As more developers and companies of all sizes look to create applications involving voice interaction, text-to-speech (TTS) technology company CereProc has reported a surge in subscriptions to its CereVoice Cloud service. The company’s apparent success appears to ride the coattails of a market seeing healthy growth in the number of TTS applications being introduced for individuals that require communication aids and assistance in accessing online resources and services.

With almost 165 million people worldwide living with disabilities that directly affect their ability to access the Internet, the need to pursue accessibility across the board is massive.

Speech synthesis and associated technologies are increasingly being recognized as effective solutions to existing challenges of accessing online information and resources when integrated into applications and platforms used by individuals on their own devices every day, according to Chris Pidcock, CereProc’s chief voice engineer.

“While we continue to tackle the issue of accessibility through our own projects and applications – and with participants consistently reporting the benefits and enhanced independence that these solutions bring – we believe it is our responsibility to share technology with businesses and individuals seeking to introduce TTS into solutions or directly into their personal online consumption of information and communication,” Pidcock said in a statement.

Last year, the Scotland-based company reported a positive year in terms of growth in public sector engagement in TTS technology to improve accessibility to public resources and services. And now, CereProc is seeing increases in the uptake of TTS technology for applications enhancing accessibility by private sector businesses and individual customers using its CereVoice Cloud service.

Recent ONS statistics revealed that individuals living with a disability are approximately three times more likely never to have used the Internet than individuals with no disability.

As such, licensing its software as a cloud based service, CereProc lowers the barriers of entry for the developer community, from large-scale technology companies to individual developers alike.

CereProc’s CereVoice Cloud addresses this challenge by encouraging the integration of TTS technology into applications and services across multiple channels. CereProc offers integration of its lineup of synthetic voices in multiple languages including English (with accents from Scotland, Republic of Ireland, United States of America, Northern England, Southern England and the Midlands), Spanish, Catalan, German, French, Austrian and Italian.

CereProc offers a range of usage tiers and subscriptions to ensure the CereVoice Cloud remains a cost-effective solution for users of the service, ultimately allowing developers to produce applications that address and overcome the difficulties faced by many in accessing information and resources online.

“Having moved seamlessly from its public beta stage, the CereVoice Cloud service enables developers to try out speech technology using the cloud based model prior to investing in more traditional developer kits or downloadable software,” added Pidcock. “With a particular growing interest in the mobile platforms, we’re finding that a greater range of individuals and companies are engaging in TTS technology as a result, and that can only be a positive shift in terms of accessibility.”

The company reports great success with TTS technology for a variety of applications, including productivity, which thus supports individuals with visual or print impairments such as dyslexia. This also helps improve communication for those who are working on strengthening their English or who hold English as a second language.

After a successful year of enhancing public services and user experience in 2012, CereProc officials said the company is looking to further improve these resources using TTS in 2013, TMCnet reported.

“Having played a key role in a number of government funded projects in recent years, CereProc recognizes the challenges faced and potential benefits that exist through making public services and resources more approachable and open to a larger number of people,” according to a company statement.