KidsHealth Teams Up With VoiceCorp to Improve Usability of Online Health Information

KidsHealth.org, the Web site devoted to children’s health and development, has partnered with VoiceCorp to implement ReadSpeaker audio functionality on its Web site. This new audio feature reads KidsHealth articles aloud to significantly improve the site’s usability.

By clicking on the “Listen” icon at the top of all KidsHealth articles, visitors can hear the article read by an automated voice reader — in English or Spanish. Simultaneously, the text is highlighted to help users follow along. Visitors also can download an MP3 file of the audiocast to listen to later, an important feature for mobile phone users.  

KidsHealth added ReadSpeaker for users with reading difficulties and those who prefer to read along with highlighted text. It’s available in all three sections of: KidsHealth: for Parents, Kids, and Teens. 

“The ReadSpeaker software is ideal for online visitors with reading handicaps such as dyslexia or anyone who prefers to have information read aloud,” says Neil Izenberg, MD, founder and editor-in-chief of KidsHealth. “Readspeaker also makes our Web site more accessible to a larger audience, some of whom may not have any other source for online health information.” 

“We are excited to add KidsHealth to our ever-growing list of clients across the globe,” says Joop Heijenrath, managing partner at VoiceCorp. “We strongly believe that the implementation of our ReadSpeaker application on KidsHealth.org will help to give larger audiences easier access to the onscreen text in a way that was never previously possible. Already we see tremendous use of more than 1 million activations in the first month of service. We hope the leadership and commitment of KidsHealth.org to making its Web site accessible will inspire others to do the same.” 

More than 5,000 clients in 25 countries use VoiceCorp’s ReadSpeaker software, including many hospitals and nonprofit organizations. KidsHealth, however, is the first major U.S. health information Web site using ReadSpeaker.