Policy Context and Legal Framework

RoboBraille has received funding for transnational validation by the European Commission under the EU eTEN programme (Inclusion). A subsequent application for initial implementation under the EU ICT PSP Programme (Pilot Type B, objective 1.3: Innovative solutions for inclusive and efficient eGovernment) has been submitted to the European Commission in response to the ICT PSP/2007/1 Call.

Implementation and Management Approach

RoboBraille is developed and operated by Synscenter Refsnæs, the national Danish service and support organisation for blind and partially sighted children and youth. Synscenter Refsnæs is 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). Currently, the RoboBraille service is relying on public grants. On the longer term, Synscenter Refsnæs plan to develop the service into a financially viable service through funding from public and private institutional users.

Technology solution

RoboBraille uses standard email and web technologies (smtp, pop, ftp, http) to receive users requests and return translated results to the users. Mail is received on the RoboBraille mail server from which a number of RoboBraille agents pull translation jobs and reply to users. Braille documents are returned as email whereas audio files are copied to the RoboBraille Web server for subsequent retrieval by the user. The service is capable of translating HTML, XML, RTF, TEXT and Microsoft Word documents into contracted Braille and synthetic speech. Braille translation is accomplised using the multilingual Sensus Braille translator. Text-to-speech is accomplished using commercial and non-commercial speech synthesisers. The resulting WAV files are subsequently encoded into mp3 to reduce size.

Impact

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. 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. The first pilot test of RoboBraille was conducted by more than 700 visually impaired users in the winter/spring of 2007. On a scale from 1 to 5 where 5 is best, RoboBraille scored 3.8 in overall satisfaction, 4.2 in support, 3.9 in accuracy, 4.4 in ease of understanding, 4.4 in ease of use and 4.0 in relevance. The pilot test furthermore revealed that RoboBraille is mainly used for translation of educational material, manuals, articles and letters. Comments added by pilot users furthermore suggest that RoboBraille leave people with reading difficulties better off in terms of independence, access to digital information, and self-sufficiency. Suggestions from pilot users included support for more document formats such as PDF, support for more output formats, e.g., DAISY talking books and the ability for users to control the speech quality, e.g., select to lower the quality or increase the reading speed. A subsequent pilot test amongst more than 900 visually impaired users across Europe, which was completed in June-October 2007 confirmed the ratings and findings of the first pilot test. The RoboBraille project is currently being funded by the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and the Danish Ministry of Education.

Track record of sharing

The RoboBraille consortium has successfully disseminated information about the product through the printed and electronic press (e.g., BBC Radio 4, national Irish radio, national Danish radio and television). Furthermore, articles have been submitted and presentations made at multiple academic and industry conferences including ICCHP 2006, ICEVI 2006, eChallenges 2006, the 5th Nordic congress for teachers and specialists working with the visual impaired, the Leonardo VALOR-VIP conference, the NOVIR – Nordic conference of headmasters, the annual CEO Conference organised by The Danish IT Industry Association and at Techshare 2007. The service was presented at the Regional Conference on "Sharing Experience on best practices in ICT services for persons with disabilities hosted jointly by the WHO and the International Telecommunication Union in Egypt in November 2007. During October and November 2007, the RoboBraille consortium conducted peer-reviews in all partner countries. On November 30, 2007 Synscenter Refsnæs held the final RoboBraille Conference as planned in the project schedule with the theme of creating a more accessible and inclusive information society. With a large number of participants and speakers from Europe, the event was well attended and helped further the position of the RoboBraille service as a key enabler for people with print difficulties. The national Danish Radio even decided to broadcast life from the event in one of its regional programmes. The RoboBraillle project was named "eTEN Project of the Month" by the European Commission for the month of June 2007. Furthermore, The service is a finalist to receive this year’s Social Contribution Award, awarded by the British Computer Society. Other nominees for this prestigious award are IBM, Microsoft, South Yorkshire Police Force, The University of Hull and the Environment Egency.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - The RoboBraille does make a difference for people with reading difficulties such as the blind, partially sighted, dyslexic and peer readers. Lesson 2 - Although the value and potential of the RoboBraille service is significant in Europe and the rest of the developed world, the potential of a centralised, easy-to-use translation service is even bigger i the developing world where illiteracy is an important issue. Lesson 3 - It will take at least 3-5 years until the RoboBraille service is financially sustainable and not relying on public grants.