css?Fw: Pauses revisited -- New HTML tags needed?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Guido Corona" <guidoc@us.ibm.com>
To: "HPR" <IBM-HPR@talklist.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 10:00 AM
Subject: Pauses revisited -- New HTML tags needed?


IBM Home Page Reader
-----------------------

Thank you Bill for the good and detailed suggestion.  I am adding it to
my
log.
As TTS engines improve,  tags for speech control will make more and more
sense for audiences even broader than the blind community.  While this
issue is now added to the HPR suggestion log,  I would  ask listers
involved with the W3C/WAI to bring the matter up with that organization.
Speech control tags should be added to the html standard.  That would
enable the creators of the underlying html parsers, such as IE, to add
representations of these tags to the
document object model (DOM) which HPR, JFW and WindowEyes rely on to
create
verbal representations of the page.

I will also discuss this issue with our team's representative in the
W3C/WAI organization.

Guido


Guido


Guido D. Corona
Advisory Software Engineer.
Test Program Manager,
IBM Accessibility Center, Austin, Tx.
Research Division.
Phone:  (512) 838-9735
Email: guidoc@us.ibm.com

Try IBM Home Page Reader free for 30 days at:
ftp.software.ibm.com/sns/hpr/hpr3trl.exe



Bill Smith <bill@snowboardranking.com>@talklist.com> on 09/24/2001
05:49:26
PM

Please respond to "HPR" <IBM-HPR@talklist.com>

Sent by:  <IBM-HPR@talklist.com>


To:   HPR <IBM-HPR@talklist.com>
cc:
Subject:  Wish List (Pauses revisited)



IBM Home Page Reader
-----------------------

Hi all,

Recently a member of this list asked for a future version of HPR to
recognize a
pseudo html tag that would introduce a timed pause into any text that
was
being
converted to speech while a web page was being read. I too would like to
see
this additional feature for when I write e-mail, nursery rhymes, and
poetry
for
my blind granddaughter, this would be a great help.

I do not think the suggestion of having an official html language tag
would
work
because it would only introduce a pause as the html text is being
displayed, not
while it is being spoken. Please can you reconsider allowing us web page
authors
to use all or some of the built in ViaVoice Outloud Symbolic Phonetic
Representation (SPR) Tags or Annotations in some future version of HPR?
Can
this
request be put on to the wish list?

For example this sentence applied directly to ViaVoice Outloud has the
pauses
included, but the pauses are blocked when the same sentence is read
through
HPR:
"Avoid the following routes:  Thirteen north, \Pau=400\ Ninety-six west,
\Pau=400\ and Thirty-two south".

Meanwhile here is a solution to the problem that is not very elegant,
and
only
works when the author can have access to the remote user's HPR
dictionary:

1. Using the HPR "settings", "dictionary", "american english", "special
words",
"add",  put the word ps400 in the key diolog box and put the put the
annotation
code `p400 in the translation dialog box,

2. Restart HPR so that it knows about the extra word(s) in the user
dictionary.

3. Write a html page with say the sentence; "Avoid the following routes:
Thirteen north, ps400 Ninety-six west, ps400 and Thirty-two south".

4. Now when HPR reads this page it will not say the word "ps400" but
instead HPR
will translate it to mean and give a 400 millisecond pause.

5. Because these pause words are in amongst the regular text of the html
document they look confusing to a sighted person, they can be hidden by
making
the text font white on a white background, for example the html tag;
<span
style="color:white">ps400</span>

6. This simple solution above of hiding the words however does introduce
blank
spaces in the document to sighted people, a possibly better solution to
hide the
ps400 word, yet still have it read by HPR, is to use the "alternative
text"
in
the html IMG tag, for example; <img height="0" width="0" alt="ps400">

If my suggestion of having HPR unblock the ViaVoice Outloud Symbolic
Phonetic
Representation (SPR) Tags or Annotations is acceptable to the developers
then
html authors would be able to control much more than just pauses, the
authors
would be able to change the audio accent, sex, speed, language, and so
on,
to
give a much richer experience to the blind user of a website page. This
would be
in the same sense that html authors now control text fonts, (color,
size,
style,
etc), for sighted people.

I appreciate this is a broad and far reaching request, but by supplying
this
sort of increased accessibility to blind people, we may in fact be
leading
the
way for sighted people to expect more in the way of audio from regular
web
pages.

Regards, -Bill







---------------------------------
To unsubscribe send an email to:
requests@talklist.com
with
UNSUBSCRIBE IBM-HPR
in the BODY of the message.




---------------------------------
To unsubscribe send an email to:
requests@talklist.com
with
UNSUBSCRIBE IBM-HPR
in the BODY of the message.

Received on Tuesday, 25 September 2001 10:19:08 UTC