Just When You Thought You Heard Everything
Staying on top of technology is part of my job in custom web design and development, and just when you thought you heard everything something new comes along. Designing sites for accessibility means making it easier for disabled persons to access your content. To my surprise, one site goes beyond simple text, and does it very well.
Here's what happened just recently. For one of my personal blogs I use FeedBlitz for readers to subscribe to posts, and I get emailed copies of their broadcasts announcing new posts, also. I file the announcements without much thought, but decided to read the latest. WOW! As expected, a story posted on my personal childhood storytelling blog was linked in the announcement email, but it included an icon for a pc speaker. Curious, I followed the link to find that my personal blog posts are being digitized from text to audio as an RSS feed, and available for listeners to hear!
Visit Growin' Up in Maine with the story of a photo postcard my Grandmother showed me when I was 6. Next, open up another tab in your browser and follow this link to hear the digitized audio of the story told with a female voice and matching the blog post perfectly word for word.
One aspect of web design that deserves more attention is website accessibility making the internet as equal as possible for persons with disabilities. For example, my web designs in xhtml with css are easier for screen readers to extract and present content spoken aloud digitally to blind persons. A very small percentage of web developers design websites for accessibility, and others may not care.
The voice tempo of the digitized version of my post was nearly human, and it was perfectly clear with fewer odd pauses than I would have expected. If you know a blind or vision impaired person who goes online, you may want to introduce them to this audio feed service from talkr.com that will allow them to listen to audio versions of written blog posts.
TAGS: advice accessibility audio blog text to audio web design
Here's what happened just recently. For one of my personal blogs I use FeedBlitz for readers to subscribe to posts, and I get emailed copies of their broadcasts announcing new posts, also. I file the announcements without much thought, but decided to read the latest. WOW! As expected, a story posted on my personal childhood storytelling blog was linked in the announcement email, but it included an icon for a pc speaker. Curious, I followed the link to find that my personal blog posts are being digitized from text to audio as an RSS feed, and available for listeners to hear!
Visit Growin' Up in Maine with the story of a photo postcard my Grandmother showed me when I was 6. Next, open up another tab in your browser and follow this link to hear the digitized audio of the story told with a female voice and matching the blog post perfectly word for word.
One aspect of web design that deserves more attention is website accessibility making the internet as equal as possible for persons with disabilities. For example, my web designs in xhtml with css are easier for screen readers to extract and present content spoken aloud digitally to blind persons. A very small percentage of web developers design websites for accessibility, and others may not care.
The voice tempo of the digitized version of my post was nearly human, and it was perfectly clear with fewer odd pauses than I would have expected. If you know a blind or vision impaired person who goes online, you may want to introduce them to this audio feed service from talkr.com that will allow them to listen to audio versions of written blog posts.
TAGS: advice accessibility audio blog text to audio web design
Jim Degerstrom 
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