MICROSOFT® DOUBLE FIRST FOR TEXTHELP

Introducing a website speech enablement service which can instantly activate a site for speech. Text will be read out aloud as the user's cursor moves over the site.

MICROSOFT® DOUBLE FIRST FOR TEXTHELP

A new product developed by Antrim-based software company textHELP! which has the potential to make the Internet accessible to millions of people with reading difficulties has landed the company a twofold accolade from Microsoft®.

The product, known as 'Browsealoud, has been awarded Microsoft's prestigious 'Certified for Microsoft® Windows 2000 Professional' standard, and textHELP! has also been elevated to 'Microsoft® Certified Gold Product Partner' -- which according to textHELP!s CEO, Mark McCusker, is a double first for a Northern Ireland company.

'Browsealoud was developed over the last two years and converts website text straight into speech. It is estimated that in the US alone 44 million people cannot effectively use websites because of reading difficulties, and in the UK and Ireland approximately 15% of the population have similar problems.

Mark McCusker, said:

Achieving this stringent Microsoft standard for one of its accessibility products is a fantastic reflection of textHELP!s expertise in this area.

By making websites accessible for those with reading difficulties, 'Browsealoud is opening up a huge potential market and is applicable to any organization which maintains a website -- be they commercial, government or charity based".

By simply moving the mouse pointer over the text or by the use of hot-keys, users can listen to the underlying text being spoken. 'Browsealoud is the only product on the market to allow users to do this for free.

Websites which adopt the service are instantly speech-enabled, the only requirements being a link to the 'Browsealoud programme download page and the brand logo on the home page of the site. Implementation of the service is straightforward, with the process handled remotely. This ensures that sites are speech-enabled within minutes without any website downtime. Entry costs are also low and there are no ongoing management overheads.

The 'Microsoft® Certified Gold Partner' status will give the company early access to Microsoft® product information, training and technical support. Only 130 companies worldwide have been accepted onto the programme which is based upon rigorous independent testing by Veritest® which is the sole authorized testing lab for several Microsoft® certification programs.

This testing programme establishes an unprecedented technical standard to identify applications that are secure and manageable, and that run reliably on the Microsoft® Windows family of operating systems. A thorough examination of the software is undertaken against Microsoft's 400 page test plan to ensure that the software meets current best practices for acceptance by systems integrators and IT professionals.

Allison Watson, vice president of the worldwide Partner Programmes Group at Microsoft® said:

Microsoft® provides its Certified Partners with in-depth access to existing and emerging Microsoft® technologies and related training and resources to help ensure that they have the technical intimacy needed to deliver quality solutions.

Today, Microsoft® recognizes textHELP! for demonstrating this level of expertise and welcomes it as a new Microsoft® Certified Gold Partner".

textHELP! is one of Northern Irelands strongest growing technology firms and is one of the few companies to appear in the Deloitte and Touche Fast 50 for past three years running.

Mark McCusker said:

At present we export to 20 countries accounting for 35% of the companys turnover. textHELP! already has a strong presence in the UK and American education markets with a range of products which help those with reading difficulties access mainstream software applications.

Browsealoud is the perfect complementary product and we are in the process of completing work on the next stage - a reader for PDF documents called PDFaloud".

textHELP! was incorporated in 1996 wen it received an injection of funding from VC company Delta Partners. In the past four years turnover has increased ten-fold and employment has quadrupled to 24.

ENDS
For further information please contact:

Gary Morrison
Sales & Marketing Executive
textHelp!
+44 (0)28 9442 8105
            
g.morrison@texthelp.com

For further details of 'Browsealoud please visit www.browsealoud.com