ANACOM has launched a new functionality on its website, www.anacom.pthttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=2958, which from today lets the public access an audio version of content published in the news and press room areas.
To access content in braille, the user just needs to send an email request to sixdot@robobraille.orgmailto:sixdot@robobraille.org.
This has been possible thanks to a partnership that ANACOM has established with the RoboBraille Consortium, represented in Portugal by Centro de Inovação para Deficientes (CIDEF - Centre of Innovation for Disabled People).
RoboBraille is a tool that automatically converts electronic documents to Braille or synthetic speech quickly and without cost. Any user can convert text into audio with this system, simply by sending an email to britspeech@robobraille.orgmailto:britspeech@robobraille.org. To convert text into Braille, requests should be sent to sixdot@robobraille.orgmailto:sixdot@robobraille.org.
The service, which is operated and maintained by the Danish Centre for Visual Impairment, Children and Youth (Synscenter Refsnaes), was initially implemented in Denmark. The second phase saw implementation in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom and Cyprus, with EU financing through the eTen programme. France and Lithuania have also recently joined the project. Audio conversion is currently possible in Danish, French, Greek, English, Italian, Lithuanian and Portuguese.
Synscenter Refsnæs and the RoboBraille Consortium were recently announced as winners of the British Computer Society's prestigious 2007 Social Contribution Award.
This service marks another step in ANACOM's drive to make a contribution to the full inclusion of people with special needs in the information society, by putting conditions in place that provide for equality in access to information. This step also follows the Plano Nacional de Promoção da Acessibilidade (PNPA - National Plan for the Promotion of Accessibility) by which all public bodies are to contribute to the elimination of barriers to physical access and access to information technologies.
