Re: Re: [g-a-devel] GNOME Launches Campaign for Accessibility

[Bill Cox <waywardgeek gmail com>]

On 1/7/12, Mats Lundälv <mats lundalv vgregion se> wrote:
> The main show-stopper for suggesting free systems
> in general, including Gnome based systems, is the lack of easily available
> and well functioning TTS reading support for seing users with a reading
> imparment - the by far largest area of a11y needs.

I happen to be such a user, suffering from late onset Stargardt's
Disease.  What I wonder most days is why am I the guy who has to write
so much of the software I need?  I was born with non-functioning red
cones, which is probably why the Stargardt's disease has taken so long
to damage my central vision.  In addition, I am highly dyslexic, and
ADHD.  In my case, there is mud in the tracks between seeing lines on
paper and hearing the words they represent.  Having TTS software to
speak the words for me is just heavenly.  Even without Stargardt's, I
probably qualify for a major reading impairment.  I used to create
audio books with the voxin voice using a simple program I had to
write, but now I do it with the Open Mary free voices, using one I
created, called cmu-rms-hsmm, which I listen to at 4X speed up, using
the sonic algorithm I created for this purpose.

So, if people like me are the largest group, where the heck are they?
I just want to use software to make my life easier, and I find that
much of it does not exist.

Thanks,
Bill