A website you can ask, and hear, and read in plain words
Two pieces run on this site as a pilot. Axel is a self-hosted talking avatar who answers visitors' questions in video and voice. aXread is an assistant with an Easy Read mode and text-to-speech on every reply, for people who need short sentences and plain words.
The problem
Websites are dense, and the people who most need what is on them are often the ones a wall of text turns away. Many people would rather ask a question and hear the answer. Many need the answer in Easy Read: short sentences, one idea at a time, familiar words, with the option to listen instead of read. Both are rare.
Behind that is a second problem. An avatar rented from a service sends every visitor's question to someone else's servers, at a price that rises with every conversation. For a small organisation that is a privacy question and a budget one.
What we built
Axel is a talking avatar that we host ourselves. He appears on this site, listens to a question, and answers in video and voice with a knowledge base we control and clear boundaries on the topics he covers. Because the avatar runs on our own infrastructure, a visitor's conversation stays with us and the cost of a conversation is ours to manage.
aXread is the assistant beside him. One toggle switches every reply into Easy Read, and every reply can be read aloud. It also runs on this site; its own page shows the Easy Read examples in full.
The judgement it took
The first judgement was the boundary. An avatar on a site about disability will be asked about legal rights, health and crisis. Axel is built to say what he knows, to say when a question needs a professional, and to give Australian crisis contacts. Getting that right mattered more than any feature.
The second was Easy Read itself. Simplifying a sentence is easy; the craft is simplifying it while keeping the meaning and respecting the reader. The Easy Read mode is being refined as people use it, which is what a pilot is for.
The evidence we can show
Both are live on this site: ask Axel a question on the Meet Axel page, then switch aXread to Easy Read and listen to the reply. On your own site, the same pair can be set up with your knowledge base, your boundaries and your voice.
What you can buy from this now
An avatar or Easy Read assistant for your own site, with your own knowledge base and boundaries.
Find it under Accessible content and video and aXread.
Why aXai
aXai is a disability-led AI, software and accessibility company. We build AI systems, software, and concepts and prototypes ready to scale, and we deliver them through AI-supported work: skilled people with disability in real, properly paid roles, working to clear quality standards, with AI removing the barriers and people keeping the accountability.
Every project runs on our own infrastructure, the Decision Bus and Project Layer, so each step is planned, signed off by a person and on the record. That is our operating advantage. Read how it works.
Talk to us about it
Tell us the problem you are trying to solve and we will say plainly what we can do with it, and what is planned next.