MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Accessibility question: TTS and ligatures

jackie_w · 05-03-2018, 06:47 PM

@doubleshuffle, I've finished the testing on both Android and Windows.

Android - 5 apps:

Bookari and Pocketbook - both ADE-based ebook readers.
Moon+ and FBReader - both ebook readers but not ADE-based
@VoiceAloud Reader - a general purpose read aloud app. Can read web articles and various ebook formats.

Android image/text results:

Nothing speaks the <img> alt text.
Pocketbook & @VoiceAloud
- speak text contained in the hidden 
- do not speak text in the SVG <title>
Bookari
- does not speak text in either hidden or SVG <title>
Bookari, Pocketbook & @VoiceAloud
- correctly display the images/text they are supposed to display
- correctly hide the text which is not supposed to be visible
Moon+
- speaks text in the SVG <title>, but not the hidden 
- wrongly displays the SVG <title> as well
- correctly doesn't display the hidden
FBReader
- speaks text in both the SVG <title> and the hidden 
- wrongly displays the SVG <title> as well
- correctly doesn't display the hidden

Windows 10 - TextAloud 3, can be used 2 different ways:

Open epub directly and read inside the TextAloud app
A single text-only file is extracted from the epub. The app will then read exactly what is on the screen. This means:
- speaks text from the hidden 
- does not speak text from the SVG <title>
- no images or styling displayed
Display the HTML in a browser and use a TextAloud browser extension (Chrome in my case)
- speaks text from both the SVG <title> and the hidden 
- all images and text display nicely and correctly.

Language/dialect tags:

Not used by anything in either Android or Windows. The only exception being what I previously mentioned about being able to add your own voice-change tags inside the TextAloud app. The voice transitions were very jarring with loudness variations. Maybe this is tune-able but not really relevant to this discussion.

Ligatures:

If you use the same voice in both Android and Windows the results seem to sound the same everywhere.

Conclusion:

Images: if you're an individual user you can probably manipulate your epubs to work in selected apps. This year's solution may not be next year's solution. If you're creating epubs for the masses, well, good luck with that!
Language tags: not this year decade.
Ligatures: Nothing new to report. Probably varies by voice.

05-03-2018, 06:47 PM	#28
jackie_w Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,254 Karma: 16544692 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: UK Device: ClaraHD, Forma, Libra2, Clara2E, LibraCol, PBTouchHD3	@doubleshuffle, I've finished the testing on both Android and Windows. Android - 5 apps: Bookari and Pocketbook - both ADE-based ebook readers. Moon+ and FBReader - both ebook readers but not ADE-based @VoiceAloud Reader - a general purpose read aloud app. Can read web articles and various ebook formats. Android image/text results: Nothing speaks the <img> alt text. Pocketbook & @VoiceAloud - speak text contained in the hidden <span> - do not speak text in the SVG <title> Bookari - does not speak text in either hidden <span> or SVG <title> Bookari, Pocketbook & @VoiceAloud - correctly display the images/text they are supposed to display - correctly hide the text which is not supposed to be visible Moon+ - speaks text in the SVG <title>, but not the hidden <span> - wrongly displays the SVG <title> as well - correctly doesn't display the hidden <span> FBReader - speaks text in both the SVG <title> and the hidden <span> - wrongly displays the SVG <title> as well - correctly doesn't display the hidden <span> Windows 10 - TextAloud 3, can be used 2 different ways: Open epub directly and read inside the TextAloud app A single text-only file is extracted from the epub. The app will then read exactly what is on the screen. This means: - speaks text from the hidden <span> - does not speak text from the SVG <title> - no images or styling displayed Display the HTML in a browser and use a TextAloud browser extension (Chrome in my case) - speaks text from both the SVG <title> and the hidden <span> - all images and text display nicely and correctly. Language/dialect tags: Not used by anything in either Android or Windows. The only exception being what I previously mentioned about being able to add your own voice-change tags inside the TextAloud app. The voice transitions were very jarring with loudness variations. Maybe this is tune-able but not really relevant to this discussion. Ligatures: If you use the same voice in both Android and Windows the results seem to sound the same everywhere. Conclusion: Images: if you're an individual user you can probably manipulate your epubs to work in selected apps. This year's solution may not be next year's solution. If you're creating epubs for the masses, well, good luck with that! Language tags: not this year decade. Ligatures: Nothing new to report. Probably varies by voice.