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WordsWorldwide Limited: Company profile
Words Worldwide was inaugurated in 1998. It initially built on work in the speech technology field pioneered by its predecessor company Aptech Limited, extending this into full-scale activity in assisting people with physical challenges and special needs.
By 2005 most work was concentrated in providing services through government schemes to assist people with special needs. With major changes in the way in which the government funded the supply of services in this field, the company increasingly became involved in writing its own specialised software rather than selling products on behalf of other companies. This led to the company’s highly successful KeyStone range of software.
Since 2015 the company has increasingly worked on developing computer software to assist people struggling with literacy difficulties. Marketing of a range of software from different manufacturers has supported this aim.
The creation of its WordWizard product is now the company’s main focus. In an increasingly competitive special needs market the company is prioritising its particular expertise in the literacy support sector. Its expertise in speech technology is now geared more towards speech syntheisis, i.e. text-to-speech technology (TTS) rather than speech recognition.
The reason for this change in emphasis resulted from a body of criticism within the education world. General opinion was that although voice recognition assists many people, it fails to address the needs of those at an early stage in language development.
The company has therefore entered into a marketing agreement with CereProc, an Edinburgh-based company. This enables Words Worldwide to provide high-quality speech synthesis to allow WordWizard to provide spoken feedback to users to optimise their use of the product. It also provides a valuable degree of confidence in using the interactive software.
The company believes that WordWizard’s innovative features will address the needs of those who wish to develop their literacy skills, especially in the area of spelling and word usage. It is confidently expected that this new product will generate significant interest amongst providers of support in this field.
Director of WordsWorldwide Limited: Dr Peter Kelway
After the early part of my career during which I developed my computer skills I moved to Cambridge in 1987 for a short period where I was involved in groundbreaking work on developing speech technology systems. This provided me with an insight into how the technology could assist people with special needs.
In turn, that encouraged me to start my own business a year later which marketed computer applications based on speech recognition and voice synthesis.
1998 marked the start of my increasing specialisation in applications to assist people affected by physical, visual and aural difficulties. By 2005 most of my work was concentrated on providing assistance in government schemes to help people with special needs.
As well as directing the company, I kept abreast of the needs of customers by training and advising them and maintaining contact with appropriate Government departments. I also contributed to a number of international conferences, speaking about the benefits of using the technology to provide support for those needing augmentative hardware and software.
With changes in the makeup of company business, I increasingly became involved in designing and developing software. I managed the introduction of speech technology into the company’s highly successful KeyStone range of software.
Since 2015 I have been almost exclusively working on developing computer software to assist people struggling with literacy difficulties. My direct experience in training users and my involvement in program development ensures that the software sets out to meet the customer requirements I have identified.
The development of WordWizard is now my primary interest. I believe that its innovative features will help those who have a need to develop their literacy skills, especially in the area of spelling and word usage. I anticipate that this new product will generate significant interest amongst providers of support in this field.
I welcome feedback from users and experts and remain fully receptive to suggestions for future updates for the technology. I can be contacted by email and undertake to respond personally to those who get in touch: enquiries@wordsworldwide.co.uk .