no more development)

Since our establishment in 2001, we developed some other applications designed intentionally for blind users in Vietnam. They are all free. Most of them are and standalone talking applications such as DictTalk (a dictionary based on Dict standard), CalTalk (quite similar to calculator devices which are accepted to use at schools in Vietnam), EditTalk (word processor), NetTalk (a web browser) and WinTalk (a basic screen reading software).

Due to different reasons in the past like with limited finance support, we could not continue further development and they are mostly out of date with today technologies. However, we are quite happy for such products as they were somehow among the helpful tools for the blind for few years in the past.

Other Useful Software

Our tech team has compiled a list of accessible third-party software with instruction articles which you can find on this page. Besides, please don't forget to check our Sao Mai Blog for more posts on different technology topics!