WIZZARD SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES THE AMERICAN PRINTING HOUSE FOR THE BLIND HAS CHOSEN AT&T NATURAL VOICES FOR ASSISTIVE PRODUCTSPITTSBURGH--May 11, 2005--Wizzard Software (OTCBB: WIZD) announced today that The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) has chosen Wizzard's speech technology solution of AT&T's Natural Voices Software Development Kit for use in several of their assistive products. The American Printing House for the Blind, founded in 1858, is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States and the world's largest not-for-profit company that creates educational, workplace and life-style products and services for visually impaired people.
"We selected Natural Voices to provide our customers with the most human sounding synthesized speech possible," said Larry Skutchan, Technology Project Leader for the Department of Educational Research for APH.
AT&T Natural Voices is currently being used in the APH's Talking Typer software, a computer keyboarding and typing training product that speaks and displays educational lessons on screen. Talking Typer allows the user to participate in typing drills, practicing exercises and typing games, and is adjustable to the user's level of skill and sight impairment.
Natural Voices is also providing speech output for APH's Talking Word Puzzles, an accessible word puzzle program that provides fun, high quality speech feedback and an animated character while navigating through word puzzle grids.
In addition, Natural Voices is powering their Book Wizard Reader. Book Wizard Reader is a program to read digital talking books as outlined in the specifications designed and approved by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the Digital Audio Information System (DAISY) consortium. The program adheres to the Digital Talking Book 3.0 definitions and provides the user with enhanced ability to control and navigate through both structured and unstructured audio files.
Skutchan noted Natural Voices will soon be used in Teacher's Pet, an accessible test creation and administration program for parents or teachers as well as used in Money Talks, an accessible banking account management program
"APH is committed to improving information accessibility for the visually impaired and their portfolio of products certainly demonstrates this commitment. Our commitment at Wizzard Software is to assist APH in taking it to the next level by providing them with exceptional text-to-speech technologies like AT&T Natural Voices," said Danielle Lewis, Marketing Director for Wizzard Software.
About The American Printing House for the Blind:
The American Printing House for the Blind, Inc. (APH) promotes the independence of blind and visually impaired persons by providing specialized materials, products, and product-related services needed for education and life. Founded in response to the growing need for books for visually impaired students, APH began as a small company with a single printing press that produced tactile books. Today, it has grown to employ over 300 people and has become an internationally recognized model for producing educational and life-enhancing products for people of all ages who are blind and visually impaired. For more information, please visit www.aph.org.
About Wizzard Software:
Founded in 1996, Wizzard Software has become a leader in the speech technology application development market. Wizzard architects solutions to business problems using its expertise in consulting, speech development tools and building speech based applications for the Desktop and Internet. Wizzard has achieved global recognition because of its expertise with speech communication whether it is via PC or telephone. Wizzard's successes have lead to expanding opportunities in both the government and commercial sectors. In April of 2004, Wizzard acquired MedivoxRx Technologies. Established in 2000, MedivoxRx is the originator of "Rex", the talking prescription pill bottle, which "talks" to the patient allowing them to distinguish what type of medication is in the bottle and hear critical information on dosage amounts and refill parameters. Additional information on MedivoxRx can be found at www.rxtalks.com. More information on Wizzard Software can be found on the Investor's Page at www.wizzardsoftware.com.
