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Audio for Accessibility


Overview

On 23 October 2001 the portable music player industry was revolutionised with Apple Inc's unveiling of the iPod. Clever marketing strategies enabled the iPod to quickly emerge as a market leader and continues to dominate sales today.

Although there is little doubt the main purpose of the iPod is to allow people to listen to music on the go, many users have discovered how the player can be an excellent tool for listening to spoken-word material such as podcasts and educational information. Software packages such as Easy Converter (TM) from Dolphin UK and other free conversion tools can be used to quickly translate electronic documents into audio files suitable for playback

Even though many people are taken with the aesthetically pleasing design of various iPod models, certain aspects of the user interface can negatively effect the level of accessibility for many users. Some potential barriers to accessing the user interface on many models include:

  • click wheel control (most models)
  • integrated button controls (most models)
  • lack of physical buttons (Ipod iTouch)
  • limited configurability of screen appearance (most models)
  • lack of visual feedback (iPod Shuffle)
  • lack of verbal feedback (all models)

In the third quarter of 2008 two distinctive approaches to help overcome some of the aforementioned accessibility issues were introduced.




I-Tel from Cobolt Systems

The I-Tel is a unique product that allows an iPod to announce (via text to speech) information about stored media such as:

  • artist
  • album titles
  • song titles
  • podcasts
  • spoken word tracks
  • audio books

The I-Tel is a small peripheral device that connects to many iPod models with a standard docking connector. Standard headphones plug into the I-Tel which also contains tactile buttons to control the connected iPod. In effect the I-Tel is acting as the user interface while the Ipod becomes the media storage device. A removable belt clip is also part of the unit and the pass-through docking connector allows other devices such as a radio transmitter or charger to be connected to the iPod whilst using the I-Tell.

There are five main control buttons which work in a similar way to an iPod, with 2 additional buttons to control the volume. The unit has an additional setup menu which enables you to choose the voice style, voice speed and the gaps between words. The unit requires no batteries as it is powered by the iPod.

The I-Tel can be purchased directly from Cobolt Systems for £59.99.

http://www.cobolt.co.uk





iPod Nano (4th Generation)

In September 2008 the 4th generation of the iPod Nano was released. In addition to the increased storage capacity, this version includes the ability to speak the name of selected menus in iPod software using the text-to-speech capability built into or installed into Mac OS X or Windows. These voices should be SAPI-compliant for Windows or Speech Manager-compliant for Mac OS X.

Further information on Apple products accessibility can be found by visiting:

http://www.apple.com/accessibility

Further information on Microsoft Windows accessibility can be found by visiting:

http://www.microsoft.com/enable

The following steps to enabling speech on the 4th generation iPod Nano came from the Apple Product Support web page and are included here for convenience.

Enabling Spoken Menus

  1. Open iTunes 8 and connect iPod Nano (4th generation).
  2. Select iPod Nano under Devices on the left side of the iTunes window.
  3. Click the Summary tab and then select the checkbox to Enable spoken menus for accessibility.
  4. Click Apply in the lower right corner of iTunes.

iTunes will sync audio clips of the iPod nano menus as well as song information.

If you need to change the speech settings of your Mac or PC, follow the steps below:

Mac OS X

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
Choose View > Speech.
Select the Text to Speech tab. You can change the System Voice of the spoken menus synced to iPod nano. The Speaking Rate can also be adjusted in the Speech pane.
After selecting a voice or adjusting the speaking rate of a voice, iPod nano will need to be re-synced with iTunes.

Windows Vista

Choose Start > Control Panel.
Select Classic View from the left hand sidebar.
Open the Text to Speech panel.
If additional voices are installed, you can change the voice used for spoken menus on iPod nano from the Voice selection menu. Voice speed can also be adjusted in the Text to Speech panel.
After selecting a voice or adjusting the speaking rate of a voice, iPod nano will need to be re-synced with iTunes.

Windows XP

Choose Start > Control Panel from the Start menu.
Open the Speech panel.
If additional voices are installed, you can change the voice used for spoken menus on iPod nano from the Voice selection menu. Voice speed can also be adjusted in the Speech panel.
After selecting a voice or adjusting the speaking rate of a voice, iPod nano will need to be re-synced with iTunes.

Additional Information

Spoken menus may not be available for all menu items or synced content. Spoken menus will be generated in the language of the system voice that users have installed and configured on their computer. Some voices may not support this feature. Overall sync times will increase when spoken menus are enabled in iTunes. Audio clips for spoken menus will reduce the available capacity for audio and video content on iPod Nano.



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