[Athen] ReadSpeaker - Your website speech enabled

[Linda Nieuwenhuijsen]

I wanted to try the toolbar, but i don't seem to be able to open the links.
Are these the right ones?

Linda Nieuwenhuijsen
Helpdesk | digital accessibility & assistive technology
Handicap + studie

Linda.nieuwenhuijsen at handicap-studie.nl<mailto:Linda.nieuwenhuijsen at handicap-studie.nl>



Van: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] Namens E.A. Draffan
Verzonden: maandag 4 januari 2010 21:45
Aan: petri.1 at osu.edu; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Onderwerp: Re: [Athen] ReadSpeaker - Your website speech enabled

We have come up with a third way - still very much in a testing phase!

JISC TechDis have funded a toolbar that can be used with many websites in any browser and you can also add the script to your website for free.  It does not have lovely voices or all the options for speaking and highlighting text like Browsealoud, but it is free and will be launched by JISC TechDis on Thursday.

It is not designed for visual impairment although there is a text enlarger menu as we feel the browser zoom features better than we can achieve.  The text to speech works for the whole page or sections you highlight and you can make some colour changes plus spell check and use the dictionary.  Here is the link to our pages but I will let you know if this changes after the launch  http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/toolbar    To learn about the functions go to http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ToolBar/functions

JISC Techdis toolbar Lite is the best option for experimenting.

Best wishes E.A.

Mrs E.A. Draffan
Learning Societies Lab,
ECS, University of Southampton,
Tel +44 (0)23 8059 7246
http://www.lexdis.org
http://www.emptech.info

From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On Behalf Of Ken Petri
Sent: 04 January 2010 16:53
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] ReadSpeaker - Your website speech enabled

Hi Alice,

It is somewhat likely we will implement ReadSpeaker Enterprise at OSU. It is extremely affordable, has low latency, excellent (and trainable) voices, and perfectly synchronizes highlighting with playback. The web developer chooses what portion of the page to have spoken, so this is not a complete conversion of content. Implementation is trivial for a developer--a couple of JavaScript links and some comment tags. The player itself is Flash but the stop, start, close and MP3 download buttons are fully keyboard accessible.

BrowseAloud is a very good product, but it requires a download and is more expensive--though it provides more features. One of the things I like best about ReadSpeaker is it makes an accessibility feature readily visible on pages implementing it. Our hope is this will help make the commitment to access more overt and help further our university mission of creating a "welcoming environment."

How we plan to implement: We are exploring purchase of a one-year full-domain license. It will be up to individual developers to implement on their own timeline, but my Center along with New Media (our web communications unit) will promote the product, provide model implementations, and code samples. Purchase and contract negotiation will be handled by OSU Site License Software, our campus bulk and campus-wide software licensing unit.

We have not reached our campus funding goal yet, but we are pretty close. If things go well (they don't always--an experience all of us are familiar with) and funding comes through, we should have some notion of campus adoption and usage by the middle of Spring Quarter.

Best,
ken
-------------------------------------------------------
 Ken Petri
 Program Director
 OSU Web Accessibility Center
 102D Pomerene Hall
 1760 Neil Avenue
 Columbus, Ohio  43210
 Phone: (614) 292-1760
 Fax: (614) 292-4190
 mailto:petri.1 at osu.edu<mailto:petri.1 at osu.edu>
-------------------------------------------------------
On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 8:31 AM, Jon Gunderson <jongund at illinois.edu<mailto:jongund at illinois.edu>> wrote:
There are already many assistive technologies to read web pages (some free), and it seems that just a straight conversion of HTML to MP3 of a web site could be confusing, since the reading order may not make sense.

You may want to compare to the product to BrowseAloud.

http://www.browsealoud.com/page.asp?pg_id=80094&tile=USA

I have seen demos of Browse Aloud and I think it has some benefits.

Unfortunately our campus right now is not interested in the product.

