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Thread: Audio Recordings with NVDA

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From: Peter Shikli
Date: Sun, Sep 29 2019 10:57AM
Subject: Audio Recordings with NVDA
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Our accessibility analysts expect me to plague them with brain teasers,
usually including an aspect that perfects their craft.  So it is that I
came up with one to push the envelope regarding their use of screen
readers, say NVDA.  I could use tips on how to get the most out of this
exercise.

The world is full of interesting text such as Wikipedia articles, white
papers, and website content of all kinds.  I don't have the time to read
all that, but my job does give me plenty of dead traveling time. 
Today's lightbulb popped up and asked, "What if I used NVDA to read the
text, along with syntactic content like headers, tables, and ALT
descriptions, and recorded it for later listening in my mp3 player?"

My plan is to assign one of our analysts the production of an audio
recording of The Uncertainty Principle
<https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-uncertainty/>, selected because
it has some equations and images that are not essential to its
conclusions, and because the topic interests me.  Her first task will be
to make the page accessible, but only in the limited sense of an mp3
recording, and perhaps to strip away unusable content like command buttons.

Then will come some NVDA experimenting such as voice and speed
selection.  This is where I could particularly use tips from the WebAIM
community.  I have a cable that can pipe audio output into the PC's
microphone port where Audacity can record it into an mp3 -- unless you
guys have a better way.

If anyone knows of this having been done or attempted, Google seems
silent, I'd like to know about it.

Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online
www.access2online.com
Prison inmates helping the internet become accessible

From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Sun, Sep 29 2019 11:48AM
Subject: Re: Audio Recordings with NVDA
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Hello,
Use OBS Studio:
https://obsproject.com/download

Create a profile with 1 sound input, your system audio. Then don't record
the screen. They will come out as MP4s, but you can use Audacity to batch
convert all your MP4s to MP3s.

Personally, I use Voice Dream reader and download books from Bookshare or
Kindle, or listen to podcasts. But some of my friends use Evernote, Pocket,
or Instapaper to copy and download articles for future listening.
I use VO on the phone to read news apps like NPR.
I think the NFB newsline has a good UX for listening with a screen reader:
https://nfb.org/programs-services/nfb-newsline

Another option is to just buy a super small computer stick with a battery,
put in a connection to data, and just brows the internet and read articles
that way.
I would avoid the MP3 route, as it's large and time-consuming.
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;


On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 10:08 AM Peter Shikli < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Our accessibility analysts expect me to plague them with brain teasers,
> usually including an aspect that perfects their craft. So it is that I
> came up with one to push the envelope regarding their use of screen
> readers, say NVDA. I could use tips on how to get the most out of this
> exercise.
>
> The world is full of interesting text such as Wikipedia articles, white
> papers, and website content of all kinds. I don't have the time to read
> all that, but my job does give me plenty of dead traveling time.
> Today's lightbulb popped up and asked, "What if I used NVDA to read the
> text, along with syntactic content like headers, tables, and ALT
> descriptions, and recorded it for later listening in my mp3 player?"
>
> My plan is to assign one of our analysts the production of an audio
> recording of The Uncertainty Principle
> <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-uncertainty/>, selected because
> it has some equations and images that are not essential to its
> conclusions, and because the topic interests me. Her first task will be
> to make the page accessible, but only in the limited sense of an mp3
> recording, and perhaps to strip away unusable content like command buttons.
>
> Then will come some NVDA experimenting such as voice and speed
> selection. This is where I could particularly use tips from the WebAIM
> community. I have a cable that can pipe audio output into the PC's
> microphone port where Audacity can record it into an mp3 -- unless you
> guys have a better way.
>
> If anyone knows of this having been done or attempted, Google seems
> silent, I'd like to know about it.
>
> Cheers,
> Peter Shikli
> Access2online
> www.access2online.com
> Prison inmates helping the internet become accessible
> > > > >

From: Peter Shikli
Date: Sun, Sep 29 2019 12:47PM
Subject: Re: Audio Recordings with NVDA (Brandon Keith Biggs)
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My reason for using a screen reader like NVDA is that smart designers
have already worked out what syntactic content might be useful to
listeners besides just going text-to-voice.  Though not blind, I would
appreciate hearing an ALT attribute while I'm driving down the road,
sweating at the gym, or crammed into an airline seat.  Likewise table
headers as I hear cell contents, and even link titles even though I
can't click them, but knowing I can later if important.

My hidden agenda is to explore this as a service.  Could Access2online
expand to provide audio recordings with such embedded syntax of
websites, product descriptions, requests for proposals, etc?  If so, I
would be subscribing to my mission to invent future technology jobs for
our prison inmates and parolees.  If so, I would also be adding a reason
for content producers to be accessible, because an audio version would
be more useful.

Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online
www.access2online.com
Prison inmates helping the internet become accessible

From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Sun, Sep 29 2019 4:42PM
Subject: Re: Audio Recordings with NVDA (Brandon Keith Biggs)
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Hello,
NVDA, and other speech to text services, read all table content in a
not-so-easy to understand way when doing a read all command.
True, many websites have alt content and are very nice to read, but the
vast majority don't, or don't have very good descriptions.
I think you should start with Voice Dream reader, then once you have
experienced that, start working with NVDA on something like this.
Thanks,

Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;


On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 11:57 AM Peter Shikli < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> My reason for using a screen reader like NVDA is that smart designers
> have already worked out what syntactic content might be useful to
> listeners besides just going text-to-voice. Though not blind, I would
> appreciate hearing an ALT attribute while I'm driving down the road,
> sweating at the gym, or crammed into an airline seat. Likewise table
> headers as I hear cell contents, and even link titles even though I
> can't click them, but knowing I can later if important.
>
> My hidden agenda is to explore this as a service. Could Access2online
> expand to provide audio recordings with such embedded syntax of
> websites, product descriptions, requests for proposals, etc? If so, I
> would be subscribing to my mission to invent future technology jobs for
> our prison inmates and parolees. If so, I would also be adding a reason
> for content producers to be accessible, because an audio version would
> be more useful.
>
> Cheers,
> Peter Shikli
> Access2online
> www.access2online.com
> Prison inmates helping the internet become accessible
>
>
> > > > >