[access-uk] Fw: [tafn] Fw: DRC Selects Readspeaker and rVoice
- From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-genaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 15:02:43 +0100
Ray
Personal emails: Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
I am cross-posting this as it should be interesting in different
ways to both lists. I hope this isn't the way things are going
to go.
Ray
Personal emails: Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Leon Gilbert" To: <tafn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 2:19 PM
Subject: [tafn] Fw: DRC Selects Readspeaker and rVoice
Dear Friends. There has . been a definite increase in the
number of websites using in-built speech applications recently,
BrowseAloud being the most well known product. One thing about
this Rvoice product is, that at least the synthesised voices are
decent. However it is not aimed at blind screen reader users, as
much as it is at speakers of other languages, partially sighted
or dyslexic people. I suppose if you are a JAWS/Windoweyes user
it gives you another choice of which voice to have a webpage read
to you in, however only if it is a speech-enabled site.
As the DRC themselves have now opted to use this product on their
website, the company making it (Readspeaker) have secured
themselves a lucrative deal, as regardless of how well the
product works, if the DRC opt for it, it is likely that all the
local authorities will follow suit. Lincolnshire county council
have done so already, & I think we'll end up seeing a lot more
so-called "talking websites". But I still fail to see how it's
either a better solution for blind people than just making the
site screen reader accessible, or for partially sighted people
than simply allowing people to magnify the text.
Further to this, on the Readspeaker website, they have got a link
which says "experience poor sight", which is a kind of v i
simulator idea. When you click on it it simply blurs all the
text, well I must say about this, it's a very poor simulator
indeed, giving a myopic effect "correctable with glasses", but it
has no consideration for tunnel or peripheral vision, glaucoma,
diabetic retinopathy, or other low vision conditions. I've got
quite a bit of low vision experience & could possibly build a
better online vision impairment simulator myself....
Anyway, hope you find it interesting, you can try out Readspeaker
(no download required) at
http://localgov.readspeaker.co.uk
All the best, Leon.
----- Original Message ----- From: <editor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To:
<bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 11:02 AM
Subject: [bcab] Fw: Disability Rights Commission Selects
Readspeaker and rVoice
The Disability Rights Commission Selects Readspeaker and rVoice®
September 14, 2004
EDINBURGH - The DRC in UK has announced that it selected
ReadSpeaker with rVoice® from Rhetorical for accessibility to its
Web site through speech enabling. It is now possible to listen to
the content of the DRC Web site, from any computer, without
having to download software.
ReadSpeaker is also able to speech-enable PDFs, RTFs and word
documents. Speech enabling is of benefit to people with dyslexia,
low literacy levels, learning disabilities, English as a second
language or people with limited vision. In the UK it is estimated
that 6 million people alone suffer from some form of dyslexia.
ReadSpeaker, which dynamically reads Web content out loud, can be
accessed by browsing a Web site, through a click on the 'Listen
to this site ' button.
The service is hosted by ReadSpeaker for the Web site owner and
does not require any pre-installed software.
© Copyright 2004 AmComm Holdings LLC. All rights reserved. All
product names contained herein are the trademarks of their
respective holders.
http://www.speechtechmag.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?client_id=speechtechmag_news&story_id=10910
Related Link:
http://localgov.readspeaker.co.uk
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