Re: OT VOICE I/O for visually handicapped

Yes. That is the hard part. There are several programs that will do
adequate speech to text. We don't typically need that because responses are
on-line voice back to a customer. The software is primarily used to look up
employee directory information. We also have an auto-attendant with voice
recognition for employee and organizational lookup. But, it does not handle
emergencies, etc.

In the future, I will respond off-line unless anyone else is interested in
this subject. Any visually handicapped Swift Forthers out there?

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Owlett [mailto:rowlett_at_atlascomm.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 12:10 PM
To: sftalk_at_forth.com
Subject: [sftalk] Re: OT VOICE I/O for visually handicapped

I went to http://www.alva-bv.nl/screenaccess/osw.asp .It would appear
that "Outspoken" only addresses the text-to-speech portion of the
problem. Is this correct?

Bob Nash wrote:
>
><SNIP>
>
> We currently use a product called "Outspoken." It costs about $600.
> Unfortunately, it also requires a special audio card and will not work
with
> NT or Win 2K (this rep. is now the only one with Win 98).

Not a problem, until M$ recognizes that product activation is an "Edsel"
and/or a "chicklet keyboard" I refuse to consider anything beyond Win9x.
>
> A better product may be "Jaws" (but we haven't tried it.) It costs about
> $1,000 but works with a standard sound card and NT, Win 2K.

For what its worth, a "Dragon Naturally Speaking" rep told me that there
are some special (unspecified) hardware requirements for "Jaws".
>
> Both of the above products read out selected areas of a computer screen
and
> work with _any_ Windows program. For example, they will read out the
> contents of a Dialog Box or menu tree and accept responses using
pre-defined
> keystroke sequences. Semi amazing. Of course, I suspect you weren't
> thinking of paying that much,

Have had contact with various assistive technologies on an on-again
off-again basis for some time. Prices always seem high, but it has so
far been a low VOLUME market.
> but this is what you use if you are blind and
> need to operate a computer.
>
> I would also suggest checking out www.humanware.com . We used them to
train
> our TSR. The trainer they sent was blind from birth and could navigate
> software faster than most people skilled with a keyboard and mouse.
>
> Of course, I can't officially endorse these products or humanware, I can
> just tell you what we are using :)
>

I would be interested in your user's first hand impressions.
To respect his privacy, you may give him my email address. My phone is
417-889-5982, BUT as I work a rotating shift he will probably get my
answering machine. If he would give me his number and an appropriate
time to call, I will make the call 'on my nickel'.
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Received on Thu Dec 13 2001 - 13:40:01 PST