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The Illinois Assistive Technology Program (IATP) has enabled its website with BrowseAloud, an innovative technology offered by Springfield-based MSF&W Consulting and Texthelp Systems.
BrowseAloud is an assistive technology that reads a website's content out loud for people who have difficulty reading online, including those with literacy difficulties, learning disabilities, English as a second language or mild visual impairments.
Using state-of-the-art text-to-speech technology, BrowseAloud can read almost any text displayed on a web site, even PDF documents. When a user points his or her mouse at a word or paragraph, BrowseAloud reads it, and even highlights words as it speaks.
Unlike most other assistive technologies, BrowseAloud is a service. The Illinois Assistive Technology Program has subscribed to the service, allowing any visitor to www.iltech.org to download and use the software for free.
IATP promotes the availability of assistive technology services and programs for people with disabilities. Wilhelmina Gunther, IATP's Executive Director comments, "We work hard to make sure people with disabilities have the tools and technology they need, and BrowseAloud helps accomplish that goal quite well."
In addition to reading web pages out loud, BrowseAloud also offers a talking dictionary, a single-word translator, magnification capabilities, and the ability to convert text into an MP3 audio file.
Gunther continued, "BrowseAloud is simple to use, for us as an organization and for people coming to our web site. It offers so many features to so many people; we're thrilled to add it to our web site!"
To learn more about MSF&W Consulting and BrowseAloud, visit www.msfw.com/browsealoud or contact Nathan Zak at nzak@msfw.com. For more information about the Illinois Assistive Technology Program, visit www.iltech.org.
