ScanSoft Broadens Access to Voting in Local Government Elections

ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking Enables Disabled People to Exercise Their Right to Independently Participate in Local Elections

Reading, UK, April 30, 2003 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, today announced that ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking®, the world's best-selling speech recognition application, will be used by members of the UK's disabled community in conjunction with the ability to vote online to exercise their right to vote in private in the local elections to be held on the 1st May 2003. This year, the e-voting and text voting scheme has been widened to include more parts of the UK, and the Government is hopeful that by the next general election everyone in the UK will have the option to e-vote or text vote.

When e-voting was piloted in the UK in the last local elections, ScanSoft's technology enabled Dr Christine Barton from Fulwood in Sheffield, who has severe MS, to be the first person to cast a vote using voice technology. "It was the first time in six years that the concept of a secret ballot has had any meaning for me," Christine said.

Previously, Christine has relied on a postal vote, but because she cannot hold a pen someone else had to fill in the ballot paper for her. Now Christine, an experienced Dragon NaturallySpeaking user, can use the software to vote from her computer at a time of her choosing and entirely in private.

Awarded an MBE in 2000 for services to disabled people, Christine is a member of the General Social Care Council and a Director of Inclusive Living Sheffield Ltd and the Accessible Property Register. For her, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is an essential tool, without which it would be very difficult for her to maintain such high levels of professional activity.

"I like the fact that the product can be used by anyone," Christine said, "Its not specifically aimed at disabled people and that makes it genuinely inclusive. Being able to use a computer is essential for my work. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, I can do with voice commands anything that other people can do with a mouse and keyboard. I can dictate text, create PowerPoint presentations, save and print documents, send e-mails and so on entirely by voice. And, as NaturallySpeaking works particularly well with Internet Explorer, voting by voice via the Internet is both quick and easy. Although not developed specifically for disabled people, I believe that people in a similar position to me are the people who, in terms of quality of life, can benefit most from its use."

Mark Erwich, Marketing Director International, ScanSoft added, "ScanSoft is delighted that its technology can be of benefit to everybody with respect to enhancing their lives, whether in a personal or professional capacity."

ScanSoft released Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 7 earlier this year. It delivers the accuracy, speed, ease-of-use and innovative features needed to make speech recognition a mainstream application, in the home and at the office. Dragon NaturallySpeaking turns speech into text at up to 160 words-per-minute, and allows users to control Microsoft Windows and their PC applications completely by voice. The product is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office, which allows users to create new documents, or change the layout of existing documents, using their voice. The product's new Natural Punctuation feature offers automatic insertion of periods and commas in applications such as e-mails, instant messages and Web-based forms. In total, the accuracy and performance improvements within Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 deliver an unmatched level of productivity and ease of use for speech recognition products.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft products and technologies, please visit www.ScanSoft.com.au.

ScanSoft and the ScanSoft logo and Dragon NaturallySpeaking are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company or product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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