Beef up Your Text to Speech Tools with Confident Reader

Looking for a low-cost, high-powered text reader and accommodation tool?
I have been using the free demo version of Natural Reader for use in the classroom for some time to introduce teachers to what it can do. I love the floating miniboard toolbar that can work with most all my documents and web pages. Some of the teachers have purchased Natural Reader for use with their students and to convert text files to Mp3.
While visiting the site recently, I discovered they have a new product, Confident Reader, that is a spin-off of Natural Reader, but for accommodating Dyslexia, reading and writing. And you know what I really love? They didn't hike up the price because it was being adapted for educational use. The personal version is $69 and the professional version is $99.
The main difference between Natural Reader and Confident Reader is that CR includes a typing echo by letter, word or phrase so you can hear what you type, a 100 ebook library of classics, a word prediction engine and a spell checker. The Natural Reader personal version is $49.50, so you are paying about $20 more for CR.

You can view the Confident Reader demo here.
A 7 day/ 10 time trial is available here.

Confident Reader has 2 natural voices, reads MS Word, pdf, MS Outlook and the web. It converts text to Mp3 file, has the ebook library, typing echo, word prediction and spell check. The professional version includes some nifty sound editing (that you could do with the open source tool Audacity), but it is nice to have it all in one place. The pro version converts multiple text files, like chapters, as a batch and even allows you to use a graphic sound editor to clean up the tracks and add a background music track. With the insertion of xml tags feature , you can insert male and female voices in the reading , insert pauses and conversational tags to create a dramatic and professional sounding audio book.

If you are looking at how to spend stimulus bill funding for your school in the area of technology/assistive technology, this might be a great way to stretch your dollars to get the biggest bang. I am going to get one to demo with my schools on my laptop. I am using a scanner and the free Top OCR (an image to text converter) to get my hard-to-access text ready for those students who qualify under copyright law, and then looking at this Confident Reader as a dynamo of a player at a low cost. It will also be a great companion to the Access Apps collection of tools we are introducing in our districts. There have been some shortcomings for me to free readers either in voice quality or the lack of highlighted text as the reader reads. Confident Reader looks like it gives me both.
With services like Bookshare and tools like this and all the free open source apps, we have many exciting methods to help students accommodate their learning. I see so much potential. Crazy as it sounds - I almost wish summer weren't coming so we could continue to implement and get these things going!

All the best to you!
Lon




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SpaceClass and Natural Reader for Science Accommodation

I spent some time this morning setting up an account and playing with "SpaceClass". SpaceClass is sponsored by NASA, Lockheed Martin, The Space Foundation, BioServe Space Technologies.

SpaceClass allows a teacher to set up a free account, then set up classes with descriptions and separate passwords. Students can go through the interactive lessons which give writing prompts, show videos with actors and has a narrator throughout the unit.

In their "About" section they say:

"The first space education program featuring virtual science experiments that simulate research actually being conducted in space, SpaceClass teaches students about science and technology for future missions. It makes learning fun! An interactive program using text, streaming video and animation, SpaceClass meets classroom learning standards. Young actors guide students through the entertaining lessons. Teachers can monitor each student’s progress and performance online."

The text above says that it "meets classroom learning standards" but I don't know what specific standards those are and for what grade level. It would be interesting to find out. The site says that the sponsors determine what topics and content will be part of SpaceClass, based on real work and research they are doing.

I viewed the Mission to Mars Unit after setting up an account and a mock class for training purposes. Mission to Mars has the following description:

"Students fly to Mars and use a membrane to separate gases in the Martian atmosphere in order to make methane fuel for the return trip to Earth. They learn about orbits, distances between planets, and how to calculate the amount of fuel needed. They experiment with electrolysis and learn how to use the natural resources of space to survive on Mars."

Accessibility in the Unit:

Mission to Mars had a nice intro and narrator with a voice easy to understand, some animation and then had a writing prompt on the Mars probes and landing on Mars. The student had to read the prompt text, so I opened my miniboard floating toolbar in the free program, Natural Reader. I was able to use the toolbar as my companion to read text to me as I went through the activity. I am glad to see that I can highlight text on the lessons and have the text read.

Above: A screen shot of SpaceClass and the writing prompt and my reading toolbar.

A variety of topics:

Other topics of units include Orion's Path; Journey to a Black Hole; Asteroid Challenge; Bones in Space. The grade level is probably middle to high school. Some upper elementary students who are advanced might find this a great alternative TAG activity.

I am interested in the aspect of using it with students who are cognitively fine, but need either some extra motivation in science and some reading support or have a visual disability and need to have some text support for help (this is where Natural Reader comes in). This site could be a great way to weave in some accessibility support as well as add some positive motivation factors if the units meet some key objectives in your science or reading and writing curriculum.

