Browsealoud Ezine


Browsealoud Spring Ezine
In this issue: • The Future of Web Accessibility • Announcing Browsealoud 4 • Browsealoud for Mac • The V&A Museum adds Browsealoud • The Importance of Dual Colour Highlighting • Visit the Browsealoud team on the road • Competition • Free Tria l • What some of our Customers say The Future of Web Accessibility It's been seven years since the W3C released the first version of the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG 1.0). Since then, accessibility has slowly but surely turned up on the radar of web managers in most large organisations. The benefits of accessibility are pretty well known too - a quick Google search for web accessibility benefits returns over 37 million results! Because of this, more and more large profile websites have offered better and better accessibility as the years have gone by. There's still a long way to go but the progress over the past few years is highly visible and indeed positive. For more information, click here Announcing Browsealoud 4 A new version of Browsealoud will be released in April 07 with advanced features to make websites even easier to read. Browsealoud continues to be the only truly accessible text to speech offering for website owners that reads all website content including all Alt Tags, PDFs and secure pages. Our Dual Colour Highlighting continues to make it easier for web users to read, interact online and even learn to read. For more information, click here Browsealoud for Mac Mac users can now download the application and listen to websites being read aloud to them. The website content is highlighted as it is spoken to aid comprehension. Mac users will also have the ability to customise their individual settings by altering the pitch, speed and volume of their chosen voice. This award-winning technology caters for the 20% of the population who currently cannot access website content. It is estimated that 10% of people in the UK have dyslexia to some degree, and up to 6% are severely dyslexic. For more information, click here	The V&A Museum adds Browsealoud The Victoria and Albert Museum aims to inspire, and to encourage the exploration and discovery of art and design. To help all visitors to access information about its collections and services on the V&A website, the museum has invested in assistive technology. For more information, click here The Importance of Dual Colour Highlighting Independent research shows that Dual Colour Highlighting can be an aid to reading and comprehension. As each word / paragraph is spoken aloud to the user each word is highlighted, thus delivering content on two levels, written and auditory. The combination of hearing, seeing and tracking words being spoken increases gains in comprehension and understanding. Elkind et al (1993) found significant gains in reading comprehension when using a text reader. For more information, click here Visit the Browsealoud Team on the Road Texthelp’s award winning software is on display at the following exhibitions: • t-Gov Expo Spring, Excel, London – 18th–19th April • Technology 4 Business, RDS, Dublin – 25th–26th April • Internet World, Earls Court, London – 1st–3rd May • GC Expo, Earls Court, London – 12th–13th June • LGA Annual Conference, ICC, Birmingham – 3rd–5th July For more information, click here
Competition If you would like to win a Free i-pod, simply complete the following testimonial questions and you will be entered into a free prize draw! 1) Why did you choose to speech-enable your web-site with Browsealoud? 2) What key features do you find most beneficial? 3) Who are your main website visitors? 4) Who are you aiming to assist with the Browsealoud service? 5) What do you hope to achieve by having Browsealoud on your website? 6) Where did you first hear about Browsealoud? Email your answers to elaine@browsealoud.com with ‘Competition’ as the title of the email and include your name, title & organization.	FREE TRIAL For a FREE trial on your website, Click Here
What some of our Customers say As part of the improvements the Cabinet Office decided to provide users with the option of speech enablement. Browsealoud was chosen for it's simplicity of use and the ability for the user to modify it for their own preferences. Derek Coggle, Technical Manager, Cabinet Office Better Internet Project Here at the British Council, we have provided Browsealoud, a speech tool that reads aloud the contents of each page. This service helps users with low literacy and reading skills, where English is not the first language, dyslexic and with users who are mild visually impaired. Our audience (mainly from overseas, with English as the second language) will benefit hugely from this service. Chamali Samaranayaka, Webmaster, Internet Business Development Team, The British Council For more testimonials, click here
Texthelp Systems Ltd, Enkalon Business Centre, 25 Randalstown Road, Antrim, Northern Ireland. BT41 4LJ Tel: 028 9442 8105 Fax: 028 9442 8574 Email: elaine@browsealoud.com Web: www.browsealoud.com
Copyright © 2007 Texthelp Systems Ltd. Designed by Elaine Emerson
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