Hi Melissa!Firefox 3.56 didn't do it either, so, thanks to you, I know that if I really want to hear these voices, I should upgrade to IE 8.
Debby At 02:28 PM 12/18/2009, Melissa Smith wrote
Debby,What version of Window-Eyes and what browser are you using. I have Window-Eyes 7.11 and Internet Explorer 8, and had no problem accessing any of the voices. There are 4 American voices, some British, French, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and many others. Probably 20 or so. I didn't sample all of them, but did sample several. One oddity is that, in the combo box where you select the voice, it is on Simon by default, but there are some voices above that, which you can access by using your up arrow. I would also suggest, that after you turn browse mode off, press alt down arrow, so the screen won't refresh before you select the voice you want. They are really good voices.Melissa Debby Franson wrote:Hi Chela and everyone!I hit the link to go back to this site, thinking that I might have missed something. There must be a graphic to click on that is invisible to Window-Eyes, preventing me from hearing the samples for all the voices this company offers. That's too bad. I enjoy hearing what synthetic voices the various companies have to offer.Would someone who can see the screen confirm my suspicion please? Debby At 12:03 PM 12/16/2009, Chela Robles wroteNo, Kim, I gave a link to sample voices for those who wish to do so: Here it is again: http://www.loquendo.com/en/demos/demo_tts.htm----------------"If you go without playing the trumpet for one day, no one knows, two days, only you know, and more than three days without practicing, girl you better look out, because everyone will know!" Today, I find myself constantly saying those words, just to get myself going, to not give up, and it works. Since I learned to play the trumpet at the tender age of 10, I have spent so much passion and much diligence with that instrument that I will not give up on it. Sometimes my instrument puts me into awkward situations where I feel like they won't ever end, but the trumpet gives me a lot of hope with the majestic, crystal-clear sound it brings to my ears.---------------- Chela Robles E-Mail: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx MSNWindowsLive Messenger: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxxxx Skype: jazzytrumpet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Friedman" <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 2:13 AMSubject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Auditory Processing Disorder and Reading AccessibilityHi, Chela, if there was supposed to be an attachment in your message so the voices you mentioned could be heard, I didn't get it so can't render an opinion. Regards, Kim. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chela Robles Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 12:26 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Auditory Processing Disorder and Reading Accessibility Hello everyone, here is a demo page of Lequendo voices they sound quite natural don't you think? Enjoy and let me know what you all think, http://www.loquendo.com/en/demos/demo_tts.htm ---------------- "If you go without playing the trumpet for one day, no one knows, two days, only you know, and more than three days without practicing, girl you better look out, because everyone will know!" Today, I find myself constantly saying those words, just to get myself going, to not give up, and it works. Since I learned to play the trumpet at the tender age of 10, I have spent so much passion and much diligence with that instrument that I will not give up on it. Sometimes my instrument puts me into awkward situations where I feel like they won't ever end, but the trumpet gives me a lot of hope with the majestic, crystal-clear sound it brings to my ears. ---------------- Chela Robles E-Mail: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxx MSNWindowsLive Messenger: cdrobles693@xxxxxxxxxxx Skype: jazzytrumpet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Valerie Maples" <vlmaples@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 11:42 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Auditory Processing Disorder and Reading AccessibilityIt certainly might be indicative of a Central Auditory Processing disorder, only testing can tell for sure. Valerie On Dec 15, 2009, at 1:02 PM, Roger Loran Bailey wrote: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 whatI 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 PM Subject: [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 formost 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 usesome 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 processing disorder 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 buy it 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 web sites you could recommend about this? If there is no information on Bookshare, 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't really applicable. I do well using specific types of speech, and there are some human readers I can 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 a fairly constant, very clear, and unaccented voice to cope withreading.When I have to use a device with a confusing voice, I use my computer to record books into mp3 files using a voice that I do understand well. Then I put my good 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 NLS unless they have the book in WebBraille. I often end up scanning my Audible books 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 listen to a synthetic voice until the acapella voices that are now available on her device. 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 constraints make the other alternative unaffordable. Then there are people with auditory processing 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 a membership now I will probably almost exclusively be a volunteer due to time constraints, 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@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 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. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. 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