Dear All Something special, for which we all were waiting anxiously! Currently English version is available, Read on:
Mobile Accessibility: Code Factory Goes Android! Features TouchscreenNavigation, Speech Recognition, Web and Email Access, and Nuance’sVocalizer® Text-to-Speech *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain, March 2nd, 2011 Today, Code Factory is delighted to introduce *Mobile Accessibility*,a *screen-accessapplication that allows people who are blind or have low vision to use anAndroid phone in an intuitive, easy and simple way*. Mobile Accessibility isthe first accessible Android application that permits intuitive touchscreennavigation of Android phones, featuring text readback via natural soundingvoices powered by Nuance’s Vocalizer® text-to-speech technology.“Mobile phones have proved to be among the fastest-changing consumertechnologies in the world – particularly with the advent of the Androidplatform. So making mobile phones accessible to the blind and visuallyimpaired is therefore challenging, fascinating, thrilling and totallyexciting all at the same time,” explained Eduard Sánchez, Code Factory’s CEO. “There was no doubt that we would target the Android platform, as wevery quickly realized that there was a real need in this specific market foran accessible solution that can provide a user-friendly experience for allblind and low-vision consumers. Mobile Accessibility allows everyone, frombeginners to the most tech-savvy, to use an Android phone, no matter if ithas physical keys or is touchscreen-only.”Mobile Accessibility is two products in one: - A *suite of 10 accessible applications* (Phone, Contacts, SMS, Alarm, Calendar, Email, Web, Where am I, Apps and Settings) that have been specially designed for the blind and visually impaired. They all have a simplified interface whose textual information is spoken using Nuance Vocalizer® voice synthesis. - A *screen reader *that allows users to get out of the suite and navigate the standard interface of their phone.“Mobile Accessibility provides both access to the mainstream apps of thephone and access to special apps for blind people. Why? Because ourphilosophy has always been to allow our users to use the phone the same wayas everyone else. However, we also believe that having some special apps forthe most common tasks can be extremely useful if it means gaining in productivity,” added Eduard Sánchez.The major features of Mobile Accessibility are the following: - *Touch navigation*: You can use Mobile Accessibility not only with the trackball or the physical keyboard of your phone, but also with its touchscreen! Simply move your finger around the screen and the voice synthesis will read the text located under your finger. Or if you prefer, you can also swipe up/down/right/left and tap on the screen to navigate through the interface. And if you wish you can enable sound and vibration feedback. - *Easy to input text*: In or outside the Mobile Accessibility suite you can use the touch QWERTY keyboard as well as the speech recognition to write text quickly and easily. Imagine writing an SMS or an Email using your voice only. - *Voice synthesis*: Code Factory has been making mobile phones accessible to the blind and visually impaired for many years now, and they know that the voice matters... and a lot! For Mobile Accessibility, Code Factory has partnered with Nuance® to leverage its trusted Vocalizer text-to-speech technology, providing consumers with natural sounding voice readback.“With around 314 million visually impaired persons around the world, webelieve that it’s our joint obligation to facilitate access to informationand mobile communication to everyone” says Arnd Weil, VP & General ManagerAutomotive / Consumer Electronics, Nuance Communications. “By offeringscreen reader functionality for Android phones using Nuance Vocalizer, CodeFactory gives blind and visually impaired persons access to one of the mostimportant mobile platforms with the market’s most natural sounding andintelligible voices.”Inside the Mobile Accessibility suite of accessible applications you can dothe following: - *Phone*: Make calls, answer calls, hear the caller ID and manage your call log. - *Contacts*: Manage your contacts, even those from social networks such as Facebook. - *SMS*: Compose and read short messages. Manage conversations. - *Alarms*: Set your alarms. - *Web*: Full web browser experience, similar to what you can find on your PC. Jump by the control of your choice (links, paragraphs, headings, forms, etc.) to navigate faster to the information of your interest. Bookmark your favourite webpages. - *Calendar*: Create, edit and delete a calendar entry. View all events per day, week or month. - *Email*: Full access to your Gmail account - *Where am I?* : GPS application that gives you updates on your current location. - *Settings*: Change ringtone. Configure feedback and notifications (vibration or audio). Configure keyboard echo, punctuation verbosity, speech pitch and rate, etc. - *Quick access* to date and time, phone status information such as battery level and network coverage, number of missed calls and unread messages, etc.To hear Mobile Accessibility in action listen to videos and audio demos athttp://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415#video *Mobile Accessibility supports all Android phones from version 2.1 and above*. Please note that voice recognition is only supported with version 2.2 andabove. Note also that if you want to use the screen reader functionality ofMobile Accessibility you will need a phone with physical navigationalcontrols such as a trackball or trackpad. You can find more informationabout Android phones athttp://www.google.com/phone/#manufacturer=all&category=all&carrier=all&country=all&reset_filters=1 At the time of this release Mobile Accessibility is only available in *English*, but soon Code Factory will release other versions of MobileAccessibility for Spanish, Italian, German, French and Portuguese. Note thatMobile Accessibility doesn’t support multiple languages at one time. If you buy the English version of Mobile Accessibility you will not be able to useit in another language like French or Spanish. There will be a specificversion of Mobile Accessibility for each language and each version will haveto be purchased separately.You can now get a *Mobile Accessibility Demo* from the *Android Market* and*try the product for free for 30 days*: - Mobile Accessibility Demo US: https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerenudemo&feature=search_result - Mobile Accessibility Demo UK: https://market.android.com/details?id=es.codefactory.android.app.ma.vocalizerengdemo&feature=search_result Soon Mobile Accessibility will be available for purchase through the AndroidMarket at the price of 69 EUROS. You can purchase the application directlyfrom the Market application of your Android phone, or from the web pagehttps://market.android.com . Before buying the app make sure to check outour website at http://www.codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=415 to see whatcarriers offer the product for free to their customers.To learn how to use Mobile Accessibility for Android, please consult theuser guide at http://www.codefactory.es/MA/en/ma_1_0_manual.html. Fortechnical assistance, please submit a ticket through Code Factory’s HelpDesk at http://www.codefactory.cat/helpdesk/.For more information about Mobile Accessibility and Code Factory subscribeto the Mobile Accessibility mailing list athttp://www.codefactory.es/en/list.asp?id=88, visit our website athttp://www.codefactory.es or follow the company on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/codefactory and use the hashtag #MA to talk about MobileAccessibility. About Code FactoryFounded in 1998 and headquartered in Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain, CodeFactory is the global leader committed to the development of products designed to eliminate barriers to the accessibility of mobile technology forthe blind and visually impaired. Today, Code Factory is the leading providerof accessible mobile applications such as screen readers, screen magnifiers,and Braille interfaces. Code Factory’s products are compatible with thewidest range of mainstream mobile devices running on Symbian, WindowsMobile, BlackBerry Smartphones, and Android. Among Code Factory's customersare well known organizations for the blind such as ONCE in Spain, andcarriers such as AT&T, Bouygues Telecom, SFR, TIM and Vodafone.About Nuance Communications, Inc.Nuance is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businessesand consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and servicesmake the user experience more compelling by transforming the way peopleinteract with information and how they create, share and use documents.Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’sproven applications and professional services. For more information, pleasevisit: nuance.com <http://www.nuance.com>. To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
