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For Immediate Release:
OcuSource Pens Alliance with Talking Communities to Bring Free Internet
Voice Conferencing to the Visually Impaired
Placentia, CA - March 10, 2005 - Vision impairment industry portal
OcuSource.com, LLC and Talking Communities announced the formation of an
alliance between the companies to provide a comprehensive worldwide
voice-chat community for visually impaired consumers, their caregivers,
and the professionals who service them.
"We are delighted to be bringing Talking Communities technology to all
areas of the vision impairment industry" states Dr. Lou Lipschultz,
founder and CEO of OcuSource.com. "Our alliance with Talking
Communities fulfills our goals of enhancing the global access to
products and services. The alliance also facilitates several
initiatives that we have planned for various disabilities" Lipschultz
affirmed. "Our goal is to provide a place where visitors can speak with
a family member anywhere in the world without additional cost, can
communicate with others with similar interests locally and abroad, and
can participate in online presentations or educational events. Naturally
our plan required a fully accessible solution for blind users, and
Talking Communities beat the competition hands down. Their voice chat
utility is fully accessible by programs called screen readers which
enable blind users to interact with their computer" stated Lipschultz.
The community's "rooms" are organized in logical categories. The
visitor then clicks on the desired room and is brought to an Internet
Explorer browser window with a login screen. Most rooms are open access
and do not require a password to enter. After the log in, the visitor is
then directed to a second window where, in addition to voice-chat
capabilities, several resources can be viewed; the list of others in the
room, a conventional text chat area, and a large browser window were web
pages or other documents can be shared with other viewers. Rooms can be
used for discussions, training, business presentations and more, all
from the comfort of the user's computer.
"Accessibility is the core competency of our team" stated George Buys,
CEO of Talking Communities. Blind from a disorder called retinitis
pigmentosa, Buys founded Talking Communities and employs multiple blind
programmers, customer support, and administrative staff. "Our new
relationship with OcuSource allows us to leap into a new age of global
communications for the vision impaired community" stated Buys. "It was
actually somewhat unsettling when I ended my first conversation with
Lou. Our respective plans were exactly the same; we just needed each
other's resources to complete the circle. The combined resources found
in OcuSource and Talking Communities are an ideal fit'" Buys confirmed.
The voice-chat area of OcuSource is free to users, and is found at
www.ocusource.com in the Community area of the site.
About OcuSource
California based OcuSource.com, LLC is the owner and operator of the
internet portal dedicated to assisting the low vision and blindness
industry with essential online resources. OcuSource's mission is to
enhance access to products, information, and services to individuals
with vision impairment, as well as the professionals who assist them,
through a set of integrated web-based utilities. OcuSource provides
auctions of adaptive products and accessories, search tools to find
local and national resources including eye care professionals and
advocacy organizations, as well as other tools useful to eye care and
rehabilitation professionals. The privately held company was founded in
2003, and is headquartered in Placentia, California. The company's URL
is www.ocusource.com.
About Talking Communities
Michigan based Talking Communities offers interactive synchronous web
community-building tools proven to provide customers numerous
capabilities in both their business and personal lives at a very
affordable rate. Live voice-over-internet conference rooms are suitable
for public or private business meetings, employee training and support,
family get-togethers, educational purposes, public and private
interactive events, live broadcasts, web presentations and high level
text chat. The company entered the market with its Audio Tips resource
located at www.audio-tips.com. Audio-Tips is a family oriented voice
chat community open to anyone seeking friends, support, fun and
learning. In addition to its voice-chat utility, Talking Communities has
also developed web-based utilities by consumers and businesses.
Contact information:
Louis Lipschultz, OD
President & CEO - OcuSource.com, LLC
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.ocusource.com
Phone: 888-299-6657 ext 701 Contact information:
George Buys
President & CEO - Talking Communities
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.talkingcommunities.com
Phone: (810)667-3043
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