Text-to-speech (TTS) has arrived on the Brailliant BI X series. 

Our BI X braille displays are the first to include text-to-speech, bringing you one step closer to a hybrid note-taking experience. The latest update unlocks text-to-speech capabilities for the BI 20X and BI 40X braille displays introducing a limited number of voices, including English, French, and Spanish. HumanWare plans to later include the option to download voices in other languages in the future.

What to expect with this new update?

When you update your Brailliant BI X, text-to-speech will be enabled according to your system language. If your system language is English, Spanish or French, it will be selected by default for the text-to-speech.

New options menu item called “Speech settings”

Upon installing the update, a new Speech settings item will appear under the Options menu. This new sub-menu will allow you to turn on and off various text-to-speech options and select your voices.

Some of the past tech I still wouldn’t mind having around

Braille & Speak, road Runner, ABC Courier, Nomad, Keynote Companion, Braille To Print, Opticon, Sonic Glasses, Game Centre, APH 4 Track Recorder, business Memo, Parrot, and Pac Mate.

Adobe Acrobat PdF Accessibility Auto tag API

Adobe is experimenting with a service to auto-tag PDFs for accessibility for its customers. If you want to join the early access program, complete their Early Access Program — Intake Questionnaire.

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=Wht7-jR7h0OUrtLBeN7O4W2e3DfyxtBEu1EvkmM_xbRURVJHNDRFMkFFMjZBU0Y3N1BWVzZTVUY1MC4u

Aussie Tech to Help People Access Computers Hits the US

NVDA.

https://www.afr.com/technology/aussie-tech-to-help-the-blind-read-screens-hits-us-20220715-p5b1w3

A Review of Audio Editing On Mac or Windows

Excellent article and resources on learning to use Reaper which is a fully accessible audio editing program and well covered in the June edition of Access World from APH.

https://www.afb.org/aw/23/6/17971

A Review of Voice Dream Reader for the Mac

I’ve not purchased this myself, so it’s good to have a review done by Access world from APH in their July edition..

https://afb.org/aw/23/7/17989?emci=2f7294e9-bf11-ed11-b47a-281878b82c0f&emdi=bd749e01-8112-ed11-bd6e-281878b83d8a&ceid=8509212