- From: Chuck Hitchcock <chitchcock@cast.org>
- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 14:13:06 -0400
- To: "Chuck Letourneau" <cpl@starlingweb.com>, "keren beth moses" <kmoses@students.uiuc.edu>
- Cc: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>, <ij@w3.org>
I think that Beth is generally correct - but am aware of kids who are legally deaf who do use amplified text-to-speech to help gain access to subject area content such as social studies and science. Many children who are deaf do experience reading difficulties which complicates the use of captions on video (analog or digital) for elementary school children. Captions are often fleeting and the oral language used in a video is often well above the learners reading level. Since synthesized speech as an access tool for prepared text is not generally considered "critical" for those who are deaf, I would be inclined to change it. On the other hand, as Chuck Letourneau points out, individuals who are deaf or have severe motor expressive difficulties often use synthesized speech to generate language that others can more easily understand. This, of course, would not apply to the use of such speech to read prepared web pages. Chuck *********************************** Chuck Hitchcock, Director Universal Design Lab (UDL)and Product Development, CAST, Inc., 39 Cross Street, Peabody, MA 01960 Voice 978 531-8555 TTY 978 531-3110 Fax 978 531-0192 <http://cast.org/> <http://cast.org/bobby/>
Received on Tuesday, 31 August 1999 14:12:04 UTC