SpaceClass could be just the ticket for some of your students in a middle or high school class for remediation in reading and writing with students struggling with some of the more hidden learning disabilities. Often times these students need a more exciting medium to develop their skills. With Natural Reader for support, the combination package is a great alternative and the best part...it is all free. You might want to check this one/two power punch out for some of your students this fall.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Assistive Technology Blog Carnival: Edition #3 is Up!

The Assistive Technology Blog Carnival Edition #3 for May is Ready to Explore

I am proud to give you the link to read some excellent posts on Synthesized Speech. The writers have put some great thought into the posts and you should enjoy them.

Read about:

Using JAWS navigation and screen reading tool

Designing free AAC boards with Natural Reader

Synthesized Speech on Mac OSX

and a service called "Yakitome"

You can go to the AT Carnival HERE.

All the best and Happy Memorial Day to all our U.S. readers. It is a holiday and I am at the Oregon Coast as we speak. Talk to you again tomorrow!

Lon

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How to Rap While Losing Your Voice...and Other Lessons I learned Today

"You can use the floating toolbar to play any selected text you type on the screen so you can talk to your family and friends." I was explaining this yesterday with my new "rapper" friend and student that has had a new world opened to him over the past few days. I was doing a home visit to set up some AT in anticipation of and preparation for physical changes coming that will change access at school and at home. When I sat down with mom in the morning she said, "This is the first time he has been excited about school in 7 years."
In high school, and bored, this student has a detriorating condition that is progressively leaving him speechless and physically unable to grab, hold, type and do many things I take for granted. He has all but shut down socially and academically at school. As we talked, his face lit up now and then as he understood what this new technology would mean to him in the way of communication.
I had downloaded the Natural Soft's Natural Reader so this student could communicate on his home computer. I had a two-fold reason why I wanted him to try this:

1. The text reader's floating toolbar gives him the ability to use a Microsoft Works word document up on the screen as a speech synthesizer. With a Click-n-type on-screen keyboard and a Cruise Adapted Trackpad (for now) he can type what he wants to say, highlight it and click the play button on the floating toolbar (the minboard on the Natural Reader) and hear what he wants to say, said for him. "This will be great when he has friends over or we are talking. He can get out clearly what he wants to tell us,"mom shared.
There was a look of relief and a relaxed demeanor on the son's face as he saw he now had a way out of the typical charades he has been tired of playing.
Mom finished by adding, "This will be so much better than the clicker we were told we should use - one or two clicks for yes or no."
"He can continue to communicate - there is no need for him to use a clicker!" I said.

2. He can develop topical documents that archive the things he is saying now, and draw from them in the future when he needs to build AAC customized buttons and pages. Most of the work of collecting common expressions, phrases and commands that he uses will be "journaled" through this activity. There are different trains of thought as to what form of AAC should be used, the type of language methodology and device choice - but this is a high school student who needs to get out some basic commands and let people know what he is thinking right now. When the time comes to research a device and a system, our SLP on his case will be involved and a lot of training will be happening that goes beyond my training and experience. For now, this is filling a gap and giving this student more tools than he ever had before.
I helped him set up Audacity so he could begin the process of saying things he would like to record as Mp3 and WAV files. He seemed excited to try.
"Don't over-do it and tire yourself out." I said. "If you do one phrase in a day or two and feel it is recognizable then you are doing good. Give yourself lots of room and do a little at a time."
He nodded.
And now the best experience I have had to date in this profession... (and I have had some big heart-swell, tear-jerking moments!)

The highlight of the day was to visit his "sanctum sanctorium" - the recording studio out in the side yard - its own little garden-shed house. Under padlock and key, the interior was complete with a cement floor, insulation, a heater and a long desk with a flat screen Mac OSX, a 76 key midi keyboard, a microphone on a boom stand and all the recording gear. This had been a gift from the "Make A Wish Foundation" last summer.
There were baseball trading card binders, a bobble head of Mark McGuire, the classic "Dogs Playing Poker" picture on the wall and...uh hummm, a few sports illustrated swim suit edition type pictures. Well, this was the lair of a typical high school boy!
He wheeled in under the desk.
"OK", I said, "I am not leaving until you play me a track. I have been waiting to hear one!"
He said "Okay" and turned on the Mac. He browsed through his song files - there must have been 50 or 60 of them, and as he rolled over them, they played automatically so he could hear the file while looking through them. Pretty cool, I thought. He chose one he called "Money" and his rap began.

The beat boomed out as he cranked it up. I stood looking at the proud face of this kid, sitting in his chair, listening to HIS voice rap away with the confidence of Snoop Dog. It didn't matter that most of his consonant sounds weren't there or that you could only make out a word or two every now and then. HE knew what it meant, and this was HIS language. I was amazed at how he rapped with such abandon. There was no hesitation, no shame, no effort to hide a deficiency. It was pure joy in sound, music and beat.
As I left I thought how honored I had been to be allowed into his world. I will never forget that moment.

Lon

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