Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers That Pico voice is used at the start of a Fire Tablet OS session before the main Ivona voices are installed. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/577442/#p577442 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Yay, you could even use that Pico voice with NVDA. The addon is probably not updated for Python 3 though, and I don't know why anybody would want to use it it's still the only available voice if you have an AOSP rom, for example, since they cannot build Google TTS due to licencing. The memories of hearing that voice say, keep holding 2 fingers on the screen to enable accessibility. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/577434/#p577434 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers And with Android 11, Talkback's getting Multi-Finger gestures (thus replacing Samsung's Voice Assistant [formally called Galaxy Talkback] on Samsung devices).In addition, the first Android TTS voice available was a, not-so-pleasant one, called SVox Pico. At least, the version that Google specifically used.I miss the higher Quality SVox voices, such as Grace and Michael. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/577426/#p577426 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers And with Android 11, Talkback's getting Multi-Finger gestures (thus replacing Samsung's Voice Assistant [formally called Galaxy Talkback] on Samsung devices). URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/577426/#p577426 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Expanding on that, in 4.3 it was also possible to add custom labels to unlabeled elements. As far as I remember, in 5.0 the web views were largely improved. They are still annoying to deal with, but better overall. Then I don't remember getting anything significant until 8.0, which was probably the best accessibility release. We got a better accessibility shortcut that uses volume keys, a Talkback specific accessibility volume, the first implementations of automatic language detection as well as general performance improvements. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/577399/#p577399 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Let's talk something about Android accessibility now. I feel that it needs more work on improving itself. Yeah I know, it is possible to instal NVDA, if compared to Apple iOS, the accessibility is much less. Android is not very old OS.I'm not clear about many things here, but I'll say what I know.So, in 2008 we had the first version of Android (1.0. There was no accessibility.Basic accessibility was introduced in the version 1.6, which was expanded later in Version 2.3.The actual development of screen readers started by TalkBack in 2009 by Eyes Free Project, followed by Speal by Nolan Derilek. That was in 2009 as well, and lastly, Mobile Accessibility by Code Factory in 2011. At that time, the phones could not be operated by their own touch screens as far as I know, it needed keyboards/joysticks.In Version 3.0, the accessibility was improved significantly. Apps like Email, and web browsers became screen reader friendly. Before 3.0 the developers had to do a lot of coding.Finally, in version 4.0, the Touch Exploration System was introduced. In 4.1, Braille Support became available. Screen magnification, which made a brief appearance in an earlier TalkBack beta, was cooked into the operating system in 4.1. Low-vision users could seriously zoom in on parts of the screen, pan, and enjoy other features of magnification software, whether a screen reader was being used or not. In 4.2 the accessibility shortcut for screen reader like TalkBack was introduced.4.3: It was now possible to select chunk of text, coppy, paste, and work in the edit fields. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/577364/#p577364 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers This is so very interesting.Thank you for all of this information. I just wanted to know what the history of screen reading software is, as well as the history of speech synthesizers. I saw a speech thing that was made in the late 1940's. Things have definitely improved since then when it comes to making speech, although admittedly even nowadays they still use some of the same principals they've used back in the 1980's. Like, instead of making actual words, they just combine sounds that simulate the same things, and the power of computers we've managed to make it sound as human as I think it's ever going to be. Just my thoughts, what do you all think of this topic in particular? Thanks. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/575698/#p575698 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers at2wow so awesome info, thanks! URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/575569/#p575569 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers hm so the crap cobra is still in development.. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/575552/#p575552 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers I actually looked at what the status is as Cobra and its still at version 9.1. No mention of windows 10 support.Here's the URL where I got some details about it.http://www.bayareadigital.us/products/baum/cobra.html URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/575438/#p575438 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers hehe yes and the old infovox box, and the apollo from dolphin URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/575424/#p575424 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers and for swedish users and prehaps denmark we had iltalk. and what about cobra? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/575273/#p575273 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers For those looking for the Code Factory podcast, seehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t … d426387074 URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571986/#p571986 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Definitely some bias and knowledge gaps here, but still very informative.Where is DecTalk or LiteTalk in all of this though? For most of my elementary school years, that is what I used. It was a little box with a speaker that you had to turn on, and once you did, you could do things like word processing and file retrieval and such. I was definitely not a power user back in those days. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571966/#p571966 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Very informative. I agree that we could also have something similar for mobile phones. The first screen readers I used were for Simbian, Talks, Mobile speak and later Nokia screen reader. Then I switched to the modern options we have nowadays. Was there anything before Simbian? I assume no. I'm aware of the Windows mobile and Code factory's mobile speak for that system as well, though I never tried it. Similarly, I never used touchscreen versions of Simbian. I quite liked it back in the day, makes me wonder if some of the old podcasts people used to do for Code factory are still available. There was one in particular that compared touch screen version of Mobile speak to the very first versions of Voiceover on an IPhone 3GS. Even if all of that is quite outdated now, it's still a good piece of history. