N@N

Actuate Announces General Availability of Xenos Axess

^{Published on 2010-06-28 04:05:20 - Market Wire}
 

SAN MATEO, Calif.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ:ACTU), the people behind BIRT®, today announced the general availability of [ Xenos Axess ]a". Following the completion of usability testing and technical evaluation by the [ American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) ], [ CNIB ], and the [ Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) ], Xenos Axess is the first enterprise-class solution to produce high volumes of accessible PDF documents for the visually impaired.

"This was much more accessible than anything else Ia™ve encountered."

[ Xenos Axess ] is ideal for organizations that consistently produce and present high-volume documents such as monthly banking, credit card or investment statements. It integrates with an organizationa™s existing enterprise content management (ECM) infrastructure to capture and transform high-volume print streams and standard PDF document streams into tagged, accessible PDF documents for customers with limited or no vision using assistive technologies. Xenos Axess is delivered via the Xenos Enterprise Servera" platform.

The development and readiness of Xenos Axess involved expert testing and guidance on accessibility and usability in conjunction with three of the largest advocacy agencies for people who are blind or visually impaired a" the AFB, CNIB and RNIB. Feedback received from independent testers includes:

• aThis was much more accessible than anything else Ia™ve encountered.a
• aOnline statements are frustrating. But this statement with the tables made it easy for me.a
• aThis is the first bank statement Ia™ve ever been able to access by myself on my PC, without help from a sighted person.a

aXenos Axess fills a much needed gap in addressing the accessibility of financial statements and other business documents that are delivered in PDF format,a stated Paul W. Schroeder, Vice President, Programs and Policy, American Foundation for the Blind. "We are pleased to be helping Actuate ensure that their solution meets the accessibility and usability needs of people with vision loss. We also appreciate their participation in AFB Consulting's Accessibility Assurance® Program which, when fully implemented, will provide accessibility-specific Help and Feedback opportunities that will ensure the inclusion of people with disabilities in Actuatea™s ongoing development process."

According to Vicki Mains, Director, IS Systems Operations with CNIB, aThe release of this product is well anticipated, as it has been made clear that this will not only increase the independence of the user, but provide safe-keeping of private information.a

Using best practices, four key technical criteria are required to make a document accessible:

• Read Order - used to put order and context to navigation;
• Alternate Text - for images, graphs and pictures;
• Language Specification - defines an overall language for the document and specifies individual words that may be in a different language;
• Tables - need to be defined with appropriate rows and tables.

With Xenos Axess, organizations can adhere to standards such as WCAG 2.0 and comply with legislation such as [ ADA Standards ] and [ Section 508 ].

aIt's quite incredible how far you've got toward making the financial statement accessible,a stated Bim Egan, Senior Web Access Consultant, RNIB. aThe sample sent for evaluation is exponentially more accessible than the PDF financial statements currently available.a

Giving Back to the Community

Actuate will continue to work extensively with the AFB, CNIB, and RNIB; organizations clearly dedicated to helping those who are visually impaired to ensure that Xenos Axess addresses the needs of this vital community. A percentage of Xenos Axess license sales will be donated to these advocacy organizations for the visually impaired. Additionally, Actuate customers who require web or document accessibility assistance can leverage the working relationship that Actuate has with the AFB to help ensure that all of the information made available to the general public meets the appropriate technical and usability needs of the growing population of people with vision loss.

For More Information

View the presentation: [ www.xenos.com/presentation ]

Download the whitepaper: [ www.xenos.com/accessibility-whitepaper ]

Read the Bloor Research report: [ www.xenos.com/bloor-research/ ]

Email: [ accessibility@actuate.com ]

[ Xenos a" An Actuate Company ]

Xenos provides high-performance solutions that optimize enterprise content management (ECM) implementations by streamlining the movement of information across the enterprise and slashing document storage costs. Xenos solutions, delivered by the scalable [ Xenos Enterprise Servera" ], process, extract, transform, repurpose and personalize high volumes of data and documents for storage, real-time access, ePresentment, printing and delivery in numerous formats across multiple channels.

Effective Feb. 1, 2010, Xenos became an Actuate company. For more information, visit [ www.xenos.com ].

[ Actuate a" the people behind BIRT ]

Actuate founded and continues to co-lead the Eclipse BIRT open source project. BIRT is the premier development environment for Rich Information Applications that present structured data and content in compelling and interactive ways via the web on any device. Actuate and its people are dedicated to making BIRT the best environment for our customers to develop Web 2.0 applications that drive revenue through higher customer satisfaction/loyalty and improve operational performance. The people of Actuate continually participate in and provide resources for the vibrant open source community that has emerged around BIRT. Anybody can participate in the BIRT movement by visiting [ www.birt-exchange.com ].

Actuate offers value-add BIRT products and services that speed the development process and bring additional functionality such as, interactivity, content transformation and enterprise scalability to BIRT-based Rich Information Applications. Actuate has over 4,500 customers globally in a diverse range of business areas including financial services and the public sector. Founded in 1993, Actuate is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide. Actuate is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol ACTU. For more information, visit the company's web site at [ www.actuate.com ].

Copyright © 2010 Actuate Corporation. All rights reserved. Actuate and the Actuate logo, Xenos, the Xenos logo, Xenos Enterprise Server and Xenos Axess are registered trademarks of Actuate Corporation and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other brands, names or trademarks mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.