[Athen] Text-to-speech for medical terminology
Erion-Hesse, Patricia A.
perionhesse at nwacc.edu
Thu May 1 06:02:27 PDT 2014
Sean,
Thanks so very much for the additional information.
Our nursing students are looking for a program that reads medical terminology as accurately as possible.
We have found some online medical dictionaries that do a great job with pronunciations, but we haven't been able to find the perfect TTS software.
Have a great week.
Pat H.
Patricia Erion-Hesse, M.A.
Disability Resources Accessible Media Lab Technician
NorthWest Arkansas Community College
AltText at nwacc.edu<mailto:AltText at nwacc.edu>
Main office (479) 986-4076
Phone (479) 986-4031
Fax (479) 619-4119
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Office Hours:
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From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Sean Keegan
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 3:38 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Text-to-speech for medical terminology
Hi Pat,
TextAloud is another solid application to consider. That said, I have found Balabolka supports many of the same capabilities at a much nicer price point (free!).
I have found *some* of the more expensive voices can read medical/technical terms more accurately, but this is not always true. It may be necessary to modify the spoken word pronunciation in the application itself.
For example, in Balabolka, you would need to go to View > Show > Panel of Dictionaries. This will open a panel on the right side of the interface. If you click on the Edit button on the top area of that panel, you will then see a few dictionary entries in which the written word is "corrected" into the spoken word.
If you are looking at purchasing one of the higher quality voices, you may want to try and enter different terms on that web page and try out how the content is spoken. For the most part, I have had good results with Ivona voices, but given that medical terms may contain a doctor's or scientist's name as part of the condition, it really just depends.
Also, regional differences may have an impact on how accurate the TTS voice is perceived in speaking the text content. I had visiting professor in grad school who insisted on pronouncing "musculoskeletal system" as "musculo ske LEE tal system" - needless to say, all of us would cringe.
Lastly, I would suggest the following - although I have ZERO hard data and the following is based purely on anecdotal evidence - try an English speaking voice that has a slight accent. Some of the English speaking students I have worked with prefer a slightly accented voice as they feel they do not get too hung up on what may be mispronunciations of the text. For the Ivona voices, this may be something like Ivona Amy (British English) or if using Nuance then Tessa (South African).
Hope this helps.
Take care,
Sean
On Apr 30, 2014, at 6:17 AM, "Erion-Hesse, Patricia A." <perionhesse at nwacc.edu<mailto:perionhesse at nwacc.edu>> wrote:
Thanks so much to everyone for providing the recommendations.
I have tried Natural Reader and Balabolka, but I have not purchased additional voices. I also listened to the Ivona voice samples, and I agree that they are outstanding.
If you purchase additional premium voices, have you found that they will read the medical/technical terms more accurately?
I saw some info about TextAloud3, but I haven't tried it yet. Have any of you used it? ($29.95-$59.95) http://www.nextup.com/press/120412.html
Thanks again.
Pat H.
Patricia Erion-Hesse, M.A.
Disability Resources Accessible Media Lab Technician
NorthWest Arkansas Community College
AltText at nwacc.edu<mailto:AltText at nwacc.edu>
Main office (479) 986-4076
Phone (479) 986-4031
Fax (479) 619-4119
<image001.png><http://www.facebook.com/pages/Disability-Resource-Center-at-NorthWest-Arkansas-Community-College/227556827304712><image002.gif><https://twitter.com/#!/arobertsongann>
Office Hours:
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday
8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Tuesday - Thursday
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Friday
<image003.jpg>
"This message is intended solely for the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disclose, distribute or copy this email. Please notify the sender immediately that you are not the person for whom this email was intended and delete this email from your system."
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu<mailto:list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>] On Behalf Of Sean Keegan
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:38 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Text-to-speech for medical terminology
Hi Paul,
Yes - that is another great app to consider. I am finding it does a very good job at handling MS Word documents (docx) and supporting the math component. I have not been able to find a way to modify the speech output to structure the pronunciation of technical terms, but the TTS voices on my OS X system seem to be handling most college content without a problem. In addition to word/audio highlighting synchronization, it will also support sentence/audio highlight synchronization.
