These specialists can also prescribe an exciting array of high-tech optical devices such as software and screen-reading programs that enlarge e-mail and Web site copy, as well as handheld devices that enlarge printed material of any size.

FORBES: Tara A. Cortes

An optical-character-recognition machine for the blind that's capable of reading most types of printed text aloud, the CCD flatbed scanner, speech-recognition software, the first synthesizer that created sounds virtually indistinguishable from those produced by their acoustic counterparts, and a whole bunch of other nifty things we can barely comprehend came from Ray's brain.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS