JISC’s Regional Support Centre for North and East Scotland has won this year’s Scottish Open Source Award for Educational Excellence for its AccessApps initiative, designed particularly for FE and HE but of interest also to schools. (12 December 2008)

AccessApps, like the better known PortableApps, is a suite of open source and freeware applications that run directly off a USB memory stick on a Windows computer. The distinctive feature of AccessApps is the clear focus on assistive technology and accessibility tools, such as the AMIS book reader, the Dasher mouse based predictive text entry system and a virtual magnifying glass, alongside open source favourites such as Audacity, Firefox and the Gimp.