TextToSpeech

Life With ALS.com

+ Diagnosed Aug 2005

+ Bipap March 2007

+ PEG July 2007

+ Trache and Vent July 2008

Still Living, Loving & Laughing

There are several good Text-to-Speech programs for very little money. These programs are used with any computer but a NetBook is preferred because of portability and long battery life.

You can get yourself setup for under $500.00.

This is substantially cheaper than the commercial text-to-Speech systems, they usually run upwards of $15,000.00.

This advice comes from my good friend Barry who has Bulbar ALS so has lots of experience with these programs. I can also agree because of my own experience.

E-triloquist is free to download at Etriloquist.com. I have both it and NextUp and I prefer NextUp for the following reasons, even though it costs about $100;

1. It comes with a good voice as part of the download. Etriloquist uses the built in Microsoft SAPI voice included in Windows XP but it is crap that no one wants to sound like. Vista has no included SAPI voice so a voice would have to be purchased anyway and I don't know about Windows 7.

2. NextUp has a pronunciation editor whereas Etriloquist does not. It is nice to be able to say a word the correct way.

3. NextUp has the ability to pre-program hundreds of phrases into shortcut keys.

4. I like the layout better and it is easier for someone to read what you are trying to say if they cant understand the speech.

Both programs allow the user to speak after every word, at the end of every sentence or after pressing enter. I prefer the last option because I don't have people trying to put words into my mouth.

Dasher works beautifully with NextUp when you set Dasher for direct entry! You might want to download E-triloquist and play around with it because it is free.

You can download a trial of NextUp. It doesn't come with a good voice but you get to choose one when you purchase the program. I have also purchased a voice from Cepstral that works with all my programs.

If your netbook (or notebook, laptop or even your desktop machine) has a webcam you can also use a free program called Camera Mouse to move a cursor around an on-screen keyboard. I have tried it a few times and how it works is you tell the program to take a fix on a part of your face like the end of your nose or the corner of your eyeglasses and as you move your head the cursor moves.

S w i f t y

Click to go to a website with all kinds of switches

Teeny weeny size. Huge possibilities. Swifty is a speedy USB switch interface in an extremely compact design. Working with up to two wired switches, or three wirelessly through Beam™, this pint-sized powerhouse can output mouse clicks, joystick buttons or keyboard functions.

For more information on using a computer, see here.

Now all you need is a way to “click” as you do on the mouse, here is the solution I use.

If you are using a NetBook you will need an external speaker as the built in ones are not sufficient. Here is the one I use and it works very well.