My bandwidth is limited for learning systems, especially on a bad day.

Accessibility technologies can also be uneven in quality & support.

You will have to experiment & roll the dice on solutions. Expect to come up snake eyes sometimes & spend money for a dud or some 'complicadaptations'.

🛌

This means deciding how much you're willing or able to change/learn/conform to the utility.

I didn't find the Acapela voices suited me enough to put up with custom X-SAMPA system, single entry, no instructions.

Ivona was eaten by Amazon, so no support, terrible documentation, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 IPA + SSML tags.

Different voices & readers handle pronunciation corrections differently, pick your poison:

Ivona — SSML (phoneme/speak) tags, which use X-SAMPA or IPA
TextAloud — IPA/X-SAMPA phoneme tags (Respell), & a 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮 SAPI phoneme system.
Acapela — 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮 X-SAMPA system, badly supported single manual entry

Summary:

- lazy glasses, for seeing screens (affordable, but can be delicate)
- TTS voices for reading back work (try out different voices)
- TextAloud for reading/making audio files for above purpose (affordable, good support)
- noise-cancelling headphones (can be affordable)

Important! (cont'd)

Noise-cancelling headphones are so critical to me managing my sensory integration, periodic migraines, & insomnia that I cannot stress how valuable they are & how worth it I find the expense. Bose QuietComfort type, which are reasonably priced, but ear cushions need periodic replacement. (cont'd)

Cloud-based TTS solutions can sound v good but a lot of them seem to be subscription or too time-limited, & I like owning things. So can't give any deets there except that some people have reported that they find them quite useful for a similar role.

Last is noise-cancelling headphones. (cont'd)

Ivona voices also work in Word, if you prefer that. TextAloud has a plugin that can read from browsers, if you work online. Also, TextAloud has support.

I use Ivona's Geraint, because it has 'soft edges' that don't aggravate my sensory issues when down with a migraine. Amy & Raveena are also good.

Also, different forms of the word must be separate entries. The exceptions list will be 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨. There's basically no support.

Like, legit, if you decide to try out the Ivona/Scrivener/TextAloud stuff, contact me so I can tell you what the documentation does not. For reals.

Custom pronunciations using IPA phoneme tags + Scrivener or TextAloud reading passages or chapters to me. A friend helped with a script so I have a Gsheet that generates an exceptions list. Stumbles like a drunk over spelling/grammar errors. Con: must learn IPA, some words are baked-in wrong.

My roommate would only be picked up properly if he did a comedy Irish accent, no lie. I also didn't like the lack of privacy with speaking aloud. Voice recognition has much improved since then, though, so maybe it's worth trying again.

Ivona TTS I have a lot of experience with. (cont'd)

'Lazy glasses' can be helpful. When I have major physical pain, they allow me to lie flat but still work on my tablet.

I have tried voice recognition (Dragon) & text-to-speech (Ivona voices). Dragon required a lot of training to understand me unless I talked in a way that was weird for me. (cont'd)

Your pencils have some lovely texture and character. :)

Seven hours total, vague hepatitis diagnosis with a culprit. Hopefully I'm on the mend.

It's a banger!