Voiceitt and Webex by Cisco Make Video Meetings More Accessible for People with Disabilities

Partnership delivers new AI captioning and transcription for people with non-standard speech in Webex Meetings

TEL AVIV, Israel & STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Voiceitt, a leading speech recognition technology for non-standard speech, announced today that people with speech impairments will be able to speak and be understood during virtual meetings through innovative captioning and transcription leveraging AI on Webex, a leading collaboration platform powering hybrid work. The integration will be available on the Webex App Hub to be leveraged in Webex Meetings.

“Cisco's commitment to inclusive collaboration is aligned with Voiceitt's mission to make voice AI accessible to people with non-standard speech,” says Sara Smolley, Voiceitt co-founder and Vice President, Strategic Partnerships. “The integration with Webex is game-changing because it creates more independence for users with disabilities, while increasing the potential for more collaborative, inclusive work environments. True collaboration means everyone at the table has a voice.”

“This partnership epitomizes how Cisco works to power inclusivity through innovations that fuel the human potential,” says Amit Barave, Vice President, Product Management, Webex by Cisco. “We know accessibility can be a huge barrier to adoption of technology and services, but through purpose-built AI like Voiceitt and partnerships with Webex to drive more inclusive collaboration, hybrid work can empower greater communities.”

Voiceitt’s web-based application employs the company’s proprietary speech technology to allow non-standard speakers to communicate accurately and flexibly. This communication includes face-to-face conversations, the dictation of emails and text messages, and meeting transcription. The speech technology is adaptive; it learns the patterns of the individual user’s speech from enrollment data. Voiceitt’s underlying machine learning algorithms are informed by and evolved from its proprietary large and growing database of non-standard speech recordings.

Voiceitt also offers an API that enables seamless integration of its tech with any voice interface, making these products accessible to users with disabilities, degenerative disease or brain injuries, developmental disorders, aging-related speech changes, and even challenging dialects. Michael Cash, a Voiceitt employee with cerebral palsy, is a beta tester of the Webex integration. He comments, “Video call integrations allow me to communicate efficiently and effectively while using my own unique voice to help fulfill my ambitions. A fully accessible Webex allows colleagues and partners to understand me without having to ask me to repeat myself, achieving a higher level of effective communication and understanding.”

Voiceitt is available in the Webex Hub to be integrated into Webex Meetings today. Later this year, Voiceitt will also be embedded into the Webex platform to enhance its closed captioning capability for transcription accuracy for all Webex users with non-standard speech patterns. For those with non-standard speech interested in Voiceitt today, a no-cost beta program is available.

About Voiceitt
Voiceitt was founded with the mission to apply its machine learning and speech recognition technologies to help people with speech disabilities resulting from stroke, degenerative disease, or developmental disorders communicate and be understood. Its mission is to help people with disabilities live more connected, independent lives, and the proprietary automatic speech recognition (ASR) enables people with speech disabilities to access mainstream voice technologies, communicate by voice, and be understood.

Voiceitt has been highlighted in international media, including Forbes, Amazon Science, BBC, and The New York Times. Investors include Cisco Investments, the Amazon Alexa Fund, AARP, Third Culture Capital, and Microsoft's M12. Voiceitt was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Israel with a subsidiary in Stamford, CT.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

Webex by Cisco
Webex is a leading provider of cloud-based collaboration solutions which includes video meetings, calling, messaging, events, polling, asynchronous video and customer experience solutions like contact center and purpose-built collaboration devices. Webex’s focus on delivering inclusive collaboration experiences fuels our innovation, which leverages AI and Machine Learning, to remove the barriers of geography, language, personality and familiarity with technology. Its solutions are underpinned with security and privacy by design. Webex works with the world’s leading business and productivity apps – delivered through a single application and interface. Learn more at webex.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230516005409/en/

Media:

Alyson Pace, Co-CEO, Voiceitt

alyson@voiceitt.com

Sara Smolley, Co-Founder and Vice President of Partnerships, Voiceitt

Sara@voiceitt.com

Jimin Lee, Webex PR

Jimilee@cisco.com

Source: Voiceitt