Voice Web Solutions presents at the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library
VoiceBooks™, powered by VANGUARD™ technology, is a hit among the visually impaired community.

March 16, 2002, SEATTLE - Voice Web Solutions, a leading voice services tools provider, presented Colligo Corporation's VoiceBooks service powered by VANGUARD to the Seattle Chapter for the American Council for the Blind (ACB) at the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library.

The VoiceBooks service demonstrated that any publication could be voice enabled through the telephone. "We are proud to offer accessibility solutions to all people who are interested in speech access to text", said Brian Graham, President of Voice Web Solutions. "VANGUARD is a revolutionary technology that finally gives a voice to a large, yet, disadvantaged market."

The ACB Seattle Chapter was impressed with the usability of the VANGUARD technology built-in to the VoiceBooks service. The well-informed audience showed interest in a wide range of topics related to voice activated navigation of content. Those topics ranged from touch-tone alternatives, bookmarking favorite books and sections, pausing playback, changing the text-to-speech voices, also copying and pasting specific information. "This is a huge leap over my current means of accessing books and magazines" said one visually impaired person. "I want to hear the same material sighted people see, with the same ease of use."

"Often the disabled community is an overlooked and overcharged market. The VANGUARD technology today shows that this is a viable and inexpensive way for publishers to provide new voice services for the disabled", said Jeremy McKenzie, VP of Marketing for Voice Web Solutions. "It's heartbreaking to hear stories of well known companies charging hundreds, even thousand of dollars for simple off-the-shelf screen reading software. On top of that, none of the software allows as much customization and personalization as VANGUARD."

The people in the room heard a live demonstration of the VANGUARD technology and asked questions regarding how they could use the technology to improve their accessibility. "I wouldn't mind paying for a service like this or hearing the advertising sighted people see if I could listen to magazines and books over the phone that easily." voiced one woman.

Voice Web Solutions empowers the VoiceBooks service using the industry standard VoiceXML language. The members of the ACB Seattle chapter are eager to have this technology available for any publication. Although many companies in the marketplace use VoiceXML, none of those companies has technology like VANGUARD for enabling the users to navigate the content itself by saying intuitive voice commands. "Whether it's from reading a magazine or hearing an instruction manual on how to use a product, VANGUARD's technology provides the defacto standard for speech access to text", said Peter Davis VP of Product Development for Voice Web Solutions. "Today we've had proof that there is nothing else like it or that comes close to providing the visually impaired and disabled community with this life changing technology."

About the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library
The Washington Talking Book & Braille Library houses a varied collection of books and magazines on cassette, large print and Braille materials. All equipment and services, including the mailing of materials, are free to eligible users. The Seattle Public Library system administers the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library.

About the American Council for the Blind
The American Council of the Blind (ACB), is a membership organization of blind and visually impaired people in the United States. The American Council of the Blind is the nation's leading membership organization of blind and visually impaired people. It was founded in 1961 and incorporated in the District of Columbia.

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.