This tab page permits self-voicing and sound effects to be turned on or off as well as modification of voice type, rate, pitch, and volume. The page layout consists of two check boxes for Sound Effects and to Allow Self-Voicing that can be toggled with SPACE after tabbing to those items. Then there is a list of available Voices. Next is a set of three slider controls for speech Rate, Pitch and Volume. Finally, there are four buttons that act as links to other speech engine parameters.
CTRL F12 will toggle the Allow Self-Voicing box from anywhere in the program. When the Accessible Graphing Calculator is started, Self-Voicing is always off. Allow Self-Voicing needs to be active in order for the Accessible Graphing Calculator to speak items. If you would rather use a screen reader (such as JAWS for Windows) to access the AGC, turn this feature off. The Self-Voicing feature will provide more complete information than is possible from a screen reader however.
The Self-Voicing feature requires a MS SAPI compliant speech engine to be installed on the computer. For more information see the page on Self-Voicing requirements. Also, screen reader users should put their screen readers to sleep when using the Self-Voicing feature. This is essential because the AGC speech and the screen reader speech engine will conflict and quite likely cause the computer to crash.
People using JFW can instruct the screen reader to automatically go to sleep when in the AGC by creating a configuration file with name AGC.JCF in which the sleep option is checked.
Exercise 2.1. Turn on the Self Voicing feature.
The Sound Effects controls such things as the auditory feedback for check boxes. When a check box is toggled, if Sound Effects is active, there will be an auditory indicator representing the new status of the check box. If a box becomes checked, a high pitched tone can be heard. If the box becomes unchecked, a lower pitched sound is heard. (Think of this as tapping on an empty or full box: if the box is empty, you'll hear a low, hollow sound; if it is full, you'll hear a higher pitched sound.)
Exercise 2.2. Turn on the Sound Effects.
The Speech Voice list is a scroll box that contains the names of any SAPI Voices installed on the system. Scrolling through the list with the arrow keys when Self-Voicing is on will automatically change the voice. The voice name in this list will be spoken in the style of that name.
The Speech Controls area contains the Rate, Pitch, and Volume sliders. These items are set at an initial value of 50% and can be changed by using the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys. If these values are changed, the setting will be saved and then recalled the next time the AGC is started.
Exercise 2.4. Setting the Rate, Pitch, and Volume.
The four speech engine link buttons: About TTS, General, Translate, and Lexicon, call information dialog boxes related to the speech engine in use. Since the items that the buttons refer to are not part of the Accessible Graphing Calculator, they can not be self-voiced. Although a screen reader could be used in principle to access the linked information, most speech engines have pages that are almost inaccessible. We recommend that sighted assistance be sought by blind people wishing to adjust speech engine parameters other than those located on the Speech Tab Page.
Next: Section 2.3. Calculator Tab Page
Last: Section 2.1. About the Tab Pages
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