As for me, more than anything, I would like a screen reader application that would highlight each word as it's read in a write or abiword document -- or even in a pdf for downloaded books. This would be a godsend for younger readers, struggling readers, people with disabilities, and people learning second languages.
My second request would be a talking word processor that would echo keystrokes in write and then after a space, read the word. There are many many programs like this that exist in windows and mac -- some open source. Check out http://www.oatsoft.org/ I would love to help but I'm not a coder. I'm learning. :) Lesley Thacker Fayetteville AR On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:00 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Send accessibility mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of accessibility digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: next sugar meeting: text-to-speech (Samuel Klein) > 2. Re: [sugar] OLPC Usability Testing Class Project (Tomeu Vizoso) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:17:42 -0400 > From: "Samuel Klein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] next sugar meeting: text-to-speech > To: "Hemant Goyal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: Arjun Sarwal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, OLPC - Accessibility List > <[email protected]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Assim > Deodia > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > There's also growing interest in TTS from some potential Summer of Code > students, proposing a number of literacy projects. A focused meeting for > this would be well done. > > SJ > > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 8:01 AM, Hemant Goyal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > My apologies for not being present for this sugar meeting (my school exams > > got over today). > > > > * santhosh and HFactor present Dhvani, a text-to-speech system for > > > indian languages. > > > o santhosh has already worked into integrating Dhvani into Speech > > > Dispatcher. > > > > > > This is great news! The packaging of speech dispatcher and dotconf is > > going on, and we'll pick up some speed now that we are free from exams. One > > of the dependencies of speech-dispathcer,DOTCONF is already approved and > the > > author of the package has been sponsored by a FEDORA Packaging mentor. The > > next package to be accepted will be speech-dispatcher. > > > > > > > in today meeting we have agreed on the convenience of having a meeting > > > mainly focused on the use of text-to-speech systems in Sugar. If > > > everybody agree, will take place Tuesday March 25 at 15.00 UTC. > > > > > > Brilliant,! I've added a few points that I think I would like to discuss > > with the sugar team. > > > > I'm sending this to the Accessibility list in the hope that someone > > > will be interested in contributing in this area. > > > > > > If you are interested in attending, please add to the attendants and > > > topics in: > > > > > > > > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sugar_dev_meeting#Tuesday_March_25_2008_.28.22TTL-meeting.22.29_exceptional_time:_15.00_.28UTC.29 > > > > > > Just for an update, I tried running orca with speech-dispatcher and at a > > high level it worked fine. However since we have not been able to integrate > > basic speech synthesis in sugar, I have avoided researching about this > > option just yet. > > > > Thank you for keeping a special meeting for TTS! > > > > Best, > > Hemant > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/accessibility/attachments/20080319/75730d60/attachment-0001.htm > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:04:52 +0100 > From: "Tomeu Vizoso" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] [sugar] OLPC Usability Testing > Class Project > To: "Frederick Grose" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED], > [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Hi, > > On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 11:24 PM, Frederick Grose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This note is a request for the broader community to consider potential > topic > > areas that might be prime for some usability testing. > > > > (Here is a quick review of usability testing, > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing.) > > > > Professor Keith Karn in the Information Technology Department, > > http://it.rit.edu/it/, of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in > > Rochester, NY will have 4-5 graduate students (from his class of 20) > > propose, and over the next 10 weeks, execute a usability testing > > consultation around the XO or OLPC project. The class met for the first > > time on Wednesday 12 March 2008, and will meet, as a whole, every Wednesday > > 6-9:50 pm EDT through 21 May 2008. This OLPC project team will be asked to > > review the wiki.laptop.org and then contact me as client representative. > > Because of the academic schedule, we need to review and select a testing > > topic area in the next 7 days and have a final testing plan prepared by 26 > > March 2008. > > > > What usability issue is currently most timely and significant to the > > project? Since OLPC is developing a new information and communication > > technologies platform, there are many possibilities for significant target > > users, subsystems, components, and activities. > > I suggest starting first with observing general usage of the Sugar > shell and base activities (Browse, Read, Write, Paint and Journal) and > move from there to other activities. At this point, I don't think more > focused testing will be as useful. > > > Please think about the project design needs, possibilities, and > constraints, > > and suggest topics or issues here or to our wiki page, > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Rochester%2C_NY#Project_ideas. > > > > We have a few G1G1 XOs in Rochester that we should be able to use for live > > testing with local children. Larger scale tests could be performed with > > emulated XOs or hosted Sugar in the RIT Usability Laboratories. The class > > will be expected to go through the human subject reviews as required. > > > > Because so many cultural variables may be important modifiers of > > understanding user interactions with the OLPC project, perhaps there may be > > some more basic or common psycho-physical aspects of usability we could > > address that would be timely and significant for the project. Or, we might > > be able to recruit user participants from one of the recently settled > > immigrant communities in the Rochester area to delve into the > > internationalization and cultural domains. > > Having different groups of children based on age and previous contact > with computers may be more important than cultural differences, in my > opinion. > > > Some reviewers of OLPC have been critical of the shortage of reported > > usability testing results, so far, however, if we appreciate the pace and > > resourcing of the development, perhaps this is a chance to address any gaps > > or curiosities that you may have. > > We have already had some feedback from the pilot tests, but until now > and because of time and other constraints, hasn't been as systematic > as we need. Having your commented observations about which tasks are > more problematic would already be extremely useful. > > > We would welcome your thoughts (particularly on usability issues in the > near > > term). > > > > Thanks to everyone for all their efforts! > > I'm afraid now is not a good moment to ask a big involvement from the > Sugar developers, but I'm sure we'll make our best at answering more > concrete questions that you have. > > Thanks and good luck, > > Tomeu > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > accessibility mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility > > > End of accessibility Digest, Vol 12, Issue 5 > ******************************************** > _______________________________________________ accessibility mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
