Digital Literacy

"Uncover and Discover"

Additional Assistance

VozMe Text-to-Speech

Oct 13, 2008

via LibrarianInBlack on 9/23/08

" VozMe is an interesting free service that converts any text into an MP3 file.  Just type or paste in some text and create a downloadable MP3 file.  The site works in English, Spanish, Italian, Hindi, Portuguese, and Catalan.  You can also choose to hear a male or female voice.

VozMe also offers javascript snippets and plug-ins that let your website visitors choose to listen to the text on your website with VozMe.  You can also download their bookmarklet that allows you to select any text in a browser to hear in speech format, on the fly.  And you can download a VozMe iGoogle gadget or a Facebook widget.  *wow* 

I am loving this tool!  What a great way to listen to long papers or meeting minutes, giving your eyes a rest.  Also, what a great way to turn publicly-presented library documents (like library commission minutes) into a format accessible to those with visual disabilities. 

There are other tools out there that work like this, like TextAloud (costs $) and Odiogo (free and turns you blog post into a podcast).  Odiogo's sound quality is better but only works for blogs.  VozMe's process is much quicker and simpler, too, and works for any text whatsoever.  TextAloud just doesn't rank high in my book on either count, especially since it bears a cost.  Free rules the world.

As more of our information becomes digital, our users with disabilities of any kind need us to pay attention to whether or not the information we present is accessible to all.  For instance, how many libraries that podcast actually provide transcripts of their podcasts for users with hearing difficulties?  Very few do (I've checked).  EveryZing is a company that provides speech-to-text that would do that, incidentally, and yes, that costs money too.  The other option is to have library staff transcribe everything manually (ugh!). 

At any rate, my point is that we do need to think about these things, and so few of us do.  Please, please, please remember to make your digital content accessible in each and every way.  DRM is a big barrier here, I know, that we usually can't control.  But even that is a problem about which we can stand up to the vendors and publishes.  No more DRM!  No more inaccessible data!  Rawr!"