[Athen] [EXT]Re: Natural-sounding text-to-speech tech?

[Hunziker, Dawn A - (hunziker)]

Wow, this sounds interesting....

Bear Down,
Dawn


Dawn Hunziker

IT Accessibility Consultant, Sr. | Disability Resources

The University of Arizona | hunziker at arizona.edu

drc.arizona.edu<http://drc.arizona.edu/> | itaccessibility.arizona.edu<http://itaccessibility.arizona.edu/>

520-626-9409

________________________________
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> on behalf of Joseph Polizzotto MA <jpolizzotto at berkeley.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2021 4:07 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [EXT]Re: [Athen] Natural-sounding text-to-speech tech?


External Email

Hi Mary:

One option is to produce stand-alone HTML files with SVG versions of the math.

The math alt text can be added in the title attribute of the SVG element which could be read out loud by a TTS reader such as MS Edge's Read Aloud utility. Edge's voices have good prosody and are free.

We have developed a DOCX-HTML script <https://github.com/polizoto/DOCX-HTML> that leverages Node's Tex2SVG <https://www.npmjs.com/package/tex2svg> utility plus Volker Sorge's Math Jax speech rules engine<https://www.npmjs.com/package/mathjax-node-sre> to generate a more natural-sounding math. In a future release of the script, we will also allow the user to customize the alt text to fit a student's individual preferences.

I have attached an example that you could try out.

Joseph

On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 9:39 AM Mary Popish <popish at pdx.edu<mailto:popish at pdx.edu>> wrote:
Hi everybody,

I hope you are well! I'm writing to see if anyone has suggestions for text-to-speech tech that:

  *   Can reliably pronounce science and math content correctly, and
  *   Sounds as natural as possible.

I'm working with a student who is taking upper division science courses and is struggling with mispronunciation from the computer-generated voices in Kurzweil, Voice Dream Reader, and Voice Over. The student is an iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS user.

In a best-case scenario, the student would prefer a human voice recording, but most of their course materials are not available in audiobook format. I'm working on finding a creative tech-based alternative, and I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have!

Take care,
Mary

Mary Popish
Adaptive Technology Specialist & Alternate Formats Coordinator
Disability Resource Center
Portland State University

Phone: (503) 725-9119
Fax: (503) 725-4103
Email: drc at pdx.edu<mailto:drc at pdx.edu>
URL: http://www.pdx.edu/d<https://www.pdx.edu/disability-resource-center/>isability-resource-center
Pronouns: she / her / hers

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