[access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services/using synth voices

  • From: "James O'Dell" <jamesodell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 17:42:46 +0100

I think speech synthesis preference is a very personal thing.

James
----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin R" <mypc128@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 5:37 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services/using synth voices



Hi James,

I don't have a problem with screen reader speech, persay, if I'm reading new reports on website, documents that i have created. i can cope quite well with them even though I will admit to loosing concentration on an article sometimes due to the monotony of the voice. However, when we are talking about books, stories and novels more so, I can't cannot get the feel of a book by listening with these synthasized voices. I find that the screan reading voices have a tendancy to slow down in some parts, where not needed, and other times just speed up a little to fast for me to catch up. Whether this is a zoomtext thing as opposed to a jaws thing, I'm not sure. I think all screan reading synths seem to hehave much in the same way. The AT&T voices are very good and do come close to the real thing. Don't know if they would be an improvement though, but worth a try.

I can't understand where Damon is coming from but, i think Damon, the more human sounding voices do win over compared to eliquence, IBM viaVoice and TruVoice as, although you do get the continious flow with Jaws and zoomtext, sometimes the words spoken tend to merge. Miss prenounciation is a real concern too. I've come across many a miss-prenounced word. Screan readers are just great! However, when it doe come to a good old story, or an autobiography, they can't do the books concerned justice <smile>.

Justin
----- Original Message ----- From: "James O'Dell" <jamesodell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 4:56 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services



Hi Justin

It's a shame you can't get on with reading using synthetic speech. I use British English Eloquence and am perfectly happy reading with that. Have you thought about buying the A T & T natural voices? They are quite large and take up a lot of memory when running, but are more realistic-sounding and easier to listen to. There are also the voices from cepstral (www.cepstral.com), not as realistic as A T & t, but perhaps a bit better than your screen reader voices. there is Realspeak (sold by Portset as Keyspeak, www.portset.co.uk), but I hesitate to recommend that as I think it's expensive for what it is.

James
----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin R" <mypc128@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:05 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services




"Ray's Home"
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Ethics of book sharing services


An 'e-book standard has to emerge >which in turn will depend on part on e->book hardware becoming an attractive >alternative to the ordinary print book. >Whatever that standard turns out to be, >PDF, Microsoft, whatever, thorough >accessibility has to be part of it, with >speech/Braille output being an easy >option. Many will accept synthetic >speech as a way of reading vastly more >material; but I for one want my books >read professionally by a human.

Yes, totally agree. I can't get on with books being red by synthetic voices, particularly coming from our screen readers.



If that is to happen on a much larger >scale then an infra-structure has to >come into being whereby spoken word >editions are handled by companies who >do not see readers as the only source >of demand for their product, and their >are other people, print handicapped in >whatever way, who would much prefer >to be read to.

Exactly! that point reminds me on why I have never seen an alliance being made up of say; RNIB, action for the blind and dislexia organistions. Together, they'd be a real force and I'm sure there are a many dislexic people out there who have it severe enough not to be able to read, let alone well enough.


Maybe such companies could be jointly >financed by large publishers, with some >state finance too. I'd envisage a form of >organisation partaking of social >enterprise ethics and the idea of a state >agency being combined into audio >publishing enterprises. Afraid I do not >see the RNIB qualifying to be a >candidate for such an enterprise given >its track record.

a> "right to read" compagn carries much clout with anyone outside of the access to read materials for us visually impaired.


JUstin



As things stand, I think initiatives like Bookshare are a good move, considering that mainstream publishers are so stubbornly determined to evade their responsibilities to us. Seems no one in this country is prepared to work hard enough or to kick asse as the Americans would say, to make it happen.
Ray


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