AssistiveWare (http://www.assistiveware.com) has released Wrise 1.0, its latest Mac OS X application that will be introduced at this week’s ATIA conference in Orlando, Florida.

Wrise is a text-to-speech-powered word processor designed to make reading and writing accessible for everyone. Offering word highlighting, zoom and EasyReading mode, texts become more comprehensible and easier on the eyes, says says David Niemeijer, CEO and founder of AssistiveWare. With Speak as you Type, Word Prediction and speech tags, writing effort is significantly reduced, he adds.

Wrise is fully customizable and can be used to read selected text aloud in any Mac application. Users can personalize their reading experience by selecting their preferred voice, adjusting its speech rate and even fine-tuning the pronunciation of words. What’s more, it allows import of a variety of document types including PDF, Word (doc/docx), plain texts and RTF and with the intuitive formatting features texts are easily edited and styled.

Wrise 1.0 can be used with Text to Speech voices in many different languages, but the user interface is currently only available in English. The application is exclusively available through the Mac App Store at an introductory price of US29.99. After Feb. 15 the price will be $59.99.