Voiceitt Launches Chrome Extension, Empowering People with Speech Disabilities to Engage with the Digital World, by Voice

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Jun 20, 2024, 11:20 ET

Inclusive voice tech enables content creation and communication across a wide range of websites, expanding digital inclusion

TEL AVIV, Israel and STAMFORD, Conn., June 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Voiceitt, the Israel-based pioneer in speech recognition technology for non-standard speech, today announced the launch of Voiceitt for Chrome, a groundbreaking browser extension that empowers individuals with speech disabilities, accented English or aging voices to dictate directly into websites. This transformative tool seamlessly integrates with products such as professional workspaces, email platforms, collaboration tools, and social media pages, enabling voice-to-text content creation and helping people with disabilities create content and engage on the internet independently, often for the first time.

Voiceitt for Chrome expands the company's voice AI offerings built upon its speech recognition technology for non-standard speech. The signature Voiceitt product, a web-based application, recognizes the speech patterns of individuals with non-standard speech resulting from various conditions affecting voice, speech or fluency, accented speech or age-related changes. Voiceitt for Chrome, unlocks dictation for everyone. Customers who have been unable to access dictation or voice typing tools built only for standard speech can now dictate their ideas.

The launch of Voiceitt for Chrome follows closely on landmark legislation and policy decisions mandating wider accessibility of AI-driven technologies, including web content. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently ruled that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ensures the accessibility of web content and mobile apps for people with disabilities. Furthermore, in May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a significant update to ADA regulations, addressing critical areas such as the accessibility of medical equipment, websites, apps, and kiosks. Voiceitt uniquely addresses these new policy requirements, ensuring access for people with speech disabilities in situations where speech is needed or required to navigate digital environments. Voiceitt also integrates into any website or product, and may help its partners comply with the updated accessibility standards.

Key Features and Benefits:

Increased workplace productivity: Employees can dictate meeting notes, documents, and spreadsheets through integrations with common professional platforms like Google Workspace and Slack.
Expanded economic opportunities: People can now gain employment where minimum typing speed was previously a barrier - whether writing a work document or their memoir, a blog, or even becoming an online influencer.
Empowered students: Learners with a variety of accessibility needs can dictate in browser-based platforms, including Google Classroom, to collaborate with their peers and show their true capabilities.
Enhanced patient agency: Dictation into medical portals, customer service chatbots (etc.) empowers self-advocacy and privacy during life's decisions. Patients can take a more active role in healthcare by dictating their needs and communicating privately with their providers on compatible, browser-based portals.
Increased social engagement: Voiceitt enables text-to-speech directly into social media, messaging platforms like Slack and Discord, and emails for sustained community connections and self-expression.

"Voiceitt for Chrome takes our current offering to the next level and represents a new milestone in our mission to make the digital world truly accessible by voice," said Katie Seaver, a speech-language pathologist who serves as Voiceitt's Head of Community Engagement and Impact. "By enabling dictation and content creation by voice, our first browser extension opens up the internet to our customers in unprecedented ways. From a quantum physicist in the UK to an elementary student in New York, the unique voices of our community can fully live, learn, work, and play through the capabilities of Voiceitt's Chrome Extension. This launch embodies our team's vision to expand the possibilities of cutting-edge Voice AI and demonstrates that when technologies are accessible, anything is possible."

Voiceitt for Chrome is now available for individuals, speech pathologists, educators, and existing customers. It offers an inclusive and effective speech-to-text experience. Voiceitt is committed to expanding educators' use of technology in the classroom, facilitating learning opportunities for all students, including those with disabilities.

Nicole Curd, an artist based in Iowa, uses Voiceitt after brain surgery left her with limited speech and mobility. "I use [Voiceitt's] speech-to-text for everything that would require either typing or speaking," she said. "As I age, the nerves in the only hand I can use are becoming broken down. I can't express in words how bad this was since I had to use text to communicate with the entire world. Just using [the Voiceitt app] has vastly improved my quality of life. I am eagerly awaiting the Chrome plug-in for use with any social media, something I haven't been able to use for some time."

ABOUT VOICEITT

Voiceitt's mission is to help people with disabilities live more connected, independent lives. The proprietary automatic speech recognition (ASR) enables people with speech disabilities to access mainstream voice technologies, communicate by voice, and be understood. Voiceitt has been highlighted in international media, including Forbes, Amazon Science, BBC, and The New York Times. Investors include Cisco Investments, the Amazon Alexa Fund, AARP, and Microsoft's M12. Voiceitt was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Israel with a subsidiary in Stamford, CT.

The Voiceitt application is currently available in English through resellers in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. The Voiceitt API enables integration with voice-enabled platforms, software, and technologies, making these products accessible for consumers with non-standard speech. The technology is based on Voiceitt's proprietary dataset of non-standard speech recordings (speech corpus), collected in accordance with international privacy and security standards.

Contact:
Sara Smolley
Co-Founder, VP Partnerships
[email protected]

SOURCE Voiceitt, Inc.