Maybe if this kind of software becomes popular it will give extra
encouragement for webpages to be accessible since they'll have to be to use
over the phone.

Catherine

From Computer Shopper:

#23  Web pages to speak
          A clever new development announced in March by German firms
          Mannesmann Arcor and CyberLab Interactive is set to deliver
telephone
          access to the Internet, but without the need for you to have a
          computer plugged into your end of the phone line.

TalkingWeb, as the product is known, is the first voice browser for the
Internet and opens the way for a host of new types of Internet applications.

A voice browser in effect provides users with an interface between the
Internet
and the telephone. The user has to call a telephone number and then uses
voice
commands to direct the TalkingWeb browser to access the required Web site.
The
contents of the page are then read to the user using standard speech
synthesis.
You can navigate around the site and carry out interactive operations - such
as
filling out a form - by voice alone, so there's no messing about with
telephone
keypads like you find with the current generation of automated switchboards.
As
well as reading a page to the user, the voice browser can also be used to
play
or record audio files. A further advantage of the system is that the browser
can be supported by ordinary HTML 4 code, so making it simple for Web
designers
to offer their pages to users in voice format.

The potential applications for this new technology are impressively wide.
For a
start, it'll make access to the Internet easy for the visually impaired - a
group of people currently disenfranchised by existing Web technology.
TalkingWeb is, however, set to deliver a much wider range of new services.
For
example, the distinction between e-mail and voicemail is set to become much
more blurred, as the opportunity arises to record, send and listen to your
emails just by using a phone. Other applications are set to range from music
and radio on demand through to checking your share prices and dealing online
just through your phone. As Jean Paul Schmetz, MD of CyberLab, points out:
"Because TalkingWeb is based on open standards, only the creativity of the
developers will limit the possibilities of the system." Potential developers
can download a developers kit from: www.talkingweb.net. The system is first
going to be provided to the public in Germany by Mannesmann Arcor from the
fourth quarter of this year.


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