Browsealoud

Making your website talk

Raj Kher – Texthelp Systems

Thursday 10th March 2009

Agenda

• Introduction

• Digital Inclusion

• What is Browsealoud?

• Why Browsealoud?

• Features & benefits of Browsealoud

• Demonstration

• Questions & Answers

Texthelp Systems Ltd• Head office in N.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 GOLDGOLD certified partners

Digital Inclusion

“The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect”.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee W3C Director and Inventor of World Wide Web

UK Market Size

• 9.8 million people have a disability under the DDA

• Over 7 million people have literacy problems

• Approx 6 million have dyslexia

• Estimated annual spending power of up to £80 billion

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….

Why Browsealoud?Legislation:

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995

• Disability Equality Duty 2006

• W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines

• PAS 78 (Publicly available specification) 2006

• BS8878 2009

Why Browsealoud?

Community of websites

• 350 + Government websites availing of the service

• 150 + Corporate sites

• 100 + Housing association sites

• Over 3 million downloads of the plug-in from UK citizens

Browsealoud will assist…

• Dyslexia and other learning difficulties (17%)

• Limited English proficiency (LEP)

• English is not a native language

• Mild visual impairments

• Aging population

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.

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)

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

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 cataractsSource: RNIB

Visually impaired person reading web page

Person with Cataract problems reading a page

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.1. Subscribe to service.2. Put download link on your homepage.3. ALL pages hosted by your URL

– Works Statically and Dynamically

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

Browsealoud – client side

• Technology is free to ALL website visitors

• Not every user is the same

– Customisable voices

– Customisable settings

– Customisable colour highlighting

• Free technical support for the lifetime of the solution

• Once only download

• Community of websites

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

Colour highlighting - Website

Colour highlighting – PDF

Continuous read option

Feature• “auto continue” so readers can listen to entire website text.

Benefit• Listen to the entire contents of the website page.

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.

What can Browsealoud read?• HTML

• Accessible Flash

• Alt Tags behind pictures

• Hyperlinks

• http”s” (credit card sites)

• Intranets and Extranets

• PDF and Word documents

Browsealoud 5What’s new?

• Instant Speech feedback with no delays

• Reads Secure Sites with a High Quality Voice

• Reads Intranets with a High Quality Voice

• Firewall Friendly

UK Sites

Live Demo/Q&A

Thank-you

raj@browsealoud.com

Summary• Browsealoud encourages digital inclusion and promotes efficiency. 1 in 5 people

• Zero effort for Webmasters/no implementation/installation. Hidden saving/driving costs down

• Simplicity is its strength

• Demand it there and proven

• All client side technology

• Free technology to website users

• Pressure off your call centre/we are the help desk 24/7

• Makes good commercial sense

Web Accessibility Experts

Who we work with:

• Abilitynet (John Gooday)• EFD• Fortune Cookie• Front of Mind• Nomensa• Shaw's Trust• Webcredible