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Doing Good: A Driving Force in Life, and in Business

Tags: Volunteer, Science and Technology

Ben Bar-Or

One evening I was sitting with my friend, a genius programmer and we started talking about his sister who is not doing too well in school and was recently diagnosed with dyslexia (Developmental reading disorder).

We decided to put our minds together to come up with a simple phone app to help her and others with similar disabilities. After a while, we came up with out app and named it Voxdox.

Text-to-Speech (TTS) is a technology based on speech syntheses that can truly improve the learning experiences of dyslexic pupils in two distinct ways.

1. Sometimes, a person with dyslexia simply cant figure out the correct spelling of a word, even after reading and rereading what he or she wrote. However, if the text is read out loud then the person's understanding of what is being read (through clear pronunciation of the words) he can confidently and without hesitation, determine if the written word was spelled out correctly.

2. The other benefit is that Text-to-Speech enables a person with dyslexia to focus better on his writing. For instance, reading for a dyslexic can be stressful due to the human element. However, if the reading is done by a machine - with a pleasant voice and a language of your choice, since Voxdox is the only Text To Speech (TTS) app that combines HQ human voices with the ability to read aloud and translate any form of text in more than 20 languages!

Nowadays you can find a number of apps and programs that use a speech synthesizer to provide this service, but few have been specifically designed to assist children and adults with learning disabilities such as dyslexia or alexia.

As James H. Wendorf, executive director of the National Center for Learning Disabilities has shared, it is these kinds of tools that can help students who struggle with learning difficulties keep up with their peers, giving them a sense of self-efficacy, being in charge of their own learning." And what better way can we all contribute to the betterment of Israeli society, and the connection of Jews to Israel?

Because we love what The Israel Forever Foundation is doing and because we want to be part of making Israel, and especially Israeli children, better prepared for the many future challenges that lie ahead, we wanted to share our story and our app with you!

We are now looking for schools, universities and other educational institutions in Israel and around the Jewish world who are interested in helping their students become more comfortable with learning, reading and writing. We want to show the world how Israeli technological innovations can improve users' quality of life and help students everywhere reach their full potential.

If you have a child or know of children suffering from dyslexia, get in touch with me at ben@voxdox.net or just get the app for free

Doing good things (mitzvot) should be the driving force in life – and in business, and we are proud to be serving the needs of the next generation.

Together, we can help them feel confident and comfortable in learning through the amazing new tools that keep emerging from the StartUp Nation!


See what else Israel does to help those with learning disorders!


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Tags: Volunteer, Science and Technology