Gino.Santilli@f15.n363.z1.fidonet.org (Gino Santilli) (07/18/90)
Index Number: 9230
I am DESPERATLY seeking a way to convert word proccessor text into fairly
high quality speech. I have searched high and low, and have only been able to
find inferior products at extremely high prices. If anyone has any info. they
can share, I would greatly appreciate it. I found a semi-decent program
called digitize.zip off another BBS, but I am having trouble figuring it out.
any ideas? I can be reached at 648-1742, my name is GINO, THANX!
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!363!15!Gino.Santilli
Internet: Gino.Santilli@f15.n363.z1.fidonet.orgAnn.Parsons@f204.n260.z1.fidonet.org (Ann Parsons) (07/19/90)
Index Number: 9293 [This is from the Blink Talk Conference] Hi Gino, >"I am DESPERATLY seeking a way to convert word proccessor text into >"fairly high quality speech. I have searched high and low, and have >"only been able to find inferior products at extremely high prices. >"If anyone has any info. they can share, I would greatly appreciate >"it. I found a semi-decent program called digitize.zip off another >"BBS, but I am having trouble figuring it out. any ideas? I can be >"reached at 648-1742, my name is GINO, THANX! It depends on what you want it to do. The TTS program that comes with most screen reading programs might do, but you need a software package to make a good match. Can you be more specific about your needs? Ann P. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!260!204!Ann.Parsons Internet: Ann.Parsons@f204.n260.z1.fidonet.org
JS5L@andrew.cmu.edu (Jack Stein) (01/23/91)
Index Number: 13087 We are interested in some information from people who have any knowledge of technology that is available with Personal Computers (such as IBM PC or PS-2) for the visually impaired. In particular we are looking at developing the software to work with a speech synthesizer from Digital Equipment Corp (DECTalk). Here is what we are trying to do: 1. We have a real nice E-mail program running on the pc called EzMail. It is very similiar to how a Mac User interface works. We have windows, menu bar, Pull down menus... We want to let a visually impaired users who has a PC with DECtalk to be able to navigate in EzMail so that they can hear the text on the menu bar, pull down menu, Dialog boxes, Windows... a. No one in our group (Special Projects) has ever done any thing like this. b. We have a willing user who is blind and is a programmer that wants to help us with design, beta testing. c. We are going to contact the local chapter of the Pittsburgh Blind Association for additonal input. Here is our questions: 1. Are there products on the market that do similiar things that are well established and used by blind people with pc/ps-2? 2. Are there certain conventions/established guidelines for the way software should interface to a blind user? 3. Are there keyboards available with braille on them for use by blind people? 4. What kind of groups or organizations are available for us to contact for input/discussion, especially schools for blind that have had to deal with integration of PC/PS-2 into the curriculum. Any help would be valuable. Jack Stein Manager of Special Projects Computing and Communication Development Group Carnegie-Mellon University Pittsbugh, Pa. 15213 JS5L@andrew.cmu.edu
campbell%hpdmd48@hplabs.HP.COM (Gary Campbell) (01/31/91)
Index Number: 13283 JS5L@andrew.cmu.edu (Jack Stein) writes: First, thanks for asking! > b. We have a willing user who is blind and is a programmer that wants >to help us with design, beta testing. > c. We are going to contact the local chapter of the Pittsburgh Blind >Association for additonal input. Sounds good-- I'm not familiar with this organization, but, as I said, I'm glad to see you looking for input. I hope it's changing, but there have been too many times in the past when people went off into development efforts without doing this! >1. Are there products on the market that do similiar things that are >well established and used by blind people with pc/ps-2? There are a few programs especially designed for use with speech, but most people use off the shelf programs and concentrate on getting the features in a screen reader program necessary to use the software. There are, however, things that a software writer can do to make the program more useable by someone using speech. The kind of interface you describe is often difficult to use, and the proper adaptations could be very appropriate. I would suggest that you have a look at some current screen readers (there are demos for many, and Pitsburg is the home of the BlinkLink Fidonet conference to which this message should be gated, so I think you should be in good shape there). I also suggest that you approach the problemin a way that doesn't lock you into DecTalk, since that is a very expensive solution and there are many less expensive ones out there that will do the job quite nicely (many feel better!). >2. Are there certain conventions/established guidelines for the way >software should interface to a blind user? >3. Are there keyboards available with braille on them for use by blind people? I don't see a need for this, except maybe for a workstation used by many people who have little familiarity with PCs. If you do have this situation, I think that a braille key chart beside the computer should suffice. You might want to put little dots on the f and j keys or something, but I haven't wanted that enough to bother with it on either of my PCs. >4. What kind of groups or organizations are available for us to contact >for input/discussion, especially schools for blind that have had to deal >with integration of PC/PS-2 into the curriculum. There are a couple of national organizations for the blind-- the American Council for the Blind andthe National Federation of the Blind, who, I believe, have computer groups. However, as I said, there are a lot of users, and a few speech system writers on the BlinkLink Fidonet conference who should get this message. I believe that that conference started in Pitsburg, so there should be a lot of info available to you to get you hooked up with local people who can give you input. Below are some comments I wrote in answer to another similar message which I hope are helpful: subject: Re: Synthesizer interfacing in-Reply-To: article <14296@bunker.UUCP> of Thu, 20 Sep 1990 15:59:02 GMT I don't remember seeing your original message, but as everyone is saying, you want to make the program easy to use with screen readers, not directly interface with the synthesizer. Most screen readers do not speak what is directly written to video memory, although some of the new ones have a feature allowing speaking of an area of the screen that changes, but they do speak what is written to BIOS interrupt 10h, and therefore also what is written to DOS. Therefore, intelligent choice of how you write to the screen can make a program easier to use with speech. Write things like prompts and error messages to BIOS and screen updates to the screen directly. Screen readers also usually have the ability to "follow" the cursor. When you do a "cursor down" it waits for the program to move the cursor and then says the line the cursor is on by grabbing it from video memory. When you do a CTL-cursor-right it says the word the cursor ends up on. Many readers also give some capability of following a light bar, but it is often not as flexible as the following of the regular cursor. If you are using a light bar and not using the cursor for anything, put the cursor with the light bar instead of parking it in some useless place like the corner of the screen. Also, if you pop a window up on the screen, blank the stuff on either side of it out so that a "say line" function reads the line of the menu only, and not the background stuff that you don't care about anyway while you are in the menu. Also, bitmap screens are not accessible by present-day screen readers, so if you are using a bitmap screen, you will have to write your own interface to the synthesizer. Hope this helps. -- Gary Campbell