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best text to speech ap to show my non-geek sighted friends?

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From: shawn klein
Date: Feb 24, 2008 10:10AM

Hi. I meet lots of sighted people on line who are
interested in how I use a computer, but I don't think
they're all quite computer savvy enough or would want
to take the time to install a demo version of Window
Eyes or Jaws, and I know that Jaws and Window Eyes
interfere with the normal use of the mouse for people
who aren't used to having a screen reader running.
Example: they can't fill out forms in the normal way,
and Jaws shakes the mouse pointer when it speaks. At
least Connect Outloud did when I had it 4 years ago. I
don't know if this applies to NVDA or not. If not I'd
like to know, because that might be the perfect choice
then. NVDA doesn't play nice with IE, but I can warn
them away from having IE open with NVDA running.
Narrator would be great, but it doesn't even recognize
all the voices I have on MY computer. The only voice
choice is Sam. This isn't good for some of my friends
who speak little or no English. And to tell you the
truth I wouldn't wish Sam on my worst enemy! Anyone
have any ideas for something free, compact, requires
minimal set up, and at least will read what someone
types in the window, and works with something like Via
Voice or Espeak, and allows you to choose voice and
language, and allows you to change settings with the
mouse so they don't have to learn keyboard shortcuts?
I know of one like that, but it just works with Skype,
and not everybody has or wants Skype. Thanks for any ideas.