7.15. Read out messages with speech synthesis

The text-to-speech synthesis functionality integrated into the windows operating system allows for text on visual screen elements, such as buttons or menu items, to be read out lout to blind or visually impaired users. For this group of users, the IDERI note client can be configured to read aloud the content of message windows or the messages currently shown in the IDERI note Ticker .

By default, the IDERI note text-to-speech option is deactivated. In order to activate it, the configuration dialog has to be invoked from the “Configuration...” menu item in the IDERI note system notification area context menu as in figure 7.62.

Figure 7.62: The context menu for starting the configuration dialog

Figure 7.63 shows the configuration dialog.

Figure 7.63: The configuration dialog

Using the dialog controls in the “Speech synthesis settings” section, the user can specify the message types that should be read out aloud when displayed as a message window. The last option on this dialog, when activated, will allow the user to listen to all messages currently displayed in the IDERI note Ticker with a double-click on the IDERI note Ticker window.

Pressing the “OK” button will save any changes made.