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The Spectator
Text-to-Speech Technology May Soon Be Available in Computer Labs Throughout Campus
by Julia Litzky '12Science & Technology Editor
October 30, 2009
About 20 students and faculty members gathered in the Bristol Hub last Thursday for the Accessibility Software Brown Bag Lunch to discuss the technology that the Text-to-Speech committee has decided would be most effective in helping students with learning disabilities keep up with their coursework. The meeting began with an introduction by associate dean of students for diversity and accessibility, Allen Harrison, who reported that "in the three years I've been here I've seen an increase in students that we have coming to Hamilton that are in need of this service…we service in our office on average about 100 students each academic year…At least 10-15 percent probably have a need for this type of technology." Then, the ITS Text-to-Speech, Speech-to-Text Committee, which consists of four members of ITS, presented the five programs they are encouraging the school or students with a disability to acquire.
Carl Rosenfield, a member of the committee, explained, "one of the things that we've learned from this process is that there is no one killer technology that is going to solve all of the problems." Rather, there were three types of technology which the committee determined that there was a need for: text-to-speech, screen magnification, and speech-to-text. The committee then tested a variety of programs which fell into each category and ran pilot tests with a variety of students to determine which programs were best suited for the needs of Hamilton students with learning disabilities.
For text-to-speech technology, the committee found two programs: TextAloud, which only works on Windows computers, and Ghostreader, which is the Mac equivalent to TextAloud. These programs have the ability to translate any typed document into relatively realistic synthetic human voices. Rosenfield explained that "Any text that you can select with a mouse, it can read."
Users can adjust the speed of the voice and select the voice in which the document is read. Both programs also have the ability to convert a text document to an mp3 file, allowing students to save their reading homework in audio format and save it on their iPod or other portable mP3 Player. The programs would not be provided for students on their personal computers, but would be available in the computer labs throughout campus. Additionally, the programs only costs about $30, making it practical for students to purchase for themselves.
The second category of program that the committee explored and tested was screen magnification. Macintosh computers have a sufficient text magnification program built in, while the program on Windows has blurry letters which are difficult to read. To remedy this, the committee recommended Zoom Text, which provides magnification with clear, unpixilated letters. Additionally, it provides the option to switch the black and white objects on a page or change the colors of the font and background. This is important for those students whose eyes are particularly sensitive to light, and have difficulty reading text with a white background.
This program is more expensive than the text-to-speech programs, running at about $400 per license. While this makes it impractical for most students to own on private computers, the school can purchase one license which would allow use on five to ten computers. It could therefore be supplied to all student computer labs on campus by purchasing only a few licences.
The final program the committee presented was a speech-to-text program called Dragon. Dragon transcribes whatever the user says into a word document, and also allows users to control the computer with voice commands. Although this program has many exciting applications, it can not be used in the computer labs on campus because the user must speak to use the program, which would disturb other students working there. However, ITS is willing to work with students in learning to use the program.
The committee has submitted a proposal to the college requesting that TextAloud and ZoomText be made available on all public Windows computers and Ghostwriter be installed on all Macintoshes. However, according to Rosenfield, "that recommendation is just a recommendation at this point. It needs to be accepted by the higher officials at Hamilton College because there is a budget associated with that."