Times of India news paper. The man behind Kannada in Google's text - to - speech app Basavaraj Meeshi TNN TOI Belagavi: An online campaign by a 29 - year - old visually impaired clerk from Belagavi has nudged Google to include Kannada in the Text - to Speech ( TTS ) Android platform, helping thousands to access content spoken in their mother tongue. When Google introduced TTS system, it came up with English, Hindi, Bengali and other language options but Kannada was left out. Siddalingeshwar Ingalgi of Bailhongal taluk, who works as a second division assistant at the rural development and panchayat raj department, launched an online petition in April 2017, urging netizens to sign up and push for inclusion of Kannada. He also wrote to Google India, saying the people of Karnataka shouldn't be left out. " Initially when I wrote to Go ogle and started the campaign, there was no response AGAINST ODDS: Siddalingeshwar Ingalgi's campaign for inclusion of Kannada got more than 3,300 signatories the TST platform in November 2019. It became available to the general public in February this year. " Ilost my vision in early childhodd due to a nerve condition and took this up as a challenge. This has changed everything for the visually - challenged who speak Kannada. We can access all manner of content, including journals and novels, " he said. In July, deputy chief minister Ashwath Narayan lauded Siddalingeshwar for his efforts. Nagaraj M, president of National Federation for The Blind, said before Google introduced TST, people with vision difficulty had to pay Rs 1,000 to buy the vocaliser software. " It also had several problems and it was always difficult to use. Now, with the effort of Siddalingeshwar, we have TST which is making li ves easy. First we do not have to pay and secondly, the pronunciation is very clear to understand, " he said. from the company. But later, as months passed and more and more people signed the petition, it grabbed the attention of the decision - makers in the company, ” said Siddalingeshwar The campaign at that time, on Change.org, received more than 3,300 virtual signatures. Acknowledging the demand, Google executives in India introduced Kannada on google tts.
On Sun 19 Jul, 2020, 4:18 PM Siddalingeshwar Ingalagi, < ingalagisi...@gmail.com> wrote: > Did my E-mail reached to this list? I am resending it. > This visually-impaired person's campaign pushed Google to include Kannada > on their text-to-speech software. > > https://www.edexlive.com/people/2020/jul/03/this-visually-impaired-persons-campaign-pushed-google-to-include-kannada-on-their-text-to-speech-so-13063.html > > On Sat 4 Jul, 2020, 11:09 AM Siddalingeshwar Ingalagi, < > ingalagisi...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> This visually-impaired person's campaign pushed Google to include Kannada >> on their text-to-speech software - >> https://www.edexlive.com/people/2020/jul/03/this-visually-impaired-persons-campaign-pushed-google-to-include-kannada-on-their-text-to-speech-so-13063.html >> > -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to accessindia+unsubscr...@accessindia.org.in. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CABB1fsoyo764jUz%3DePDgFO0vBZtWu0SYODyRHDnF0zFDKGMviQ%40mail.gmail.com.
