screen reader sample [Re: I want to make one word Bold]

Hi Larry and all,

> ..Now
> me, if I developed an aural browser, I would give away free crippled
versions.
> The crippled versions would read pages from the user's own hard drive but
not
> from other sources. That way, all developers could experience them first
hand,
> and could improve their sites accordingly.

As was mentioned earlier, IBM has a screen reader at modest cost (and you
can DL a trial version).
I just found Free online a screen at
http://www.omnisourcedirect.com/ebooks/text-to-speech.htm It is
enlightening...

Bear in mind, this is NOT a browser, and doesn't note links or images. It
doesnt browse html, it merely reads text in the sing-songy voice that text
readers have. In this case, you highlight text, then click "paste and play"
and it reads to you whatever you highlighted.

 I dont think it's designed specifically for  people who are blind -- there
are too many instructions using the mouse -- though it could be useful for
someone with limited vision as the text is highlighted as the voice reads
and you can enlarge it; or perhaps for those who might be driving, who are
unsteady with the presented language, who have a reading disability, or
mislaid their glasses, for some other reason can't or dont want to read it
themselves.

I popped in one of my web pages to see what it was like. Some of the
enlightening features:

1. Many urls are not read clearly, since the Reader may gamely  try to
pronounce things that arent really words ("hwg" might be pronounced as
"hwug" rather than spelled "h-w-g")
[To deal with this are two HTML elements, ACRONYM and ABBR. (see
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS/#tech-expand-abbr) ] This would be
a good place to slow down the reader and add emphasis.

2. Numbers in a list may not get a pause after them, and confusingly blur
into the text following. This will take a bit of experimenting (just like
anything else).

3. In a row of text links set up like this: [home | contact | help] it read
to me  "left square brackethome vertical bracket contact vertical bracket
helpright square bracket" -- Maybe you get used to it, but I would find it
darn hard! It would be cool I think to style those brackets with an aural
style sheet as whispers.

That's all for now... This does provide something to think about !

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