Browsealoud:

1

• Browsealoud
• Making your website talk!

ExCel, London 18th April 2007
2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Digital Inclusion
• What is Browsealoud?
• Why Browsealoud?
• Features Benefits of Browsealoud
• Demonstration
• Questions Answers

3
Texthelp Systems Ltd.

• Head office in Northern Ireland, US office in
  Boston
• Developing software for helping users improve
  their reading and writing skills for over 11
  years
• Industry leaders
• Literacy and Assistive technology solutions
• ISO / Investors in People Accreditation
• Microsoft GOLD Certified Partners

4
Digital Inclusion

• Digital Inclusion aims to make digital
  technology an integral and beneficial part of
  everyones lives.
• In England
• Significant group with poor literacy skills
• Low awareness of assistive technology
• Those who need it most cannot afford it
• Evidence shows that certain disadvantaged groups
  such as disabled people, older people and those
  living in deprived areas, remain digitally
  excluded.

5
Browsealoud

• Browsealoud is designed to assist the print
  disabled community, where literacy difficulties
  prevent on-line inclusion.
• Browsealoud is not designed to replace
  traditional screen readers used by the blind.

6
Why Browsealoud?

• Legislation
• Disability Discrimination Act
• PAS 78(Publicly Available Specification )
• Equality Duty (Dec 2006)

7
Why Browsealoud?

• Community of websites
• 350 Government websites availing of the service
• 40 Housing Associations
• 2 million downloads of the plug-in from UK
  citizens

8
Browsealoud will assist

• Dyslexia and other learning difficulties (17)
• Limited English Proficiency (LEP)
• English is not a native language
• Mild Visual Impairments
• Older people

9
Dyslexia

• People with dyslexia and related reading
  disorders find it difficult, time consuming and
  intimidating to read online content
• The Trades Union Council state that, "dyslexia,
  often known as the hidden disability, affects
  up to 2.9 million workers in the UK
• The Dyslexia Institute estimates that Dyslexia
  costs the UK economy 1 billion per annum.

10
Literacy Levels

• 800,000 adults in England have low levels of
  literacy
• (Source Adult Literacy Numeracy Strategy
  2001)
• 4 out of 10 adults in some parts of the UK cannot
  read or write properly or do simple sums
• (Source National Needs and Impact Survey of
  Literacy, Numeracy and ICT Skills, DfES, October
  2003)

11
English as a Second Language

• People who speak English as a second language are
  better able to understand English when it is
  spoken rather than reading it themselves
• 3 million people in the UK were born in countries
  where English is not the national language.

12
Vision Impairments

• Older people represent a large and growing
  proportion of the population of England.
• Research shows older generation are in danger of
  becoming digitally excluded.
• Eighty per cent of people with sight problems in
  the UK are 65 or over. Their eyesight is affected
  by conditions such as macular degeneration or
  cataracts
• Source RNIB

13
Visually impaired person reading web page
14
Person with Cataract Problems reading page
15
Browsealoud Technicalities

• Increases digital inclusion, accessibility and
  usability of your website to visitors with
  reading or literacy difficulties.. How ?
• With Browsealoud your website content is
  delivered on an additional two levels
• Audio . Positioned Sound
• Visual .. Positioned Highlighting
• To have Browsealoud on your website.
• Subscribe to service.
• Put download link on your homepage.
• ALL pages hosted by your URL
• Works with Static and Dynamic (fed by a Content
  Management System) Websites
• We handle all the end-user support

16
Browsealoud Web Server Side

• No software installation
• Placement of download link on your website
• Similar to Adobe Reader for PDF documents
• Just like Adobe PDF Reader All Technology is
  Client side
• No Bandwidth Impact
• Zero effort for the Webmaster
• No Security Impact
• Website can be Browsealoud-enabled in 15 minutes

17
Browsealoud Client Side

• Technology is free to ALL website visitors
• Not every user is the same
• Customisable voices
• Customisable settings (Speed, Pitch Continuous
  Reading)
• Customisable Colour Highlighting
• Free Technical Support for the lifetime of the
  Solution
• Once only download
• Community of websites

18
Browsealoud - Colour Highlighting

• Feature
• Dual Colour Highlighting.
• Sentence Highlighting
• Synchronised word highlighting with speech
• Users can select colours to suit requirements.
• Benefit
• Dual Colour Highlighting while speech enabling
  content is a proven means of improving
  comprehension.

19
Colour Highlighting - Website
20
Colour Highlighting PDF
21
Continuous Read Option

• Feature
• auto continue so readers can listen to entire
  website text.
• Benefit
• Listen to the entire contents of the website page.

22
Pronunciations

• Feature
• Webmasters can define the specific pronunciations
  for single words.
• Benefit
• The organisation has full control over the way
  the information on the site is spoken.

23
Site Specific

• Feature
• We can include or exclude sub-folders of
  websites.
• Benefit
• Webmaster has control over what parts of the site
  they want to add speech to.

24
What can Browsealoud read?

• HTML
• Accessible Java and Flash
• Alt Tags behind pictures
• Hyperlinks
• https (credit card sites)
• Intranets and Extranets
• PDF documents

25
Browsealoud 4

• Whats new?
• New High Quality Voices
• New Regional Voices
• New Dictionary Facility
• New Magnification Display Option- ticker tape
  display
• Converts Text to MP3

26
UK Sites
27
Local Government Customers
Borough of Barking Dagenham www.lbbd.gov.uk
Borough of Brent www.brent.gov.uk Borough of
Bromley www.bromley.gov.uk Borough of Camden
www.camden.gov.uk Borough of Ealing
www.ealing.gov.uk Borough of Greenwich
www.greenwich.gov.uk Borough of Hackney
www.hackney.gov.uk Borough of Hillingdon
www.hillingdon.gov.uk Borough of Islington
www.islington.gov.uk Borough of Redbridge
www.redbridge.gov.uk City of London
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
28
Summary

• Browsealoud encourages Digital Inclusion and
  promotes e-Government, and Efficiency
• Increases your Website Interaction with Public
• Zero effort for Webmasters
• All client side technology
• Free technology to website users
• Any website speech enabled in 15 minutes
• Aim to build a Community of Websites

29

• Demonstration

30
Thank YouQuestions