[laptop-accessibility] Considering closing down the mailing list accessibility at lists.laptop.org

Allan E. Registos allan.registos at smpc.steniel.com.ph
Wed Aug 21 22:56:34 EDT 2013


Hi Gary,

Successfully compiled your TTS software.
Very cool, however with one caveat: it failed to set the voice to female, it will always return to male.
Suggestion: We may need to put a stop playing function.

Regards,
Allan



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Kline" <kline at thought.org> 
To: "Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC" <accessibility at lists.laptop.org> 
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 8:19:34 AM 
Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] Considering closing down the mailing list accessibility at lists.laptop.org 

Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. 
Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community. 

On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 02:57:01PM -0700, Samuel Sennott wrote: 
> I too would like to find another outlet for the conversation around OLPC 
> accessibility. Hearing questions about how to create low-cost text to 
> speech and communication solutions and the OLPC project is something I 
> would like to get more into this year. 
> 
> Thank you, 
> 
> Samuel Sennott 
> 


Something occurred to me awhile back--namely, that there 
are N types of Linux and there is some kernel {??} 
or other difference that differentiates the distributions. 
E.g.: are Debian and Ubuntu Linux equivalent? 

I've spent most of my years hacking on the "BSD" open-Unix; 
thus my uncertainty.... ---FWIW, My new mini-keyboard 
arrived and is much easier to use---. Anyhow, as far as *my* 
version of free+open TTS is concerned, all you need to do on 
your 12.04 Ubuntu is create a user account named "kline," 
drop in the SHAR I posted on 01 jun 13, install espeak, gvim, 
and type "make." vbc will be your voice in any 8859-[12] 
tongue. 


> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Gary Kline <kline at thought.org> wrote: 
> 
> > Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. 
> > Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community. 
> > 
> > On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 10:42:14AM -0700, Peter Korn wrote: 
> > > Hi Gary, 
> > > 
> > > There are three developments coming out of the AEGIS Project 
> > > <http://www.aegis-project.eu> that might be of interest. Take a 
> > > look at Dasher for Android 
> > > <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dasher.android>, 
> > > Tecla Access for Android 
> > > <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.idi.tekla> (that 
> > > provides tremendous control functionality as well), and 
> > > CCF-SymbolDroid <http://dev.androtech.se/ooo/content.html>(which is 
> > > compatible with TTS, but more focused on people with 
> > > language/cognitive impairments, yet still may be a useful choice). 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > thanks, peter, but none of your URL;'S did what by program does. 
> > you would have known that if you have done some minor hacking and 
> > exec's vbc. 
> > 
> > overworking {by putting in from 9- to 13-hour days} for nearly 
> > three years caused my shoulder to subluximate. voila! from 
> > severely disabled to damn-near Totally disabled. out of a job. 
> > 
> > I do not have android; I know the berkeley distro's at the 
> > kernel level ...... well, that's if you go back to the 
> > end-of-lawsuit. ihave slipped a bit. besides writing a slew 
> > of freeware, I spent 7 or 8 years earning my MA in philosophy. 
> > and because my shoulder is giving my grief, I have decided to 
> > hand off vbc to whomever wants to finish it. 
> > 
> > the only shortcoming I see is that t o learn vbc requires the 
> > use to learn a min of the "vim" text editor. this is neither 
> > good nor evil//easy nor hard. but it gives the speech-impaired 
> > user the flexibility of mapping abbrevs: "thr" becomes 
> > "there"; "i" maps to "I"; and "ths" becomes "this" or "those" 
> > depending on the user's desire. 
> > 
> > gary 
> > 
> > ps: vbc uses the GUI version of vim: gvim; espeak voices 
> > whatever is typed when the window is closed. 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > Regards, 
> > > 
> > > Peter 
> > > (former AEGIS Technical Manager) 
> > > 
> > > On 8/21/2013 10:34 AM, Gary Kline wrote: 
> > > >Organization: Thought Unlimited. Public service Unix since 1986. 
> > > >Of_Interest: With 27 years of service to the Unix community. 
> > > > 
> > > >On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 12:34:14PM -0400, gabey8 at aol.com wrote: 
> > > >>Before this list goes away, I think it would be worthwhile to visit 
> > the accessibility of the recently-released XO Tablet. It's running Android 
> > 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a lot of XO-specific software installed. 
> > > >> 
> > > >>What accessibility features in Android would allow disabled users to 
> > make the best use of this tablet? 
> > > >> 
> > > >>I have, in particular, an interest in text-to-speech capabilities in 
> > Android. I know someone whose speech has been severely impaired by 
> > Parkinson's Disease, and if Android offers an affordable communication 
> > solution, I would recommend her purchase of this tablet in a heartbeat. I 
> > know that the iPad offers such apps, and that there are ruggedized/bump 
> > cases for it; however, we are talking about someone who is on a fixed 
> > income; if Android can offer the same capabilities for less money, I'd be 
> > willing to suggest the XO Tablet to her instead. 
> > > >> 
> > > >>_______________________________________________ 
> > > >>accessibility mailing list 
> > > >>accessibility at lists.laptop.org 
> > > >>http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility 
> > > > hello to everyone of the accessibility list, 
> > > > 
> > > > I have dropped out of working on my "Voice By Computer" 
> > > > program some months back even though "VBC|vbc" works 
> > > > well on my Ubuntu linux desktop. I was the first severely 
> > > > disabled EE to graduate as a computer programmer in 1982 
> > > > and have written several open source programs over the 
> > > > years. "vbc" is my text-to-speech effort that was and 
> > > > remains intended for people like myself with a speech 
> > > > impairment. 
> > > > 
> > > > some very old data is available at http://www.thought.org/vbc 
> > > > with a "src" link that will display a shar "List"; I put this 
> > > > up late last spring informed OLPC. Several minor hacks need 
> > > > to be made to store static data. ~/.config/inkscape/* is an 
> > > > example. What I have in /home/kline/.VBC should be moved to 
> > > > /home/kline/.config/.VBC/*. this is one example. 
> > > > 
> > > > vbc is written in C and GTK+. interested? have at it! 
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > Oracle <http://www.oracle.com> 
> > > Peter Korn | Accessibility Principal 
> > > Phone: +1 650 5069522 <tel:+1%20650%205069522> 
> > > 500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94064 
> > > Green Oracle <http://www.oracle.com/commitment> Oracle is committed 
> > > to developing practices and products that help protect the 
> > > environment 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Gary Kline kline at thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service 
> > Unix 
> > Twenty-seven years of service to the Unix community. 
> > http://www.thought.org/HOPE 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________ 
> > accessibility mailing list 
> > accessibility at lists.laptop.org 
> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility 
> > 

> _______________________________________________ 
> accessibility mailing list 
> accessibility at lists.laptop.org 
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility 


-- 
Gary Kline kline at thought.org http://www.thought.org Public Service Unix 
Twenty-seven years of service to the Unix community. 
http://www.thought.org/HOPE 


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