Hi.

I’m encountering an issue with Vocalizer and JAWS. It’s substituting what it thinks something should be, and it’s wrong. Let me illustrate.

There is a ham radio called the GD-77. Vocalizer says it’s the good 77, and that’s not right. The letters should be spelled out. I tried to do a dictionary entry for the word, but it didn’t work. I also never knew Google had a service called grams mail. This is annoying, and because of it I’m back to good old Eloquence. I prefer Vocalizer’s speech, but not with all the so-called “helpful” abbreviation conversions.

Thanks in advance.

Kevin and Jilly

What did you use in the dictionary?

You could try a regular expression match on:  GD-(\d{1,})    and replace with Gee Dee \1
This should make GD- followed by one or more numeric digits read as Gee Dee followed by the actual number that the string of digits represents.
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 2004, Build 19041  

The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it.
       ~ Lawrence Krauss

I think that the most likely method for affecting change, and it's a very necessary change in my opinion, is to have as many users as possible storm Vispero as well as Nuance and insist on these changes. Other than adding dictionary exceptions I know of no way to disable these exceptions and there really should be a way. In fact, I honestly question whether these exceptions should even be built into this software but by software I'm referring to Nuance and not JAWS. I'm not certain if contacting Nuance directly will make a difference. However, Vispero is technically the customer of Nuance since I'm sure they have paid a large licensing fee in order to include Nuance voices with their products. Therefore, if a good customer like Vispero advocated for this change because their customers were insisting on it it's perhaps possible that Nuance might respond favorably.

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

JAWS Certified, 2019

WWW.DavidGoldfield.org

Hi.

 

I’m encountering an issue with Vocalizer and JAWS. It’s substituting what it thinks something should be, and it’s wrong. Let me illustrate.

 

There is a ham radio called the GD-77. Vocalizer says it’s the good 77, and that’s not right. The letters should be spelled out. I tried to do a dictionary entry for the word, but it didn’t work. I also never knew Google had a service called grams mail. This is annoying, and because of it I’m back to good old Eloquence. I prefer Vocalizer’s speech, but not with all the so-called “helpful” abbreviation conversions.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Kevin and Jilly

The fact is that these modern, human-sounding synthesizers are absolutely notorious for doing this. To me it's maddening as I don't want my reader, human or synthetic, to substitute what's on the screen for what it thinks are the correct replacements based on commonly used abbreviations. This is one reason why there will always be a place for voices like Eloquence and ESpeak. 

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

JAWS Certified, 2019

WWW.DavidGoldfield.org

What did you use in the dictionary?

You could try a regular expression match on:  GD-(\d{1,})    and replace with Gee Dee \1
This should make GD- followed by one or more numeric digits read as Gee Dee followed by the actual number that the string of digits represents.
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 2004, Build 19041  

The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it.
       ~ Lawrence Krauss

On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 06:44 AM, David Goldfield wrote:

Other than adding dictionary exceptions I know of no way to disable these exceptions and there really should be a way.

-
David,

           That is the way.   There is no default that is going to please everyone.  And there are circumstances, like the abbreviation ess tee, that it would require artificial intelligence to know whether it was saint or street, and heaven forbid you had something like 125 St. Peter St.  (One twenty five saint peter street).

            For myself, it would drive me mad to have every conventional abbreviation such as for street, lane, avenue, boulevard, or symbols such as the dollar sign when used with numbers, announced as the character itself.   There are some logical leaps that make abundant sense in practice.  And if you're not happy with what a given synth chooses to do, it is a simple matter to add an exception in the screen reader's appropriate dictionary to suit the circumstance.
 
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 2004, Build 19041  

The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it.
       ~ Lawrence Krauss

I think that the most likely method for affecting change, and it's a very necessary change in my opinion, is to have as many users as possible storm Vispero as well as Nuance and insist on these changes. Other than adding dictionary exceptions I know of no way to disable these exceptions and there really should be a way. In fact, I honestly question whether these exceptions should even be built into this software but by software I'm referring to Nuance and not JAWS. I'm not certain if contacting Nuance directly will make a difference. However, Vispero is technically the customer of Nuance since I'm sure they have paid a large licensing fee in order to include Nuance voices with their products. Therefore, if a good customer like Vispero advocated for this change because their customers were insisting on it it's perhaps possible that Nuance might respond favorably.

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

JAWS Certified, 2019

WWW.DavidGoldfield.org

Hi.

 

I’m encountering an issue with Vocalizer and JAWS. It’s substituting what it thinks something should be, and it’s wrong. Let me illustrate.

 

There is a ham radio called the GD-77. Vocalizer says it’s the good 77, and that’s not right. The letters should be spelled out. I tried to do a dictionary entry for the word, but it didn’t work. I also never knew Google had a service called grams mail. This is annoying, and because of it I’m back to good old Eloquence. I prefer Vocalizer’s speech, but not with all the so-called “helpful” abbreviation conversions.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Kevin and Jilly

Hi.

 

I’m encountering an issue with Vocalizer and JAWS. It’s substituting what it thinks something should be, and it’s wrong. Let me illustrate.

 

There is a ham radio called the GD-77. Vocalizer says it’s the good 77, and that’s not right. The letters should be spelled out. I tried to do a dictionary entry for the word, but it didn’t work. I also never knew Google had a service called grams mail. This is annoying, and because of it I’m back to good old Eloquence. I prefer Vocalizer’s speech, but not with all the so-called “helpful” abbreviation conversions.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Kevin and Jilly

What did you use in the dictionary?

You could try a regular expression match on:  GD-(\d{1,})    and replace with Gee Dee \1
This should make GD- followed by one or more numeric digits read as Gee Dee followed by the actual number that the string of digits represents.
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 2004, Build 19041  

The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it.
       ~ Lawrence Krauss

Hi all,

When I first turn on my computer, after it has been off for a few hours, all works ok, except, all of a sudden, the computer shuts down. I could be reading an email, or listening to a song, or whatever, and all of a sudden I have nothing. I asked my sighted wife is the screen showed anything, and she said it was blank. So, I do a reboot, and it comes up, and after that, all is fine, until the next time, when I shut down for a while, and the sequence begins again, I start the computer, it works ok for let's say ten minutes or so, and then it shuts down. And after I reboot, all is fine.

I am running windows ten, and, jaws 2020.I went into my control panel, and to power options, and told it to shut down, when I shut the computer down, ion battery an plugged in. I also told it, to shut down, when on battery when the lid closes, and the same when plugged in.do you have any ideas why it is acting this way? Thanks for your help. Jim

On Sep 15, 2020, at 5:50 PM, Jim Rawls <jazzpiano@...> wrote:



Hi all,

When I first turn on my computer, after it has been off for a few hours, all works ok, except, all of a sudden, the computer shuts down. I could be reading an email, or listening to a song, or whatever, and all of a sudden I have nothing. I asked my sighted wife is the screen showed anything, and she said it was blank. So, I do a reboot, and it comes up, and after that, all is fine, until the next time, when I shut down for a while, and the sequence begins again, I start the computer, it works ok for let's say ten minutes or so, and then it shuts down. And after I reboot, all is fine.

I am running windows ten, and, jaws 2020.I went into my control panel, and to power options, and told it to shut down, when I shut the computer down, ion battery an plugged in. I also told it, to shut down, when on battery when the lid closes, and the same when plugged in.do you have any ideas why it is acting this way? Thanks for your help. Jim