but what percentage of people actually use computers and can use them
well enough to take advantage of this power.  who writes the
descriptions of the material for verbalization through a screen reader?
The materials I see are either just files or they are scanned documents
and scanning is not nearly perfect enough for my taste.  Also, I have
not heard any computer speech that sounds human enough and I have heard
the latest on the market being used by screen readers.  While it is true
that there is better sounding speech, I have not seen it in screen
readers or even scanning interfaces.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Jones" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: Books on Tape


1. Tape is only as good as the reader.  The more professional the
material,
the fewer capable readers are available.
2. Charts and diagrams are more accurately described in writing than
having
a reader try to describe it as they get to in on a page.
3. The amount of information that you must process to function as an
employee is doubling every five years.  Readers just aren't capable of
meeting this need.
4.  Recent speech technology sounds very human.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Poehlman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 4:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Books on Tape


and how do you convey all those complex diagrams and other imnages in
text?  I love a proffessional chart description on tape,  It really
helps to have a diagram explained on tape by a professional.  I agree.
tape is here for a long time.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Rebman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: Books on Tape


>>>>

Books on tape?

If I never got another book or article on tape, I wouldn't be upset in
the
least. I am totally blind and currently working on my Dissertation, so
I've
had a lot of experience with textbooks on tape. I think, given today's
available technology, books on tape only serve to keep blind persons
nonliterate. Not only do blind students lose out on learning spelling of
names and terminology of their particular field of interest and other
academic areas to which they are exposed; they miss out on the
opportunity
to fully understand format, layout, punctuation and other critical
written
communication skills. I feel this is probably one of the biggest
barriers
that prevent this population from obtaining an appropriate level of
employment or employment at all. I think a student is better off
scanning
their own books rather than relying solely on tapes.


I will mostly agree with you, but there are certain circumstances where
subtle (or not so subtle) semantics are conveyed only by tone and
inflection that is far beyond what current speech synthesizers are
capable
of.  Granted, this is mostly something that appears in literary works as
opposed to technical ones, but those situations really need a human
reader,
and hopefully one who understands the material she is reading.

Even if the synthesizers were up to the task, there is the question of
markup of the original text, and I don't see that one being solved for a
very long time.

-- Jim

------------------------------
James A. Rebman

Cognitive Levers Project
Center for Life-Long Learning and Design
Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado, Boulder

"In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth while the
learned
will find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer
exists."

- Eric Hoffer