Thanks for posting!
Take care,
sean
On Apr 29, 2014, at 10:50 AM, "Paul E. Paire" <paire at temple.edu<mailto:paire at temple.edu>> wrote:
Sean,
Great list. I found out about a new product at the most recent CSUN conference that you may want to consider adding to your list.
Central Access Reader
- http://www.cwu.edu/central-access/reader
- Free
- Windows (64bit only) and Mac (Mavericks and Mountain Lion) platforms
- Synchronizes words (if this means what I think it means)
- Supports multiple formats; copy and paste content into CAR
- Can use multiple voices (it uses SAPI 5 voices so you have free and commercial options)
- Has adjustable speech rates
- Can export to MP3 and HTML including batch export
- Reads math (Word's equation editor and MathType formats)
-Paul
Disclaimer: I do not work for Central Washington University or have any affiliation with them. I only have limited exposure to this product and have not used it in a production environment.
From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu<mailto:list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu>] On Behalf Of Sean Keegan
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:22 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Text-to-speech for medical terminology
Hi Pat,
There are a few options to consider for text-to-speech (TTS) systems that are both free and paid-versions. Also, if you are on a Windows computer I would consider purchasing high-quality TTS voices and then you can use a variety of different TTS applications. If you are on a Mac running OS X 10.7 or later, then you can download good quality voices for free.
Here are some apps to consider:
Balabolka
- http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm
- Free
- Windows platform
- Synchronizes words
- Supports multiple formats; copy and paste content into Balabolka interface
- Can use multiple voices
Ivona Reader
- http://www.ivona.com/us/reader/
- Free to $300 (price varies on TTS voices selected)
- Windows platform
- Synchronizes words
- Supports multiple formats; copy and paste content into Ivona interface
- LOTS of voices to choose from
Natural Reader
- http://www.naturalreaders.com/
- Free to $199
- Windows and Mac platform
- Also has OCR capability at higher priced version
- Synchronizes words
- Supports multiple formats; copy and paste content into Natural Reader interface
Speak Selection / Convert to iTunes
- Free, built into OS X
- Mac platform
- No synchronized TTS with words
- Any selectable text
- Supports multiple voices
Ghostreader
- http://www.convenienceware.com/product/ghostreader
- $40 for application
- Mac platform
- Synchronizes words and sentences
- Supports multiple formats
- Can use any TTS voice installed on OS X system
These are just a few applications that you may want to consider that do TTS alone. If you are looking for something that provides more of a study tools environment (highlighting, etc.), then I would suggest checking out Claro Read, Read & Write Gold, or Kurzweil 3000. All of these systems (except for the Speak Selection in OS X) allow for the manipulation of the TTS output, so for technical language you can edit the TTS vocabulary to get the proper pronunciation.
I would highly recommend checking out the Ivona voices. You don't have to purchase the Ivona reader or any of those products, but the TTS voices developed by Ivona are amazing.
Take care,
Sean
Sean Keegan
Associate Director, Assistive Technology
Office of Accessible Education - Stanford University
On Apr 29, 2014, at 5:50 AM, "Erion-Hesse, Patricia A." <perionhesse at nwacc.edu<mailto:perionhesse at nwacc.edu>> wrote:
Does anyone have recommendations for a reasonably priced text-to-speech software that accurately reads medical terminology?
Thanks for your help.
Pat H.
Patricia Erion-Hesse, M.A.
Disability Resources Accessible Media Lab Technician
NorthWest Arkansas Community College
AltText at nwacc.edu<mailto:AltText at nwacc.edu>
Main office (479) 986-4076
Phone (479) 986-4031
Fax (479) 619-4119
<image001.png><http://www.facebook.com/pages/Disability-Resource-Center-at-NorthWest-Arkansas-Community-College/227556827304712><image002.gif><https://twitter.com/#!/arobertsongann>
Office Hours:
8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday
8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Tuesday - Thursday
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Friday
<image003.jpg>
"This message is intended solely for the recipient to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disclose, distribute or copy this email. Please notify the sender immediately that you are not the person for whom this email was intended and delete this email from your system."
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