Jon


---- Original message ----

>Date: Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:12:16 -0600

>From: Alice Anderson <alice.anderson at doit.wisc.edu<mailto:alice.anderson at doit.wisc.edu>>

>Subject: [Athen] ReadSpeaker - Your website speech enabled

>To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network <athen at athenpro.org<mailto:athen at athenpro.org>>

>

>>>

>

>Does anyone have experience or any thoughts about this vendor product?

>It's a service that provides automated audio versions of a Web page's

>content. Click the demo link below to see it in action?

>

>The sales people have approached our campus (main web site) - and I am

>being asked if I know of benefits, or others using etc.

>

>ReadSpeaker Sales email to campus:

>> From: Nicholas Croft <nicholas.croft at voice-corp.com<mailto:nicholas.croft at voice-corp.com>>

>> Date: December 7, 2009 11:13:34 AM CST

>> To: <removed>

>> Subject: Your website speech enabled.

>>

>>

>> Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

>>

>> As agreed I am sending you a demo version of your website now

>> ReadSpeaker(r) enabled so you can listen to the text by clicking on

>> the  button.

>>

>> ReadSpeaker(r) makes your web content more accessible to people with

>> impaired vision, are dyslectic, low literacy, functionally

>> illiterate, or are still learning English.

>> Considering that at least 20% of the population struggle from some

>> sort of reading disability, a listening option goes a long way to

>> accommodate them. As well as students that would just prefer to

>> listen to the content instead of read it.

>>

>> A small html code embedded in the website creates a  icon which

>> activates a small player that reads your web content live "on the

>> fly". Nothing is recorded.

>>

>> It's a fantastic product that goes beyond the existing website

>> accessibility guidelines set by the W3C and Section 508 in the US,

>> putting your website at the leading edge of web accessibility and

>> giving your organization the potential to access more of the

>> population that wouldn't be able to access your website's content

>> normally .

>> Your website now ReadSpeaker(r) enabled:  University of Wisconsin-

>> Madison (Click here)

>> How it works:

>> *          Our  ReadSpeaker  solution is hosted by us. Only a small

>> html code is installed into your website , there is zero maintenance ,

>> *          Easy implementation, zero cost for changing content and

>> "no" hardware requirements! Updates are done automatically.

>> Installation is usually completed within 2 to 3 hours.

>> *          Once the html code, that we send you, is embedded in your

>> website, a "listen" icon is available on your web page which

>> activates the reader.

>> *          When activated, the web content of the written page is

>> sent to our servers, transformed to an audio file in mp3 format and

>> is then sent back to the visitor.

>> *          What is especially unique about our ReadSpeaker is that

>> the visitors can listen without downloading any software to their

>> computers.

>> *          They can listen live or download the audio for later

>> listening.

>> *          We offer multi language support.

>> Here are some additional links of our clients:

>>

>> United Press International   http://www.upi.com (And select a story)

>>

>> City of San Francisco   http://www.sfgov.org/site/countyclerk_index.asp?id=101171

>>

>> City of Niagara falls    http://www.niagarafalls.ca/

>>

>> Case Studies: Nestle, O'Reilly Media - http://www.voice-corp.com/en/References/Case-Studies/

>>

>> At this stage all I would like to know is if it is something you

>> like and would consider for your website?

>>

>> I look forward to speaking with you next year to get your feedback.

>>

>> Best regards.

>>

>> Nik Croft

>> International Account Manager

>> VoiceCorp

>> 703-657-7801

>> www.voice-corp.com<http://www.voice-corp.com>

>> nicholas.croft at voice-corp.com<mailto:nicholas.croft at voice-corp.com>

>> ReadSpeaker, the Voice of the Web

>>

>

>            Alice Anderson

>TECHNOLOGY ACCESSIBILITY PROGRAM

>   Division of Information Technology (DoIT)

>       University of Wisconsin-Madison

>      1210 West Dayton Street (3124)

>              Madison, WI 53706

>

>           Telephone: 608.262.2129

>

>

>

>

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>Athen at athenpro.org<mailto:Athen at athenpro.org>

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Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Coordinator Information Technology Accessibility
Disability Resources and Educational Services

Rehabilitation Education Center
Room 86
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820

Voice: (217) 244-5870

WWW: http://www.cita.illinois.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/

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