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Re: Acrobat Read Out Loud mistakenly reads letter as Roman Numeral

for

From: Whitney Quesenbery
Date: Jul 18, 2014 11:19AM

Thinking about "Why would someone use a simple text reader like ROL instead
of a more full-featured screen reader?"

Here's a few scenarios:

- Resting tired eyes even if one can navigate easily, you might want to
sit back and listen to a long-ish text.

- Listening to text when your eyes are busy elsewhere (like driving), for
example, reading a book or article. (Of if you are someone who cannot read
sustained text in moving vehicles.)

- Listening to an article as a way of proofreading it to make sure it makes
sense (instead of reading it out loud to yourself).

- Listening to the text because you don't read well, or are reading in a
second language. This is especially helpful for adult learners.

- You use some other AT to navigate (for example, voice commands or eye
tracking), but have your own reasons for wanting to hear text out loud.


Not everyone needs a full screen reader - simple text to speech is useful
for many.

For me, the biggest question is how can we get to a point where content
designers/developers are not at the mercy of dozens of different programs,
but can count on standards working as meaningful standards.

Isn't accessibility partly about allowing people to interact with content
(etc) in a way that is useful and meaningful for them....not dictating the
technology or interaction style they choose to use?





On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 7:57 AM, Clark, Michelle - NRCS, Washington, DC <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> I have wondered about that application and others with similar
> capabilities numerous times. If a blind person has enough on-line skills to
> get to a website, why would they convert to using " Read Out Loud " once
> there?
>
> Michelle
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto:
> <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jordan Wilson
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 1:02 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] Acrobat Read Out Loud mistakenly reads letter as Roman
> Numeral
>
> Normally when we see this topic its the opposite, a writer is trying to
> get letters to be read as Roman Numerals instead of letters. VII instead
> of Seven.
>
> I'm running into the opposite - Acrobat's Read Out Loud mistakenly reads
> my letter as a Roman Numeral
>
> If you put the text: "Medicare Part D" into a PDF and let Acrobat read it
> aloud using its built in Read Out Loud feature, the D is pronounced '500'
> as if it was the Roman Numeral D.
>
> Its important to note that if you view the same PDF in NVDA or JAWS it is
> read correctly as D. So the issue here is (probably) only with Acrobat's
> Read Out Loud functionality.
>
> My question is how important is this? Can I assume that users will be
> using a viable screenreader? Is there anything I can do about it?
>
> _
>
> Jordan Wilson
>
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Associate Director, Creative Technology
>
> > > >
>
>
>
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