RoboBraille wins the 2008 Well-Tech Award.
Press release
Milano, the 17th of April 2008 - The RoboBraille service is named winner of the prestigious 2008 Well-Tech Award. In the running were 60 international projects involved in the design and research of new technologies that are sustainable and accessible. Among them were FIAT, Oticon and Samsung.
The ceremony took place in the Isimbardi Palace in Milan. The award was given by president of the Milanese province, Filippo Penati .
The RoboBraille service makes it possible for visually impaired and reading-impaired users to have electronic documents translated into either synthetic speech or Braille when it is necessary. The goal of the project is that as many people as possible should have access to digital information and obtain self-reliance in daily life. This goal has been crucial to the decision of the jury to award RoboBraille for the Well-Tech Award 2008.
"We are happy to announce that Synscenter Refsnæs and the RoboBraille Consortium have won the Well-Tech Award 2008. It represents a huge recognition of RoboBraille as an innovative project,"
says Lars Ballieu Christensen, RoboBraille Coordinator and leader of the RoboBraille Consortium. "As an increasing amount of necessary information, such as bank statements, articles and teaching materials becomes available in a digital format, it is crucial to create solutions ensuring that everybody can join in. We are thus working to expand the service in order to meet even more user needs of a quick and simple translation. We’re e.g. aiming at enabling the service to handle even more languages, pdf files, image documents and mathematics"
, he says.
About WELL-TECH
The Well-Tech organisation was founded in 1999 with the purpose of promoting design and development of sustainable and accessible technologies. Well-Tech's observatory is constantly scouring the market and the world of research to uncover new products, technologies and materials. The goal is to use its own activities to stimulate the research and development of innovative and sustainable systems and technologies and to promote their transfer to the Italian industrial system.
For more information on Well-Tech, please visit http://www.well-tech.it/
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 was validated in Ireland, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Great Britain in the framework of the
European Community programme The eTEN.
The Danish part of RoboBraille has been available since 2004; in January 2007, support for British English, Italian, Portuguese and Greek was added to the service. In June and July, French and Lithuanian were added. The long-term goal of the RoboBraille Consortium is to secure a stable commercial customer base to finance the RoboBraille service. It could consist of banks, pharmaceutical companies, public institutions and other enterprises wishing to use the service to produce material in Braille or audio for customers and clients.
For more information on the RoboBraille service and how to use it, please visit www.robobraille.org
About Synscenter Refsnaes and the RoboBraille Consortium
RoboBraille is developed and operated by Synscenter Refnaes, the national Danish service and support organisation for blind and partially sighted children and youth. Synscenter Refnaes was the coordinator of the EU eTEN RoboBraille project in a consortium 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
Picture from the Well-Tech award ceremony in Milan
From left: Carla de Benedetti Modolfo (ANS), Luca Liberali (ANS) and Lars Ballieu Christensen (Synscenter Refsnaes/ The RoboBraille Consortium).