SALT Forum Contributes Specification to World Wide Web Consortium

BOSTON, MA - The SALT Forum announced that it has contributed the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The SALT Forum has asked the W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group and Voice Browser Working Group to review the SALT specification as part of their development of standards for promoting multimodal interaction and voice-enabling the Web. There is a growing interest in multimodal applications, including the use of speech technologies to expand the reach of Web content. "Many companies within the speech technology industry view standards as key to speeding acceptance of speech-enabled multimodal applications," said Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates. "The contribution of the SALT specification to the W3C gives the group a robust starting point for creating a single standard for multimodal applications, which is ultimately in the best interest for the speech industry." The SALT specification defines a set of tags as extensions to commonly used Web-based markup languages. This allows developers to add speech interfaces to Web content and applications using familiar tools and techniques. "We respect the standards efforts of the W3C and are pleased to bring the SALT specification to W3C Working Groups for their consideration," said SALT Forum representative Martin Dragomirecky. "By making a comprehensive royalty-free contribution we hope to accelerate their efforts targeting a new class of mobile devices that support multiple modes of interaction."