London community advice portal launches talking website

Added: (Mon May 17 2004)

Pressbox (Press Release) - CASweb, a unique portal for Community Advice organisations within 5 London boroughs, launches using the speech enabling service ReadSpeaker.


CASweb (www.casweb.org) offers community advice organisations unique tools to create a web presence, allowing partners and citizens to find and share advice and information. It enables advice services to become effective partners in delivering e-government to citizens.

CASweb has chosen to speech-enable the website with ReadSpeaker, increasing the accessibility of the service for those who would like to listen to the content as well as read.

“Given the coverage that website accessibility has received following the release of the Disability Rights Commission’s report, it is great that the London Central Partnership has sought to go the extra mile on accessibility by making their website talk with ReadSpeaker,” says Carin Lennartsson, head of ReadSpeaker UK.

“With CASweb we now have in place the infrastructure to promote community engagement and democracy through e-government. Community advice organisations now have an affordable and easy route to become web publishers as well as browsers. Key to the success of CASweb is that it is easy to use and accessible to as many people as possible. ” says Anna Tan, CASweb’s Implementation Director.

About CASweb
CASweb is the online gateway to community advice services. Funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, it’s managed in partnership with the London Central Partnership (members are London Boroughs of Camden, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster and the Corporation of London), the GLA and the London Voluntary Services Council.
CASweb provides the advice sector with a new way to communicate. Offering free, easy to use tools and support to create a web presence, it is a unique interactive space for advice organisations and local authorities to meet online to share ideas, experiences and best practice.
Further information can be found at www.casweb.org
About ReadSpeaker
ReadSpeaker is a server-based product that speech-enables your website for the benefit of people who would like to listen as well as read. With no downloads, it is available to all. The product is easy to implement and already used widely in the public sector.
What you see is what is said. Readspeaker can read most file formats including Word, RTF and PDF and works with most content management systems. It works on any browser with connection speeds of 33.6k and up. Readspeaker can be operational on your site within days. Further information can be found at www.readspeaker.co.uk
Contacts
Carin Lennartsson
ReadSpeaker UK
Tel. 020 72230714
Email: carin.lennartsson@readspeaker.com

Anna Tan
CASweb Implementation Director
Phone: 07747 607797
Email: anna.tan@casweb.org