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571948/#p571948 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers #2 It's very cool, but it might disappear soon under tons of another threads, so someone who didn't read it might have probllems to find it, or even knowing about it.Regards. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571939/#p571939 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Skybear, if I ever wrote a blog post or something like that, I would like if someone like you would be there on my side as I wrote it. You did explained it wonderfully. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571301/#p571301 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers @2, That was very informative. for the people who are feeling adventurous and actually want to play with some of these screen readers, you can set up DOS or an older version of Windows in a virtual machine and start having fun. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571237/#p571237 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Just as me. Want to see what other screen readers were released at the end of 2000s decade and the entire 2010s decade, puls others from this now starting or already started_ 2020s decade URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571207/#p571207 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Wow!@2 really have some knowledge about all these things. I am impressed.I would like to encourage you to carry on this story and cover even TalkBack, CSR, and whatever other screen readers have popped up in last decade. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/571200/#p571200 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers
Re: History of screen readers and speech synthesizers Hello. This is Sky talking to you. Anyways, as far as I know, their is no article that lists the history of screen reading technology, but I will try to explain the fax, with no bias what so ever. In the 1980's, blind folks started out on a Apple 2E, using a synthesizer called the Echo. Using the Echo, with talking programs like Text Talker, Word Talk, etc. Then, blind folks moved to the PC computers, with MS DOS, and, between the late 80's and early 90's, their were lots of mon and pop companies that were trying to make PC talk in dos. Their was Flipper, made by a guy who was a university professor, and their was a product called Slimware, which was actually made in Canada where I live by a man who has unfortunately died called David Costution. There was also a product called Soft vert, and there was JAWS for dos, but the top dos screen reader that took over the market, was Vocal-Eyes, from the former GW Micro, and Vocal-Eyes was released on February 15, 1990, a year before I was actually born on that same day. Then, we also had Hal for dos in England released in 1986, and, we also had a dos screen reader, called Automatic screen access Program, (ASAP, made by a guy who has now retired from American Printing House, named Larry Scutchan, who at that time had a company, called MicroTalk, and ASAP was released on December 24, 1991. What set it apart from other dos produts at that time was that it would automatically read the screen, and it would monitor the screen and tell you automatically if the information was being updated or not. Whereas in other dos screen readers, like JAWS for DOS, Artic business vision, Flipper, Soft Vert, you had to go into review mode and read the information. You also had to know how to load your programs into upper memory.But, there was a storm and a dark cloud raging ahead. That sorm, and dark cloud, was Microsoft windows. In 1985, Microsoft began work on a new operating system, called Windows. Despite working on windows, a lot of the AT companies didn't get into windows until the early 1990's.The very first screen reader that ever came out for windows was in June of 1992, called Slimware window Bridge, made by David Costution of SynthaVoice in Canada.That screen reader actually could have been a huge hit when it came out, but the earlier versions of Window Bridge had some conceptual issues, and the earlier versions of Window Bridge crashed a lot, Plus the guy couldn't get our blindness agency in Canada to promote the product. David Costution was blind as well, but he battled cancer for most of his life. Despite the hickups their were certainly some blind folks that did use Window Bridge successfully. I myself had a friend who used it and he enjoyed using it while it was around. Then, After Window Bridge came out, we had Outspoken for the mac and windows, and what Outspoken did was that it simulated how a sighted person would use the computer. In other words, you would use your number pad on the keyboard, and you could move around the screen, and you could zoom in on elements and click using your computers number pad. A lot of blind folks used Outspoken, including Rick Boggs, who used Outspoken in his work as a recording engineer, as did Slau Haliton, as well as Kevin Reeves. Then, we had ProTalk, which was another Canadian product, written by a dad, and his son, which lasted from the 1990's until 2001. The company, By a link, was located in Vancouver British Columbia Canada, but sadly had hicksup, crashes, etc.Then, we had Windows Master, written by Blazie Engineering, and their were users, like Dave Goldfield that did use Windows Master.We also had Screen Power as well, made by Telesensory, also made in the early 1990's.Then, on January 20, 1995, JAWS for windows was out, and it managed to really crack the accessibility of windows, and it was first made by Ted Henter, who founded Henter-Joice, which later became Freedom Scientific, now Vispero. Then, on October 16, 1995, GW Micro released the very first version of Window-Eyes, and Window-Eyes was in development from October 16, 1995, until May 15, 2017.http://www.gwmicro.com/window-eyes/version_history/It did keep a very loyal user base, and they were an ethical company, as they would not have any copy protection in the US or European versions, and they even offered clients a chance to get the product on time payments, as well as offering a free copy of the product for office users as they realised that not everybody had government funding. They also would not charge for citrix support, and they were the first to pioneer the virtual buffer on the internet, and they were the first to pioneer Citrix, and they never charged for a pro or a home licence of the product nor did they charge for citrix. Like JAWS, the former GW Micro did truly have a government contract that would have ensured that they had enough business for a long time to come. I personally view
