For those of you who know something about audio processing disorders I wonder if you can make a guess as to whether I have one. I do not have a problem understanding synthetic voices or any of the talking book narrators, but I seem to have a problem understanding a person talking when there is back ground noise. I do not necessarily mean loudness, but that is a definite problem. I mean even soft sounds like elevator music in the background. I have a very difficult time having a conversation with someone on a city sidewalk. I have to keep asking for the speaker to repeat her or himself and I have noticed that some people become annoyed with me. This is a problem I have always had and for the most part I have not thought about it being abnormal, but when no one else seems to have a problem understanding someone in the exact same environment I have sometimes wondered. The best way I can describe it is to say that it seems to me that the background noise is as important as what I am trying to listen to and it is a conscious effort on my part to ignore it. "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony
The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html----- Original Message ----- From: "Valerie Maples" <vlmaples@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 1:44 PMSubject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Auditory Processing Disorder and Reading Accessibility
Dear Monica;Just like so many areas in health care, there are a wide range of variance in people who have auditory processing disorders. I certainly don't know what is considered typical, I just know about the spectrum they can cover. The new Acapello voices are far superior for most people. I think you will be pleased with the investment.
Unfortunately I am in no position to site I have read things as my computers are in total upheaval. I can only speak to my 2 children who were identified as having auditory processing disorders and the fact that they could not follow commands by earlier speech devices using DECtalk and I was told that that was common. I know that many individuals with auditory processing disorders could not retain information presented in SAPI 4 voices and then he still can only use some of the SAPI 5 voices. Sorry I cannot be of more help. I know more about solutions then the research behind them. Smiles.
Valerie On Dec 14, 2009, at 3:34 PM, Monica Willyard wrote:
Hi Valerie. I'm probably an odd exception to the auditory processingdisorder group. I don't know what is typical, and I'm learning more about it as I go. I was only correctly diagnosed this year, as an adult. Like Nicole, I like the new Acapella voice Bookshare gives us and would love to have all of my devices and programs use that voice, especially JAWS. I'm going to buyit for my computer as soon as I can afford it.You mentioned that people with auditory processing disorder don't recognize TTS speech as sound. That confuses me a little. Do you have any books or websites you could recommend about this? If there is no information onBookshare, I will look for a couple of books to scan about it. I seem to be backward if this is normal. Then again, I'm blind too, so maybe normal isn'treally applicable.I do well using specific types of speech, and there are some human readers Ican barely comprehend. My inability to understand certain readers makes those books inaccessible for me unless I scan them for myself. That's something champions of audiobooks probably don't really understand. I look at the name of the narrator of a book or listen to a sample of the speech before even considering buying it from Audible. I like books that are in a text format so I can use a voice that I understand clearly. I prefer Braille if I can get it. If not, I need afairly constant, very clear, and unaccented voice to cope with reading. WhenI have to use a device with a confusing voice, I use my computer to recordbooks into mp3 files using a voice that I do understand well. Then I put mygood files on the bad device and can function well. Knowing what I'm dealing with, and that it will benefit our deaf/blind members as well, I usually end up scanning books I want to read from NLSunless they have the book in WebBraille. I often end up scanning my Audiblebooks too, especially ones that I want to learn from or read in depth. Monica Willyard "The best way to predict the future is to create it." -- Peter Drucker -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Valerie Maples Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 8:18 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library I have to agree with Judy. As a matter of fact, Nichole would never listento a synthetic voice until the acapella voices that are now available on herdevice. I don't know anyone who prefers TTS over audio books and most are more than willing to pay for the alternative. The only people who learn to accept TTS are those who need a wider range of books or budget constraintsmake the other alternative unaffordable. Then there are people with auditoryprocessing disorders who do not even acknowledge TTS as speech as it is processed slightly differently in the brain. In my opinion we need to constantly be exploring and expanding all mediums all of text accessibility and in a cooperative effort like Bookshare, I think that everyone comes out winners. I know that even though I have amembership now I will probably almost exclusively be a volunteer due to timeconstraints, but being a member will allow me to check how certain things are handled in the final process or view how proofreaders have handled my scans. Interesting dialogue everyone... Valerie-----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] OnBehalf Of Judy s. Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:39 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Publishers and Bookshare As a Library I view the disabling of TTS as about as silly as the digital rights management.<snip>I don't know a single sighted person, other than myself, who will willingly listen to listen to a book that they can read by listening to it in a synthetic voice. Me? I can't afford expensive audible downloads, and the NLS's offerings are very limited in my tastes, so listening to books via bookshare downloads using either DAISY or Text Aloud has become an acquired taste, one I've become used to and actually very much enjoy. If sighted readers were the least bit interested in hearing books read with a synthetic voice, I suspect the market would be flooded with that sort of book. Why? It is much cheaper for a book publisher to produce that en masse than it is to hire a professional reader and studio to produce the master for each and every book that becomes an audible book. I really doubt that sales of human-read audible books would waver one whit if ebooks had TTS enabled. It would expand the market of ebooks available to the sighted/disabled reader, but that's about it. Just my opinion. Grin. Judy s.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list ofavailable commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput 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.
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