[Athen] screen reader

[rmhaven at stanford.edu]

Hi, Michael!

Yes, it does have a high learning curve -- not as bad as JAWS, but  
then again it's also not as "robust" as JAWS.  It has some  
particularly nice features which would serve users with visual  
impairments or learning disabilities -- e.g., a variable transparency  
Caption Panel which essentially extracts the text being read and  
displays it in a separate window with a selectable number of lines and  
font size.

My biggest issue with VoiceOver as an aid for students needing just  
text-to-speech is that it's a true "screen reader", meaning it voices  
not only the selected text, but also status messages, text attributes,  
and menu items.  You can't turn off this verbosity, but you can reduce  
the volume on these to 1 (it won't allow zero) while keeping the voice  
volume for content at 100.

- Shelley Haven



Quoting "Nusen, Michael" <Michael.Nusen at ppcc.edu>:


> Does anyone have any feedback regarding the free built-in VoiceOver

> application in OSX?

>

> I only spent an hour with it and was surprised that it seemed like there

> would be a very high learning curve with all of the keyboard commands to

> learn.

>

> Thank you,

>

> Michael Nusen

> Coordinator, OASIS/CAC

> (Office of Accommodative Services and Instructional Support/Computer

> Access Center)

> Pikes Peak Community College

> michael.nusen at ppcc.edu

> 719-502-3022

>

> -----Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of rmhaven at stanford.edu

> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 4:56 PM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network; eileen berger

> Subject: Re: [Athen] screen reader

>

> I'll second (third, fourth, fifth) the previous accolades about

> GhostReader.  It only does a few things (read aloud with

> human-sounding voices, highlight while reading, and convert to MP3)

> but does them very well.  Several Stanford students use it.  I even

> relied on its earlier incarnation (TextParrot) for quick-and-dirty

> augmentative communication when my mouth was wired shut because of a

> jaw fracture back in 2006.  (People came to know me as "Hi, I'm

> Heather, the female American English speech synthesis voice from

> Acapela...".)

>

> - Shelley Haven

>

>

> Quoting eileen berger <bergerei at gse.harvard.edu>:

>

>> Hi all,

>> What screen reader is best for a mac when the student with a learning

>> disability uses it only for text reading?

>> Thanks,

>> Eileen

>

> -----Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of dann

> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 2:34 PM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network; Access

> Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: Re: [Athen] screen reader

>

> GhostReader works great with OSX! The trial version is limited in how

> long it will work and upgrading to the single voice version is only

> $40.00 and dowloaded from the web.

>

> ---------------

> Daniel Berkowitz, CEO

> DigiLife Media, LLC

> 1 Bryant Avenue

> Bradford, MA 01835-7424

>

> phone: 617-512-4315

> mobile: 978-914-4601

> e-mail: dann at digilifemedia.biz

> web: www.digilifemedia.biz

>

>

> -----Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Shawn Foster

> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 2:53 PM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: Re: [Athen] screen reader

>

>> I've used Ghost Reader.... for text reading only, and for students

> who'd like to be able to quickly create iTunes tracks, it's a good deal.

> Voices are quite nice, actually. Obviously, not as full-featured as

> Kurzweil, but for less than $30, it's a nice little app.

>

>

> Shawn Foster

> Assistive Technology Specialist

> Disability Services for Students

> Southern Oregon University

> V/TTY: (541)552-6213

>

>

>>>> On 3/6/2008 at 1:09 PM, in message

> <6e0d34c90803061309udf91fcco4103b8375cccc1bb at mail.gmail.com>, "Heidi

> Scher" <hascherdss at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Eileen,

>

> At the beginning of February Ryan Collier brought up Ghost Reader on the

> listserv.  I haven't tried it out yet, but from what he said and the

> website, it sounds similar to TextAloud or Read Please.  And cost is

> cheaper than Kurzweil for students who are on tight budgets.

>

> http://www.convenienceware.com/index.php

>

> Heidi

>

> --

> Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC

> Interim Assistant Director

> Center for Educational Access

> University of Arkansas

> 1 University of Arkansas, ARKU 104

> Fayetteville, AR 72701

> (479) 575-3104 (voice)

> (479) 575-7445 (fax)

> (479) 575-3646 (tty)

>

> -----Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of James Bailey

> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 1:53 PM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: Re: [Athen] screen reader

>

>

>

> Kurzweil 3000 for the mac.

>

> -----Original Message-----

>

> On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 2:26 PM, eileen berger <bergerei at gse.harvard.edu>

> wrote:

> Hi all,

> What screen reader is best for a mac when the student with a learning

> disability uses it only for text reading?

> Thanks,

> Eileen

>

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