Hi Jim, You have made my point. The point remains, that text -to-speech is a important component, but it does not constitute designed for the blind or ... As you mentioned the blind will mostly, get more hardware and software better suited to thier needs. BTW. Macs have had text-to-speech for decades, too. regards Keith. Am 29.01.2010 um 21:24 schrieb Jim Adcock:
I find your argument mute. As most computers are not design for the blind or sight impair. Sure they can be modified for use with the blind.
I don't understand your comments. Modern computers have many "accessibility" features built-in. HTML has "accessibility" features built-in. Granted a blind user will probably want to buy a 3rd party screen reader app to best make use of the accessibility features built into computers -- but then again the sighted iPad user will have to download a separate Apple app just to be able to read books! Windows 7 comes with a basic screen reader. For an overview of these issues see for example:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Blind users have been using text-to-speech with computers since DECtalk 1984. A notable user you have probably seen and heard on TV is Stephen Hawkings.