Wisit Atipayakoon (wisit.atipayakoon@itut) Programme Officer

1. DIGITAL INCLUSION & HUMAN CAPACITY BUILDING Development of Local Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Electronic Publishing for Persons with Disabilities 25-26 Sep 2013 Bangkok, Thailand Wisit Atipayakoon (wisit.atipayakoon@itu.int) Programme Officer ITU Regional Office for Asia-Pacific

2. TTS Development in Mongolian • To build Mongolian HMM-based TTS engine for MS-Windows platform; • To make Mongolian TTS compatible with screen readers for the Blind; • To build human capacity particularly developers and researchers for future development of TTS applications • To train users especially the Blind in Mongolia • To promote the Digital Inclusion in Mongolia and especially to encourage Public-Private Partnership

3. PROJECT PARTNERS (Mongolia) • Implementation • International Telecommunication Union (ITU) • National Information Technology Park of Mongolia (NITP) • National University of Mongolia • National Electronic and Computer Technology Center of Thailand (NECTEC) • Supporters • DBCDE, Australian Government • AMD Corp. • User & Tester • Mongolian National Federation of the Blinds (MNFB)

4. OBJECTIVES • Build national capacity in developments of local Text-to-Speech (TTS) and electronic publishing using EPUB standard; • Promote the use of TTS in various applications such as disaster early warning systems, audible online dictionary, multilingual speech-to-speech translation, screen readers, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), information announcement service, self-voicing applications which can be realized commercially in the market; • Promote EPUB standard and assist countries in defining local standard and development of electronic publishing using EPUB; • Promote inclusive multimedia publications in EPUB standard to address the needs of sign language users, minority language speakers and those who are illiterate; • Together with national teams, help develop local TTS and assist in applying and deploying the TTS.

5. EXPECTED OUTPUTS • Local TTS for Microsoft Windows, Android OS and iOS as well as Speech and language resources • Regional and national training for trainers • National electronic publishing standard development in line with EPUB, W3C Web Accessibility Guidelines and other internationally recognized accessibility standards • EPUB contents in various languages • Handbooks for Developers and Users • Country case studies

6. PROJECT FRAMEWORK • The project will be implemented in two approaches, i.e.: • For countries which have their local text-to-speech (TTS) in that the TTS engine can be used by any screen reader, the project aims at building national capacity in developing electronic publications using EPUB standard. • For countries which do not have local TTS, the project aims to help develop TTS in their local language. • Preliminary country readiness assessment will be conducted in consultation and coordination with ITU Member Administration and/or government agency. • Regional and national training will be organized with an aim to train potential local developers on TTS development. • TTS to be developed under this project should support Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) and be compatible with commercial screen readers such as JAWS for Windows and the open-source based screen reader NVDA. • ITU and its partners will provide expertise in TTS development and EPUB as well as facilitate deployment of finished TTS in respective countries. • Monitoring and evaluation are essential for measuring performance of the products and ensuring applications of the products especially by the PwDs.

7. CONTRIBUTIONS • Contributions: In-cash contribution • In-kind contribution CALL FOR ‘EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST’