Category: Text to Speech
Text to speech involves computer generated speech – the computer reading to you. This category is used for all text to speech applications except VoiceOver – which has its own category.
You are browsing the archive of all ATMac posts in this category.
By Ricky Buchanan on April 8, 2012
Quite often on Apple’s Universal Access forums there are questions from users who have found that their computer’s suddenly started talking to them, and putting a black box around whatever they’re working on. What’s happening?
Posted in Information, OS X, Supporters, Text to Speech, Users | Tagged computer talking all the time, my computer is talking |
By Ricky Buchanan on September 9, 2010
There have been a plethora of stories in the mainstream news and in blogs about the iPad and the amazing positive effects it’s having for people with various disabilities. Children with autism are the subject of many of these stories, but there are plenty of others who are getting amazing results from their iPads.
Posted in AAC, Apple Programs on Windows, Audience, Complexity, Content producers, Dexterity Impaired, Educators, Intellectually Impaired, iPad, Neurologically Impaired, Other Impairment, Primary Mouse Users, Supporters, Text to Speech, User Stories, Users, Vision Impaired, VoiceOver | Tagged features, ipad for autism, ipad for cerebral palsy, ipad stories |
By Ricky Buchanan on August 11, 2010
This DAISY player includes text highlighting, not currently available in the free Olearia player and also reads more formats than Olearia can. The new features come at a steep price though.
Posted in Intellectually Impaired, New Software, OS X, Text to Speech, Users, Vision Impaired, VoiceOver | Tagged book player, daisy book player, daisy player, readhear, readhear mac, talking book player |
By Ricky Buchanan on June 9, 2010
Web designer Jamie Knight explains how he uses his iPhone and MacBook to help manage the difficulties that his autism causes. He talks about communication, organisation, and managing problem areas in his life.
Posted in iPhone/iPod Touch/iTouch, Neurologically Impaired, OS X, Other Impairment, Text to Speech, User Stories, Users |
By Ricky Buchanan on April 18, 2010
Speak It! is an application for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad which lets you enter text via the regular keyboard and then speak the words via the built-in speaker, or save them to an audio file to email to others.
Posted in iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch/iTouch, New Software, Text to Speech | Tagged commercial, communication aid, Text to Speech, tts |
By Ricky Buchanan on February 26, 2010
Firefox generally doesn’t let you use a lot of OS X’s accessibility features, including the services menu and some of OS X’s regular keyboard shortcuts. Setting your Mac up to speak highlighted text when you press a key also doesn’t work in Firefox. The Firefox extension SpeakingFox fills this gap with some nifty context menu options to fill this gap.
Posted in Neurologically Impaired, OS X, Text to Speech, Users, Vision Impaired | Tagged speak text, text speak, Text to Speech, tts |
By Ricky Buchanan on December 18, 2009
What would you do if you lost all your files because your computer’s hard drive failed? For less than $100 and with no technical knowledge you can have a backup of all the files on your computer, and you’ll never need to worry about hard drives failing and losing all your files.
Posted in AAC, Deaf, Educators, Environmental control, Hearing Impaired, Information, Intellectually Impaired, Medical Needs, Mobility Impaired, Neurologically Impaired, OS X, Other Apple Product, Other Impairment, Overuse Injuries, Primary Keyboard Users, Primary Mouse Users, Primary Switch Users, Speech to Text, Supporters, Text to Speech, Users, Vision Impaired, VoiceOver | Tagged backups, features, time saving |
By Ricky Buchanan on November 13, 2009
Accessible technology has changed Juergen Manthey’s life. Usually, somebody with his disabilities would be expected to exist in a nursing home and watch daytime television which they couldn’t even turn on or off without somebody’s help. Instead, Juergen is really living.
Posted in AAC, Environmental control, Information, Mac Desktops, Mac Laptops, Mobility Impaired, OS X, Other Non-Apple Equipment, Primary Mouse Users, Supporters, Text to Speech, User Stories, Users | Tagged features, iarm, locked in, locked in syndrome, robot arm |
By Alex Jurgensen on August 28, 2009
Apple once stated that you could “Live the digital life in stylish simplicity.” This statement referred to the Mac Mini but it could easily encompass all of Apple’s products. What does this mean for the average end user? Moreover, what does this mean for the end user with a visual impairment?
Posted in Information, OS X, Text to Speech, Users, Vision Impaired, VoiceOver | Tagged features |
By Ricky Buchanan on August 25, 2009
Upgrading to Snow Leopard might not make your computer look enormously different, but the hidden guts of the operating system have been extensively worked on. This has implications for assistive technology users – you’ll need to check that your assistive technology will work with Snow Leopard.
Posted in Information, OS X, Primary Keyboard Users, Primary Mouse Users, Primary Switch Users, Speech to Text, Text to Speech, Users, Vision Impaired, VoiceOver | Tagged features, snow leopard |
Recent Comments