Hi, I have to agree wholeheartedly. Not to start a debate here, but many languages are usually forgotten. What strikes me as ridiculous in this instance, however, is the language is actually supported for the operating system, but no voices exist to support the claim. Which, in my opinion, is completely outrageous and there should be a fix to this. Americans do not have to purchase voices, because they get an American voice by default. So why should many other countries have to spend even more money? On the Windows-side, at least, non-English speaking people probably spend enough on the screen reader alone if they are not funded. I know this from personal experience. And, let's not forget how long it actually takes for the funding to be approved. In Denmark, ever since my part of the country became a region, the procedure of getting anything approved has been this:
1. Send in a request, stating why you need this equipment or software, and what benefits it will provide to you. 2. In a couple of months, you will be holding a letter stating that your request has been taken into consideration, and you will receive a notice shortly. 3. You will receive said notice, and you will be told a meeting is to be held Wednesday within possibly a couple of weeks. 4. The meeting has been held, and it has been decided you are going to go to the institute so they can evaluate your needs again. 5. The long-awaited decision that most certainly will take forever and a day. In about two to three months, you might be lucky enough to get a reply. With all that waiting, you might as well not get it funded but it pay for it yourself. Which, I might add, still seems ridiculous since it should not be necessary to have to pay for localized voices, as the operating system itself has already been translated. Regards, Nic Skype: Kvalme MSN Messenger: [email protected] AIM: cincinster yahoo Messenger: cin368 Facebook Profile My Twitter On Nov 16, 2009, at 11:52 AM, Krister Ekstrom wrote: > > > Hi, > Ok, i'll probably get lynched by americans and other anglosaxen people on > this list for saying this, but sometimes, the anglosaxen folks tend to forget > that there's a world outside their language sphere. When a program or speech > synth is "multi lingual" it often mean various dialects of english, spanish, > german, french and so on but small odd languages like Swedish, Norwegian, > Danish and so on are often forgotten. Too bad, but that's the way of the > world, shrug. > /Krister > > 15 nov 2009 kl. 21.05 skrev Donna Goodin: > >> >> Wow, that's just amazing. Over the years I've worked with/known a >> number of blind individuals in other countries who simply did not have >> access to the financial resources needed to purchase a PC and a screen- >> reader, and who, consequently, just went without. The Mac could be >> such a great answer for people in that situation. I mean, granted, >> buying an InfoVox voice is still cheaper than the PC with screen- >> reader route, but still, even that cost would have been prohibitive to >> some of the people I am thinking of. It also deprives them of the out- >> of-the-box access that we English speakers have been enjoying so very >> much. >> >> Don't misunderstand, I'm not slamming Apple, I just think that their >> inclusivity ought to include people outside the English-speaking >> world. I think I'll join you in your hammering. :) >> Cheers, >> Donna >> On Nov 15, 2009, at 2:48 PM, Anne Robertson wrote: >> >>> >>> Hello Donna, >>> >>> On Nov 15, 2009, at 8:43 PM, Donna Goodin wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> Ah, licensing issues, I should have thought of that. Still, if >>>> that's >>>> the case, how is it that they can be included on the iphone? >>> According to Apple, they are licensed specifically for the iPhone >>> and iPod Shuffle. I've been hammering Apple about this for at least >>> four years but they're not budging. >>> >>> The only concession to non-English speakers I got from Apple was the >>> change from contracted to uncontracted Braille during installation. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Anne >>> >>> >>>> >>> >> >> >>> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
