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

Hi folks,

if HomePage Reader supported Aural CSS it would be able to provide a lot of
speech control using existing HTML content, but applying style sheets in the
normal way. In the XML world there is wor within the Voice Browser activity
on Speech Synthesis Markup Language which provides for detailed control of
speech prosody, pronunciation, and so forth.

Both these areas might be worth looking into as well.

Cheers

Charles McCN

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, David Poehlman wrote:


  ----- 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







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-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Wednesday, 26 September 2001 09:29:56 UTC