Access For All: A Talking Internet Service

Ove Kjeld Andersen, Christian Hjulmand

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceedingArticle in proceedingResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Approximately 30% of the Danish population has severe problems in reading everyday text. In the light of the increasing amount of text available on the Internet this poses a democratic challenge to ensure “equal access” to information. The Talking Internet service - Access For All (AFA) - offers a free Internet-based tool for reading aloud any marked text with a synthetic voice. The only requirements are a standard equipped PC running a recent Windows OS and an Internet connection. Experiences gathered from running the service for more than 28 months underline the viability of the concept. There is a clear need for a free internet based Danish text-to-speech synthesizer. Furthermore, the current state of technology i.e. internet bandwidth, response time and server technology is sufficient for setting up an online automatic reading service that is used by steadily growing number of individuals and institutions.
Translated title of the contributionAdgang for alle -: en talende internettjeneste
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProccedings of Interspeech 2005
Number of pages4
PublisherINESC ID/IST
Publication date2005
Publication statusPublished - 2005
EventInterspeech '2005 – Eurospeech - Lissabon, Portugal
Duration: 4 Sept 20058 Sept 2005
Conference number: 6

Conference

ConferenceInterspeech '2005 – Eurospeech
Number6
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLissabon
Period04/09/200508/09/2005

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Access For All: A Talking Internet Service'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this