Hi Monica, you are so right. I have the dorky SAPI voices on my computer and not the spiffy ones. Where can I go to hear them? Regards, Kim. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Monica Willyard Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 3:52 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Auditory Processing Disorder and Reading Accessibility Hi Kim. Actually, there have been some amazing strides in the development of SAPI 5 voices. Some of them are quite good, almost human. You might be surprised. I suspect that what you have heard are the old Microsoft voices like Sam, Mary, and Mike. Those voices are pretty awful. The newer voices can be adjusted with rate, pitch, and inflection to sound more lifelike. In fact, if you spend a few minutes putting some words into your JAWS or Kurzweil dictionary, you can almost forget that it's a computer talking to you. My voices are clear enough now that my aunt, who hasn't lived around computer speech until this year, can understand it clearly. That's why Bookshare gives us some free voices. They didn't skimp either. They give us high-quality voices that make reading comfortable. I am impressed by this, and it's something Bookshare hasn't really promoted here on this list. I don't particularly like the VictorSoft reading program Bookshare uses. However, I use it because of the voice when I need to learn something. That's saying something because I was a die-hard Kurzweil reader for years. I still use it for pleasure. When I need to concentrate and retain something though, I switch to the Bookshare software and am glad to have it. Monica Willyard "The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4694 (20091216) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4694 (20091216) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4700 (20091218) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4700 (20091218) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.