Through an initiative to incorporate screen reading capabilities directly into all its electronic document solutions, E-mail Connection, in association with the National Council for the Blind, has become the first company in South Africa to offer an e-billing system that is user friendly for the visually impaired.
Darryl Richard, director of Email Connection, says that the functionality has been seamlessly built into the company's electronic document and billing formats, so customers no longer need to make any differentiation between users who may be visually impaired and anyone else.
Bill recipients who have a lesser degree of impairment or even those without any disability can also make use of the technology to have their electronic documents read to them clearly and accurately.
We do not believe that organisations should have to ask whether any of their clients are visually impaired or not and thus treat these users any differently. Bill presentation should also not prejudice any parties.
"Organisations have to nevertheless consider their disabled client base, and cater for their needs. Our e-billing solutions now take this into account. The visual document, however, remains the same regardless of who it is sent to by making use of functionality that is 'hidden' within the document logic," says Richard.
Traditional paper-based bills, by comparison, offer little value. Organisations that rely on printed documents would need to go to costly lengths to translate their documents into Braille to meet the needs of visually impaired clients. According to the National Council for the Blind, few people are in fact able to read Braille.
"The document functionality has been designed to use the screen reading software optimally, by, for instance, allowing users to move through document sections in a structured and coherent way. Documents can be logically navigated, and users have full control over document options and navigation key functionality," he adds.
The functionality does not however impact on users without disabilities, and file sizes are unchanged. Email Connection is also making these capabilities available to clients at no additional cost.
"As the first company in South Africa to offer this functionality in all our e-billing solutions, we are continuing to build on our spirit of e-billing innovation. Companies shouldn't wait for requests to come from disabled users, but should rather be proactive in having their documents comply with their social responsibility duties."
The National Council for the Blind has indicated that PC usage by the blind is increasing. About 5000 visually impaired users currently have access to computers. All these users require services and bills. Email Connection is effectively empowering companies to now offer this much-needed capability to their own clients.
