[Ham-Computers] Attn. Those Who Need Synthetic Speech!

[W8DBF D.B. Fischer]

Hi All,

What I have is intended for those who are totally blind, legally blind - 
unable to read text with screenenlargement software or projection units and 
the print handicapped - normal vision, but unable to read due to other 
neurological issues.

I have an internal board for the computer made by G.W. Micro called the 
Sounding Board. It is a synthetic speech synthesizer and sold for $400. My 
unit is in perfect condition, has the small external speaker unit with 
headphone jack option. It has all the software and installation 
instructions. This will need a screen reading program, however! Yours for 
$50 plus shipping.

I also have an external stand alone speech synthesizer called the Accent SA. 
It is capable of eighteen different speaking rates, has the fastest 
operating/conversion rate of any synthesizer made! It has an internal 
rechargeable battery and external power unit for the wall outlet. It has an 
on/off/volume control, bank of rear mounted dip switches, AC power jack, 
RS/232 serial interface with standard pin outs, installation instructions. 
Totally self contained, it does not need anything to be downloaded into it 
before it can be used! I paid $800 for this new! Yours for $150 plus 
shipping.

I have two ECHO PC speech synthesizers made by Street Electronics. I paid 
$225 apiece for them new. Yours for $25 and shipping. If you are blind and 
can't afford the $25, I will donate it to you. It is self-contained, uses 
wall current via a wall wart, which is included, connects to the COM#1 
serial port via a cable, which is also supplied. There are dip switchs to 
alter the baud rate for different computers, but the default is 4800 baud. 
It needs a screen reading speech program.

NOTE! All of these devices must have a software program that reads the CRT 
and then converts it into a speakable form, the hardware described here does 
the actual conversion into speech and does the audible talking!

I have DOS based screen reading programs; G.W. Micro's Vocal-Eyes which I 
paid $425 new for. I will donate it for $25 plus shipping. It comes with 
documentation on cassette. I use this program daily today with all four of 
my computers ranging from Windows 95B, Windows 98A, Windows 98 SE and 
Windows XP Home Edition.

I also have the Henter-Joyce Inc., now Freedom Scientific, DOS screen 
reading program JAWS For DOS. (The "JAWS" is not the great white shark, 
rather it stands for 'Job Access With Speech') I paid $450 for it new. I 
also use it every day on all the systems mentioned above. I will donate it 
for $25 plus shipping. I also have the documentation on cassette and option 
learning tutorial cassettes. These cassette packages sold for $50 alone!

The Sounding Board internal card and external serial port driven Accent SA 
will work with Windows screen reading programs. The ECHO PC may, I honestly 
do not recall if it worked with Windows 3.11 for Work Groups or not.

The licensing on both Vocal-Eyes and JAWS For DOS has been released so I am 
not providing you with illegal copies.

I do have screen reading software for Windows, both JAWS For Windows (JFW) 
and Windows-Eyes. My copies are registered and cost me $795 and $595 
respectively. I can not give you copies of them, but I can help you get a 
free trial version!

I helped write some of this ASCII back in 1980 as a third party developer 
for Texas Instruments Inc. Remember the "Speak And Spell"? Others the TI 
99/4 and 99/4A home computer and the first super sprite ROM module game 
called Parsec? Yep, I was there when TTS (Text To Speech) was born. I still 
have, and use daily, programs I wrote in 1984! If you need special software 
and are blind, contact me. I may already have written what you need!

I have some other software here that can assist some of you who have only 
the use of one hand to type, perhaps niether due to paralysis. Provided you 
have more or less 'normal' speech. Special voice recognition software by 
Dragon Systems; Dragon Dictate to operate the computer using the basic 
commands and Naturally Speaking a voice recognition word processing program, 
which will also do electronic mail, and more.

Let me know if I can help you, a family member or a friend. Thanks.




Duane Fischer, W8DBF
dfischer at usol.com
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