Re: A question on Screen Reader Speed Standards
- From: Jim Bauer <holdsworthfan@xxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:59:08 -0600
SAPI measures voice speed in words per minute and screen readers seem
to offer SAPI-synth-specific configuration options as percentages of
the available range of numeric voice rates.
Then there's Eloquence (or JAWS's interfacing, specifically), where
JAWS's scales range from 40 to 150, with 40 being roughly 180 words
per minute and 95 clocking in at around 450. There is roughly a 4.9
WPM jump between JAWS percentage points, though these scalars are
unreliable measurements, and as someone else previously said, haven't
even remained constant throughout JAWS's development.
Andreas Stefik <stefika@xxxxxxxxx> wrote on Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:26:55
-0600:
>Hi folks,
>
>I'm working right now on trying to build up our cross platform speech
>engines for the Sappy project and am trying, specifically, to get NetBeans
>to store custom preferences related to screen reader speed. On Mac, we
>basically just pass a flag to the TTS engine with a number, which, I
>suspect, is words per minute, although I'm not completely sure. On PC,
>things appear to be quite different and I'm not sure about all of the open
>source, and other, solutions out there (insert your favorite technology
>here).
>
>My question is, what would people suggest for standardizing the numbers for
>speed of reading we use for screen readers across all platforms? For
>example, does each screen reader everywhere measure speed in a different
>way? Should just put everything in words per minute and not worry about it,
>translating any screen reader that doesn't comply through some kind of
>calculation (if possible?)? Should we just standardize through some
>arbitrary metric, like 0 is the slowest and 1 is the fastest, then test
>everywhere to make sure those settings are "reasonable" and that the user's
>system preferences are not disturbed?
>
>To be clear, remember that our tool has to, ultimately, be compatible with
>every kind of screen reader, and should still work for the blind even if no
>screen reader is present (or if the screen reader doesn't work well at all).
>That's why I am asking,
>
>Thoughts are welcome,
>
>Stefik
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