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Service Description

SensusAccess is a self-service solution that automates the conversion of documents into a range of alternate formats including digital Braille, MP3 audio files, DAISY structured audio books, e-books and BeeLine Reader. The service is also used to remediate otherwise inaccessible documents such as image-only PDF files, scanned documents, pictures of text, LaTeX documents and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into more accessible formats. Furthermore, through advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning, SensusAccess offers language-to-language translation with a very high degree of accuracy

Available as a stand-alone service as well as plug-ins to all major learning management systems, SensusAccess is intended as a self-service solution for print-impaired students and complements traditional disability services offered by academic institutions. SensusAccess is also used by students with poor language skills, flexible learners, foreign language students and other groups of mainstream students to facilitate learning. Likewise, the service is used by faculty and staff to remediate documents and to convert lecture notes, handouts and other instructional material into alternate formats. In addition to on-campus students, SensusAccess is used to provide accessibility services in hybrid environments, blended learning situations, distance learning programs, online courses and MOOCs, and to extend accessibility services to alumni.

SensusAccess includes support for many languages including all major and many smaller European languages, American English, Latin American Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese and more.

A wide range of document types can be submitted to SensusAccess. These include plain text files, Microsoft Word documents with and without math equations, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations with and without handout notes, HTML documents, RTF files, LaTeX documents, most image formats, e-books in EPUB and Mobi Pocket format as well as all types of PDF documents.

SensusAccess offers six different categories of services:

Use of of SensusAccess is subject to the Terms of Use stated below.

Braille services

Transcription of documents in contracted and uncontracted Braille in accordance with the Braille code for Unified English Braille (UEB) as well as the national systems for Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, British English, American English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Spanish. The documents can furthermore be formatted and paginated, and delivered as ready-to-emboss files in a variety of digital Braille formats.

Click here for more information about the Braille services in SensusAccess.

Audio services

Conversion into plain MP3 files and well as DAISY Talking Books, including Daisy books with spoken math. The audio conversion features currently include high-quality voices for Arabic, Arabic/English bilingual, Bulgarian, British and American English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, Greenlandic, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Castilian and Latin American Spanish, and Welsh.

Click here for ore information about the audio services in SensusAccess.

E-book services

Documents can be converted into EPUB, EPUB3, EPUB3 with media overlays and Mobi Pocket (Amazon Kindle) e-book formats. Furthermore, EPUB may be converted into Mobi Pocket and vice versa. To accommodate users with low vision, the base line of the body text in an e-book may be raised to allow for more appropriate text scaling in mainstream e-book readers.

Click here for more information about the e-book services in SensusAccess.

Accessibility services

Otherwise inaccessible documents such as image files in GIF, TIFF, JPG, BMP, PNG, PCX, DCX, J2K, JP2, JPX, DJV and image-only PDF, as well as all types of PDF files can be converted to more accessible formats including tagged PDF, DOC, DOCX, Word XML, XLS, XLSX, CVS, text, RTF and HTML. The service also supports conversion of Microsoft Office documents into tagged pdf and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into RTF files and web-projects. Furthermore, LaTeX documents and archives can be converted into HTML5.

Click here for more information about the accessibility services in SensusAccess.

BeeLine Reader services

Documents can be converted into BeeLine-enabled documents, either as PDF documents where the original layout is maintained or as HTML with dynamic, reflowable documents.

Click here for more information about the BeeLine Reader services in SensusAccess.

Machine translation services

Document in one language can be translated into another language with a very high degree of accuracy. Source documents may even be multilingual. Source languages may be specified or auto-detected.

Click here for more information about the Machine translation services in SensusAccess.

Terms of use

Use of the SensusAccess service is subject to the following terms and conditions:

  • Use of SensusAccess is subject to a service agreement between an institutional user (aka the subscribing institution) and Sensus.
  • Users must use the service in accordance with any terms and conditions set out by the subscription institution.
  • Users must use the service in accordance with copyright legislation for the jurisdiction in which the subscribing institution is located.
  • Users should not upload any personal and/or sensitive information to the service for conversion.
  • SensusAccess must only be used for non-commercial purposes.