[bcab] Re: WebAnywhere: a free screen reader accessed via the

Isaac,

        It's true, it's likely to be the economics of it that are the
problem. As you say, a good area for academic exploration though.

        On a slight tangent, I wonder if there are any notable benefits for
speech quality in a server side solution? I'm sure the quality of
synthesized speech isn't as good as it could be amongst screen reader
technology and wonder how much of that is to do with their client side
approach.

Léonie. 

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Isaac Porat
Sent: 26 April 2008 05:13
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: WebAnywhere: a free screen reader accessed via the

Hello Léonie

I don't disagree with you.  The research that produced Web Anywhere is worth
while in terms of pushing the envelope - this is what academics should be
doing.

Improvements in the web infrastructure should improve responsiveness over
time making this type of technology more viable.

In terms of server loading, machines will get faster and mirroring
technology would improve things but still I doubt the economics and
practicality of this approach in comparison to generating the TTS locally
(local machines will improve as well).

But yet again, if a user is stuck, willing to pay for the privilege
(somebody will have to pay for the service even if the software is free) and
the remote approach is the only available option...

Regards
Isaac
 

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Léonie Watson
Sent: 25 April 2008 21:21
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: WebAnywhere: a free screen reader accessed via the

Isaac,

        Curiously, I think they're all worthwhile approaches. The
innovations in screen reading technology in the last couple of years are
presenting us with more choice, depending on the job at hand and the
limitations of the system.

        It seems that we have a relatively fixed layer in our traditional
screen readers, the option to hot desk with something like SA To Go and the
option to quickly access web content when you don't/can't install anything
to the computer, with Web Anywhere.

        The limitations of server side TTS are certainly worth noting
though. As a popular option, the server load would be considerable I
imagine, but perhaps with adequate mirroring this could still be possible.
Load bearing isn't my strong point I'm afraid.

Regards,
Léonie.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Isaac Porat
Sent: 25 April 2008 20:52
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: WebAnywhere: a free screen reader accessed via the

Hello Si

I don't think that converting to speech on the server is practical - not
beyond a research project; the computation penalty would be too great when
many users would use the site.  If some of the text is pre converted the
storage requirements would be enormous for each page.

On your second point, regardless of how clever the web engineering is,
whatever you do, connection is always unpredictable and many time slow due
to bottlenecks between the server and the client - on a home connection
anyway.

I suspect (but don't know) that the SA to Go converts to speech using a
local program downloaded to your computer which is I think a better
approach.

Regards
Isaac


-----Original Message-----
From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Simon HARPER
Sent: 25 April 2008 16:02
To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcab] Re: WebAnywhere: a free screen reader accessed via the

Hi Guys,
So as far as I'm aware WebAnywhere is for use on machines - mainly public
machines when there is no access to USB or CD for security purpose; and for
situations such as kiosks etc. It works by generating Speech for an http
session on the server side and encoding it as MP3 - then sends it to the
client via JavaScript calls coded into the page by a proxy. It's some pretty
cool Web Engineering especially because the latency is not noticeable as
their encode and send algorithms are leading edge.

Cheers
Si.

====
Simon Harper
University of Manchester (UK)

Human Centred Web Lab: http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk My Site:
http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/harper/
My Diary (iCal): http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/diaries/SimonHarper.ics


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On 25 Apr 2008, at 13:03, Michael Whapples wrote:

> On Fri, 2008-04-25 at 02:03 -0400, BCAB_Digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> Subject: [bcab] Re: WebAnywhere: a free screen reader accessed via 
>> the web
>> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:55:20 +0100
>> From: "Adrian Higginbotham" <adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> SaToGo isn't open source no.
>> NVDA is open source and while it isn't web based it is portable so 
>> can be run from a usb stick or CD so can easily auto start without 
>> any keyboard interaction at all.
>> http://www.nvda-project.org/
> WebAnywhere is opensource as well, although the indications from what 
> I have read is that it hasn't always.
>>
>> Would be nice if nvda and web anywhere worked together to save 
>> duplicating work.
> Might be good, but that is one of the advantages of open source, they 
> don't need to actually work together, the other can always learn by 
> looking at the code and taking anything that looks good (I don't know 
> which open source license WebAnywhere is under, and it might make it 
> harder for the two to mix if it is GPL incompatible). This then means 
> that they may go slightly different ways, but not actually be creating 
> all the stuff themselves. Yes it is better if they work together to 
> help understand what they are trying to do, but it isn't as necessary 
> as it might be for closed source software.
>>
>>
>> Adrian Higginbotham
>> Project manager: Learning services
>> Becta
>> Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Becta switchboard 02476-416994.
>> Email: Adrian.Higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
>> BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ
>>
>>
>
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