From the AT TechNET @ VCU: Assistive Technology Blog, a link to Communicate: Webwide, the first symbol-supported web browser. Everything happens in the browser where you can view pages in normal view, with plain text or using symbols. Their icon library contains over 29,000 words. It also reads any text that you highlight.

Is this type of technology the answer for some users with cognitive disabilities? What about a potential user who can’t access your material even when you have gone great lengths to simplify your writing. Also, while individual sites may provide their own visual elements to represent different ideas, is their value is having a standard set of icons? Perhaps the ideas would be to allow users to associate symbols with the words themselves, or at least have the option to override the default icon.

Communicate: Webwide is provided on a subscription model and is PC-only (30-day demo available).

Does it work with any site? Probably not, from their guidelines:

While Webwide interprets clear, well-written HTML; some layouts and styles will be more effective than others. To this end, we will be producing guidelines for web designers who would like to make their information accessible through Webwide.

Hopefully their guidelines are in line with already established web standards and guidelines.

The Mission of ReadSpeaker is to make the “miracle of the Internet” accessible for dyslexics, people with learning disabilities, low literacy level, people with English as a second language, elderly with impaired vision and others that like to listen as well as read.

I’m not quite sold on their claim that “ReadSpeaker will make your website accessible for more people than any other accessibility measurement that you put in place,” but I don’t suppose it could hurt. Fortunately they do recommend that you follow the W3C/WAI guidelines as well. I couldn’t find any pricing information, but you can contact them for a free trial and price quote

ReadSpeaker

The issue seems to be further complicated in that at least some of the software/voice packages appear to require a license based on how many times a user distributes a voice recording.

My last concern is how to select a voice to use– it looks like a number of different options available. To save you some time, if you are looking for IBM’s natural voices the first page I came across was their AT&T Text to Speech Research Lab which took me to their official AT&T Natural Voices page and from there to Wizzard Software where you can actually purchase a product– although I still wasn’t sure exactly what…

Anyways, I am looking for some help on this one– does anyone know of any good resources, have a favorite piece of software of favorite voice? If not, I don’t know how updated this is, but it looks like a good place to start.

As a sidenote, I wasn’t even aware of the W3C Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) — looks really interesting.

Most people associate computer speech with visually impaired users. I think that is missing the point and we set out to demonstrate just how universal speech is. It’s the nearest eqivalent to a common currency and can be exchanged and undersood as easily. Speech is mightier than the pen.

(via Robin Good)