Voice Web Solutions and Colligo Corporation announce Voice Books.
New text-to-speech technology lets the blind "read" and navigate books using the telephone.

Seattle, WA. - February 26, 2002 - This month, those who are blind and visually impaired will gain access by telephone to three classics - The Wizard of Oz, Tarzan of the Apes and The Red Badge of Courage through new text-to-speech playback technology developed by Voice Web Solutions of Seattle, and made available in VoiceBooks™ by Colligo Corporation of Bellingham, Washington.

"Innovations of this nature that use readily available technology to improve access to the written word, provide knowledge, freedom and power. Without these basic rights, the ability to self advocate becomes very difficult, therefore hindering independence," said Dr. Dean Stenehjem, Superintendent of the Washington State School for the Blind.

The voice navigation technology, such as VANGUARD™ (Voice Activated Navigational Guide Using Any Readable Document), has been in development for the past two years. However, through new advances in VoiceXML technology, the speech industry standard, it has not been made publicly available until now.

"VANGUARD and VoiceBooks allow access to information that until now has been available only to the sighted," states Doug Powles, President of Colligo Corp.

VANGUARD allows callers to navigate through the entirety of each book or ANY document by saying voice commands such as "next paragraph," "jump back, " or "table of contents." Voice commands such as "spell that," gives the spelling of words, and "where am I?," tells them where they are in the book. Also, at any point the user may pause the playback or "bookmark" where they left off. "It's as simple as dialing and speaking. It's a smart, intuitive and mobile solution that enables speech access to any type of document through simple voice commands," said Brian Graham, President of Voice Web Solutions.

Jan Ames director of The Washington Talking Book & Braille Library said the organization is "excited about exploring the use of VoiceBooks" to replace the currently used cassette format as well as for its Radio Reading Service.

Demos are available as downloadable MP3 files on the Voice Web Solutions Web site, located at www.voicewebsolutions.net.

One of VANGUARD's primary advantages is that it empowers users to read and navigate both emails and email attachments via the telephone, providing an innovative and unique technology solution for companies who provide voice-activated email. Until now, users were not able to navigate within the body of an email message, nor were they able to easily hear document attachments. Often they are forced to listen through an entire message without the ability to navigate.

"The technology within VANGUARD is a large leap forward for those unable to visually see or read text and will benefit others, such as the elderly, road warriors, and anyone who doesn't want to be chained to a computer," said Jeremy McKenzie, Vice President of Marketing for the company.

"This will be the de facto technology for any text-to-speech driven product or service," said Peter Davis, Vice President of Product Development. "It's going to affect the way things are done."

About Colligo Corporation
Colligo Corporation (Latin, to collect, gather, assemble) incorporated in Washington State, is a digital content provider/publisher and has been called the "History Channel" for computers. The company provides digital books for the sighted and specialized digital books, hardware and software for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Disabled. Colligo is based in Bellingham, Washington with additional support in Dallas, San Francisco and Omaha.

About Voice Web Solutions
Voice Web Solutions is helping to revolutionize the way people access documents, books, magazines, manuals, and e-mail attachments by simply using voice. VANGUARD Player, our breakthrough text-to-speech playback control software, enables true interactivity - the natural way. Our solutions leverage your investment in the web with voice. Yes, you can deliver your visually rich, personalized, and structured content to anyone who can use a telephone or speech-enabled computer. It's a smart, intuitive and mobile solution that enables accessibility to your most valuable information through simple voice commands.