CrawfordTech Partners on App to Bring Print Documents to the Visually-Impaired
TORONTO—September 11, 2015—Crawford Technologies announced that it established a strategic partnership with Voiceye Inc. to bring its revolutionary new technology to the accessible document marketplace worldwide. Voiceye’s technology gives people with visual or cognitive impairment the ability to read text from printed pages using a smartphone.
Voiceye is based on a patented, ultra-high-density barcode—smaller than a QR code—that can hold information from up to two pages on a printed document. Using a free smartphone app, Voiceye barcodes are scanned and allow visually-impaired users to read the printed document in large print/high contrast, braille, audio and translated languages.
“Voiceye is possibly the biggest breakthrough in accessible documents since braille was invented by Louis Braille in 1821,” said Ernie Crawford, CEO of Crawford Technologies. “It essentially allows printers to create ‘talking paper.’ We are proud to be a part of this revolution and predict this new technology will improve and impact the lives of people all over the world.”
Crawford Technologies has created a new solution—"Voiceye Maker for Operations Express"—that allows high-volume document producers to make their documents into fully accessible pages. "Voiceye Maker for Operations Express" can be used to make documents accessible, significantly reducing the costs of creating documents in braille, large print, etext and audio from scratch.
“This is a major breakthrough for compliance with accessibility legislation, as well as a way to increase the value of printed documents in a world that is becoming increasingly computer and mobile dominated,” added Crawford.
More than 25 million Americans have visual or cognitive disabilities and a recent WebAIM survey showed that 82 percent of these people use mobile screen readers for accessibility needs.
Attendees at GRAPH EXPO 15 will be able to learn more about Voiceye technology during a free educational workshop hosted by CrawfordTech’s Document Accessibility Services (DAS) team on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015. The workshop will teach organizations about all types of accessible documents and show them how they can seamlessly integrate accessible documents into their customer communications. For more information and to sign up for the free workshop, please click here.
About Voiceye Barcodes
Voiceye barcodes can be used to extend an organization’s reach to the visually impaired at very little additional cost and administration. Voiceye’s barcode can be printed on any type of transactional document, making the printed page accessible to anyone with a smartphone with the free Voiceye app installed.
Voiceye can be used for prescription labelling, hospital discharge documents, healthcare explanation of benefits, bank statements, credit card bills, trade confirmations, telephone, internet and utility bills, as well as book, newsletter and brochure publishing. There are no limitations on the types of documents Voiceye can be used for.
Voiceye is heavily used in South Korea (where it was developed) for a wide variety of uses including utility bills, government documents and audio building directories.
About "Voiceye Maker for Operations Express"
'Voiceye Maker for Operations Express’ can be combined with PRO Transform Plus for Accessible PDF to provide document creators with one method of creating both printed and electronic versions of accessible documents. This means that they only need to set up accessible document creation rules once and from there they can create any type of accessible documents.
The ‘Voiceye Maker for Operations Express’ product is available immediately for organizations worldwide. It can be used to convert all documents into accessible documents. In addition to making it easier to facilitate accessibility needs, it saves a lot of money.
About Crawford Technologies
Crawford Technologies specializes in print-stream conversions, document re-engineering, high-volume document workflow, document accessibility and archiving software solutions. For 20 years, Crawford Technologies has expanded its solution offerings in customer communications management (CCM), enterprise output management (EOM), enterprise content management (ECM) and document accessibility markets. CrawfordTech is dedicated to helping organizations improve customer communications' delivery systems so people can receive documents in their format and channel of preference.
Source: Crawford Technologies.
