The World Wide Web Foundation, a Knight grantee founded by Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has launched a new project to help more Africans access the Web through voice-enabled apps.

From FastCompany.com:

“VOICES will provide the tools, techniques, and training to make it easier to access the Web through voice. In doing so, we will explore the potential for billions of new users to access information and services from the Web,” Web Foundation CEO, Steve Bratt, tells Fast Company. Bratt and his colleagues are still in consultation with locals in Mali and Senegal about how exactly the apps will work in accordance with local context and local needs. But generally speaking, an app might allow someone who is illiterate, for example, to call a number, choose from among medical, farming, or other menu options, and engage with data and information in a visual manner that does not require reading comprehension.

The World Wide Web Foundation, which seeks to promote a free and open Web, launched in 2008 with $5 million in seed funding from Knight.

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