Hi John and all, Quote 1. Java talks to screen readers via the Java Access Bridge. The J A B does not work with all screen readers, specifically Window-Eyes. End quote
Yeah, I am pretty aware of the Java access bridge, and accessibility limitations at this point. I am currently using Window Eyes 6.1, and know all to well it doesn't support Java. However, I have been using NVDA, a free screen reader which supports the access bridge, under Windows for my Java development and testing. Alternatively when I do any Java work under Linux I use Orca configured for the open source equal to the Java access bridge for Windows. It is too bad that GW Micro doesn't consider Java access a high priority, but by and large Java is now widely supported accessibility wize across many operating system platforms. Sun's Solaris operating system comes with Orca, the Java runtime environment, and the Java access bridge for Solaris pre-installed and configured by default. Mac OS has followed in Sun's footsteps and has shipped Mac OS 10.5 Leopard with the Java runtime and Java access bridge pre-installed and configured for VoiceOver. Finally, if a Linux user wants to get their hands and compile a few things Orca and Gnopernicus for Linux can be setup to run Java applications with accessibility as well. Jaws is the leading screen reader with Java accessibility support, but NVDA makes a good alternative. All of this means that by and large Java accessibility is becoming pretty standardised and available on any os we want to target with our games. Quote 4. The FreeTTS speech engine does allow you to change pitch. This is what I do in our Inspector Cyndi in Newport mystery games in order to have women and men, young and old, sound different. End quote I didn't know that, but I am heavily leaning twards using FreeTTS for inclusion in my games since it is free and open source. What's more since FreeTTS is open source if either of us wanted to new voices can be added to the FreeTTS engine for our games. Though, adding voices is an aspect of Java currently out of my field right now. Quote 5. There is a S A P I interface to the FreeTTS engine. I explored it briefly, but ran out of time. If that could be made to work, then you'd likely have access to any S A P I compliant voice on whatever target system. If you do go that way, I'd love to work with you on it because I'd like that for our games. End quote Well, I think you are on the right track for this. A company called Cloud Garden offers a Talking Java SDK for windows at http://www.cloudgarden.com/JSAPI/ which supports both Sapi4 and Sapi 5 tts engines for Windows. While the SDK isn't free it might be something you and I want to look into for Windows based games in Java. Cloud Garden offers a 30 day evaluation version of the SDK, and that should be enough time to write some simple apps with it and test out the features and functionality of it for use in accessible games. Cheers. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
