Oops. Sorry for mis spelling your name Quintin. Glen Barwick *** On 15-May-14 2:13 PM, Quentin Christensen wrote:
Hi Jeanie, Code Factory have now released Eloquence for Android (the tip seems to be to search for "ETI Eloquence" or "Eloquence text" or similar since it's called "Eloquence Text To Speech" and just searching for Eloquence doesn't find it as quickly). Here is the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.codefactory.eloquencetts On that is a video which gives you an idea of what it sounds like. THe feedback I've seen from a couple of users here is that it is slightly compressed compared to say Jaws on a PC, but not badly and overall it works really well. It does work with a few languages, but not ALL languages yet, so if you need support for a specific language just double check it has that before you buy it (It costs around $20 US). With Google's voices, it depends which language you prefer. For English US there is only Female, or Female (High quality), though for English UK there are both male and female regular and high quality voices (The high quality voices sound much better but are much larger - the UK English Female voice is 4.6mb for instance, wheras her high quality counterpart takes up a whopping 276 mb - As far as I can find out that definitely gets stored on your phone, you can't store it on your SD card). And there are other voices as well - some manufacturers (like Samsung) include their own voices (though I prefer the Google ones to Samsung's), and there are third party voices you can download from the Play Store. "Ivona" make a range of different voices and accents for a few dollars each (some are in beta and are free), and you can download eSPeak, Pico and a few others you might have come across before as well. Finally re your own messages, yes the way the group is setup, you don't get a copy of your own message. I'll have a look and see if there is an option I can change for that (I admin the group). Regards Quentin. On 15 May 2014 13:54, Jeanie Vejil <proud2have-tsedog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Thanks Quenton. You guys are teaching me a lot about what to consider and what not to consider, which is exactly what I need to know. I've heard that Code Factory is about to release a version of Eloquence for android phones. What have you heard about that? Also, I've not had the phone in my hand yet, but have heard TalkBack. Is there only a female voice available at this time with TalkBack? Are we supposed to be able to see our own posts with this list so that we know they got to the list? If so, how does one change the settings so our own posts show up? Jeanie On Thursday 5/15/2014 12:40 PM, Quentin Christensen wrote:And then there are the alternatives to Android - the iPhone and the Windows phone. The iPhone works very similarly to Android, and like Android, the iPhone comes with a screen reader (called VoiceOver). iPhones tend to be more expensive than equivalent Android phones and are not as customisable (the advantage of that being that if you have an iPhone it will be the same as everyone else's so what works on one will work on another. The disadvantage being that if you don't like the stock iPhone keyboard or text messaging app, bad luck because it's your only option). Windows Phone doesn't yet have a screen reader to the extent of Android or iPhone. I did hear that the newest ones will start to include a version of Narrator, and I believe they also have a magnifier, but I would definitely be going with either Android or an iPhone for accessibility, particularly screen reader accessibility for now. Re different Android manufacturers, yes as Glen said, Nexus devices run a more 'pure' Android interface and don't have as much bloat ware (extra apps and software features) which most of the manufacturers add on to their phones. Samsung are quite good, and their newest flagship phone, the S5, also has the ability to triple click the home key to quickly turn Talkback on and off, which is one feature of the iPhone which we have been hoping to see overe on Android. Some of the other manufacturers have had issues with accessibility, as when they have customised their interface, it has caused things not to work so well with the screen reader. I know at least HTC and Sony have suffered from this, and I'm not sure about LG. Even if you get one of their phones, you can replace most of the inaccessible apps and features, though there can still be issues, so I would stick with either a Nexus or a Samsung for best acessibility with Talkback. Regards Quentin. On 15 May 2014 12:30, Jeanie Vejil <proud2have-tsedog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Thanks Glen. Every little bit helps since I know very little about android phones other than that they have touch screens. On Thursday 5/15/2014 12:15 PM, Dialup @ 56k wrote:Hello Jeanie, I'm sure Quinton has some really good info here, but here's my sixpence worth. Lots of manufacturere release smart phones running Android, like Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, just to name a few. These manufacturers also release a large variation in phone styles and available options. In terms of accessibility, the Nexus family of phones seems to be the most reliable as they run a pure version of Android without the bloat ware which compromises accessibility. Lots of manufacturers have released this Nexus variant over the years, including Samsung, LG, Asus etc. The LG Nexus 5 seems to be the most recent of these releases. Just to confuse the issue even more, it is reported that Google are about to rename the Nexus line to Silver. Hope this helps in some way. Regards, Glen Barwick *** On 15-May-14 11:38 AM, Jeanie Vejil wrote:Hi Quenton. Thanks for the summary below. Jus to show you how uninformed I am, are there other brands of smart phones besides Samsung, smile. Jeanie On Thursday 5/15/2014 09:04 AM, Quentin Christensen wrote:Hi Jeanie, Welcome to the group! Ok, a very broad request, but in general, you can actually do most things on a smart phone that you can do on a computer - you can read / write E-Mails, browse the web, play games, read books, get directions (the phones have a GPS built in so you can find out where you are as well) and heaps more - and of course you can do the core tasks of making phone calls and sending / receiving text messages with them! The great thing is that, as on a computer, most tasks are able to be done relying solely on the screen reader (talkback), which reads everything out to you. The trickiest thing to get used to is that there are very few buttons and almost everything is done by interacting with the touch screen interface. Once you get familiar with the gestures (tapping / double tapping the screen, swiping and sliding your finger around) then you use similar gestures for most things. There are alternative interfaces and apps you can get to make things simpler, it mostly depends on exactly what you want to do with the phone - whether you want something to just be able to make and receive calls and text messages or whether you want to access e-mail, internet and other things. If you have any specific things you are wondering or tasks you would like to be able to do, let us know and I'm sure someone can give you more specific information. Regards Quentin. On 15 May 2014 08:19, Jeanie Vejil <proud2have-tsedog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:My name is Jeanie Vejil and I am totally blind. Hello to all. AS of yet, I do not own an Android smart phone, but am interested inall youcan teach me regarding what they can do, how difficult you feel theyare touse, etc. I hope to read your input soon. Jeanie To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subjectfield(new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in thesubject(to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest'in thesubject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).
To post to the list, simply send email to vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe from the list send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field (new users, use 'subscribe' to subscribe) To receive the list as a digest, send an email to vi-android-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'set vi-android digest' in the subject (to go back to receiving every message use 'unset vi-android digest' in the subject).