Actuate, Braille Works And Venatôre Collaborate To Deliver Industry's First Cloud-Based Document Accessibility Service

Innovative service dramatically reduces costs and time in delivering accessible documents to the visually impaired

Actuate Corporation - The BIRT Company and innovator in document accessibility technology, Braille Works – a leading provider of alternative reading formats for the visually impaired, and Venatôre – a trusted federal government information technology solutions provider, announced a collaboration to deliver Cloud508, the industry’s first¹ cloud-based document accessibility service for U.S. federal government agencies. The new Cloud508 service is designed to support Section 508 compliance, while reducing cost and complexity from traditional processes to assist people who are visually impaired.

Today, U.S. federal government agencies are mandated by legislation, such as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities. There are more than 21 million Americans² who report vision loss and have difficulty reading traditional paper-based and modern electronic documents. These documents are often not designed or available in fully-accessible digital formats for the visually impaired.

“Government agencies are fully aware of Section 508 regulations, but due to the sheer volume of electronic documents and the level of effort required to make these documents accessible, they often struggle to meet compliance.” said Steve Jones, vice president and general manager, Content Services Group, Actuate. “By collaborating with Braille Works and Venatôre, Cloud508 provides government agencies with a secure and scalable service to deliver standards-compliant accessible PDF, Braille, Audio and Large Print formats in a cost-effective and timely manner.”

Industry-First Robust, Reliable, Automated Cloud-Based Service The collaboration will integrate:

• Actuate’s patented PDF Accessibility technology, taking high-volume documents and turning them into fully accessible, standards-compliant PDF format;
• Braille Works’ more than 20 years of accessibility expertise and design best practices; and
• Venatôre’s secure cloud infrastructure and engineering required by government agencies.

Together, this joint offering helps government agencies meet compliance by automating the conversion of some of the most important and broadly used documents such as tax, health and other notices and statements, into accessible PDF, Braille, audio and large print formats to assist and provide equal access to people with visual impairments.

“Equal access to information is a basic right that every government agency must afford to individuals with vision loss,” said Paul Schroeder, vice president of Programs and Policy for the American Foundation for the Blind. “The Cloud508 service makes it possible to generate information in accessible formats to meet the access needs of people who are blind or visually impaired.”

Actuate at Freedom Scientific Accessibility Showcase 2014 Actuate accessibility subject matter expert, Shannon Kelly, will be presenting at Freedom Scientific’s Accessibility Showcase on Thursday, Oct. 23, in the Sun Trust Bank building, Washington, D.C., on Enterprise Generated PDF Accessibility and Usability.

Availability
Cloud508 is available immediately in the U.S. only.
Actuate’s premier client event, Data Driven Summit 2014, in California on Nov. 6, Singapore on Nov. 11, Japan on Nov. 13, France on Nov. 18, UK on Nov. 19, Frankfurt on Nov. 20 and NYC on Dec. 3.

(1) Based on Actuate internal data
(2) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vision Health Initiative (VHI)

About Braille Works
Braille Works was founded in 1994 and is celebrating 20 years of service to the blind and visually impaired community. From humble beginnings; Braille Works now has two company owned buildings on campus with more than 75 full time employees and a third site in Sarasota, FL. Clients include major banks, national restaurant chains and large Federal Government agencies. Braille Works is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise registered with the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

About Venatôre
Venatôre is a Data Center & Cloud Engineering solutions provider that delivers leading systems, and technical services to support Federal Government mission-critical IT requirements. Venatôre seamlessly blends advanced technology and innovative approaches to deliver world-class IT services and solutions. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Venatôre corporate leadership team is comprised of highly successful, respected industry veterans who understand the highly regulated, unique-mission critical requirements of the Federal IT environments. For more information, visit www.venatore.com.

About Actuate
The BIRT Company Actuate provides software to more than 3.5 million BIRT developers and OEMs who build scalable, secure solutions that save time and improve brand experience by delivering personalized analytics and insights to over 200 million of their customers, partners and employees. Actuate founded and supports BIRT – the open source IDE – and develops BIRT iHub – the world-class visualization and deployment platform – to significantly improve productivity of developers working on customer facing applications. Actuate’s BIRT Analytics delivers self-service predictive analytics to enhance customer engagement using Big Data. The Actuate Customer Communications Suite empowers organizations to easily transform, process, personalize, archive and deliver high volume content and individualized correspondence. Actuate is headquartered in Silicon Valley with more than 5,000 enterprise customers in financial services, technology and government. For more information, visit actuate.com and developer.actuate.com.