6. Cognitive, Language, and Other Impairments

6.1.1. Screen Readers and Speech Synthesis

Screen readers with speech synthesis enable the system to read on-screen information and text out loud to the user. This type of assistive technology can be particularly helpful to individuals who have dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Although there are no screen readers available for the GNOME desktop, screen reader applications are available for Linux in console mode that provide this functionality.

• Emacspeak is a speech interface that will provide audio output for all text. The program works in terminal and console mode and requires a software or hardware speech synthesizer. The downloads and users manuals are available at: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/emacspeak/.

• The Trace Center provides information and downloads for various screen readers and speech synthesizers. More information is available at: http://www.trace.wisc.edu/world/computer_access/unix/unixshar.html.

6.1.2. Keyboard filters and Word Processing

Keyboard filters and word processing applications that have word prediction and spell checking utilities can be an excellent aid for users with learning and language impairments.

6.1.3. Speech Recognition

Speech recognition applications enables you to control the computer with your voice rather than having to type or write out the information.

• CVoice Control is a speech recognition system that enables a user to connect spoken commands to UNIX commands. More information is available at: http://www.kiecza.de/daniel/linux/.

• IBM ViaVoice Dictation for Linux allows the user to write documents using their voice rather then a keyboard and can read the information back to the user. More information is available at: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/dev/.

• Open Mind Speech is a development project for speech recognition tools and applications. The developers have established a mailing list for asking questions and obtaining information at: http://freespeech.sourceforge.net/.

• XVoice enables continuous speech to text dictation for many applications. More information is available at: http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~tdoris/Xvoice/.