[Athen] Learning Arabic with AT?

[Jeffrey Dell]

What we did when we had a student taking Arabic was purchased Infovox
which has the Acapella TTS engine which gives some options for Arabic
voices. You get 3 installs with Infovox for $400. The student can use
the USB drive as an activation dongle as well.  The student was using
Read & Write Gold and we accessed the Arabic voices from the list of
SAPI 5 voices.
The same should work with Kurzweil 3000.  We hired a student from
Saudi Arabia to edit the textbook as word files where we can set the
language.  We also purchased for $4 stickers with the Arabic
characters when using the Windows IME keyboard.
I would like to give you a review of the effectiveness but the student
dropped the course before using the materials.  The student that we
had editing the book said that it pronounced some of the words funny.
The course here was taught with a Syrian dialect and we used a Syrian
voice.  Since he was Saudi I am not sure if that was a factor in his
judgement of the pronunciation.  I don't know that much about Arabic.
Dictation did not come up with our situation.
Best regards,
Jeff

On 4/6/17, Joshua Hori <jhori at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

> You will need to purchase a license of Dragon in Arabic (Saudi Arabia). It

> will not work on the English version without a ton of extra work.

>

> It may be best to reach out to the Arabic department to see if they have

> readers and scribes who would be willing to work.

>

> Best,

>

> Joshua

>

>

> From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On

> Behalf Of Maria Ortado

> Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2017 11:32 AM

> To: Access Technology Higher Education Network

> <athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> Subject: Re: [Athen] Learning Arabic with AT?

>

> This may not be necessary, but I would also suggest that the student create

> a separate account that they only use for Arabic. That way they will not

> teach Dragon to recognize words they don't use in English. They could "save

> as" their current profile to create the new one with all the settings in

> place.

>

> Maria Ortado

> Interpreter Coordinator

> Disability Support Services

> Office: U216

> Cape Fear Community College

> mortado at cfcc.edu<mailto:mcortado334 at mail.cfcc.edu>

> Phone: (910) 362-7098

> NC Relay Service for Video Phone or TTY: Dial 7-1-1

> Fax: (910) 362-7745

>

> On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 2:21 PM, Villanueva, K-leigh

> <kvillanueva at lee.edu<mailto:kvillanueva at lee.edu>> wrote:

> Kurzweil has an Arabic option...and there is a keyboard conversion tool/ and

> or an arabic keyboard. Is this what is needed?  K-leigh

>

>

>

> Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy® Note 4.

>

>

> -------- Original message --------

> From: "DiMola, Amy E" <dimolaa at uww.edu<mailto:dimolaa at uww.edu>>

> Date: 4/6/17 1:17 PM (GMT-06:00)

> To: athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>

> Subject: [Athen] Learning Arabic with AT?

> Hello,

>

> I have a college student who uses speech-to-text (Dragon NaturallySpeaking)

> and text-to-speech (Kurzweil 3000) who plans on taking Arabic in the fall.

> The student is physically unable to write, and relies on a combination of

> speech-to-text and aides to complete assignments.

>

> I would greatly appreciate some recommendations for helping this student

> access and complete the course!

>

> Thank you,

>

> Amy DiMola

> Adaptive Technology Specialist/Disability Services Coordinator

> Center for Students with Disabilities

> Andersen Library Room 2002E

> 800 West Main Street

> Whitewater, WI 53190

> Appointments: 262-472-4711

> Direct: 262-472-5207

> Fax: 262-472-4865

> www.uww.edu/csd<http://www.uww.edu/csd>

>

> *Please remember to submit your Alternative Media requests as soon as

> possible.

> * Deadline to submit testing appointment requests for Spring finals in CSD

> is May 1.

>

>

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