15.10.08:

RoboBraille finalist for e-Inclusion Award 2008

Press release

Kalundborg, Denmark – October the 15th, RoboBraillle, the award-winning email service for people with a visual impairment or reading difficulties, has been selected as one of the five medal winners in the e-Accessibility category of the e-Inclusion Awards 2008.

The awards will be presented at the European e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference and Exhibition in Vienna from 30 November to 2 December 2008. A galla dinner will be held during this event at which the medalists will be honored and the overall category winners announced. In connection with the conference, RoboBraille will be demonstrated at a display stand in the special Awards Village area of the exhibition hall and featured in the conference brochure.

”Since RoboBraille is an international project, it is indeed striking that The European Commission announced the nomination on “The International White Cane Safety Day”, says Lars Ballieu Christensen, RoboBraille Coordinator and leader of the RoboBraille Consortium; ”As an increasing amount of necessary information, such as bank statements and teaching materials, becomes available in digital format, it is crucial to ensuring everybody can join in“, he continues. “At the moment there are many innovative projects around Europe focusing on e-inclusion. The RoboBraille project was selected as medal winner amongst 469 candidates, so my colleagues and I are extremely proud about the nomination”, says Lars Ballieu Christensen.

About The 2008 e-Inclusion Awards

The 2008 European e-Inclusion Awards is jointly organised by the European Commission and the hosting Austrian Government, in cooperation with the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. For the first time ever thirty-five initiatives from public, private, charitable and community organisations across Europe have been short listed as finalists for the award due to their innovative uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to help digitally and socially excluded Europeans. All projects are already improving the quality of life of many people and should help inspire others to do more.

For more information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/e-inclusion/2008/index_en.htm

About RoboBraille

RoboBraille is an email-based service capable of translating electronic documents into either synthetic speech or contracted Braille. The service is available free of charge to all non-commercial users, and you do not need to register before using it. RoboBraille seeks to solve a universal problem – making otherwise inaccessible electronic documents accessible to people with visual or reading impairments.

Originally a Danish service, RoboBraille has been validated in Ireland, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Great Britain in the framework of a pan-European consortium supported by the European Commission in order to verify its technical, commercial and cultural viability. Building on the results of the pan-European validation and with funding from the Danish Government and other sources, the RoboBraille development team is currently engaged several projects aimed at improving the service by adding functionality, increasing the number of supported languages and supporting the service with media production capabilities and electronic libraries. The objective is to create an unlimited supply of material in Braille and other accessible formats to anyone, anywhere with a need.

For more information on the RoboBraille service and how to use it, please visit: www.robobraille.org

About Synscenter Refsnaes

As a nationwide institution, Synscenter Refsnaes provides services for some 1,800 blind and partially sighted pupils aged 6-15 throughout Denmark. Founded in 1898, Synscenter Refsnaes has more than a century of experience to draw upon.  Since 2004 the RoboBraille service has been developed and operated by Synscenter Refsnaes, which also has been coordinator of the EU eTEN RoboBraille Project in a consordium also including Associazione Nazionale Subvedenti, ONLUS (Italy), the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (Ireland), the National Association of Housing of the Visually impaired (Ireland), the Royal National College for the Blind (United Kingdom), the Pagkypria Organozi Tyflon (Cyprus) and Centro de Inovacao para Deficiencentes (Portugal).

For more information about Synscenter Refsnaes, please visit:  www.synref.dk