Information through speech
Many blind and partially sighted people access information through audio. This can be in many forms, including having something read to them by another person, listening to pre-recorded information on a cassette tape or CD, and having information read by synthetic speech.
For many years, narrators have read information which has been recorded for blind and partially sighted users. All kinds of audio information has been produced in this way, including correspondence, talking books, catalogues and much more.
Benefits of natural speech
Having a narrator to read audio information has a number of benefits:
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For audio books, a human narrator can add their interpretation to the story. Perhaps they can put on different voices or accents for different characters, and add emotion in their voice such as humour or suspense
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A human speaker (unlike a synthetic voice) has intelligence to interpret the context of information. This means they are less likely to make mistakes with pronunciation, intonation and so on
Disadvantages of natural speech
There are also some disadvantages to human narration:
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Narration is very time consuming, and therefore costly
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It can take longer for material to be read and recorded, resulting in delays in delivering the information to the blind or partially sighted person
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For confidential information, using a narrator gives another person access to private details, which may be undesirable
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Some people dislike the human input of narrators for things like talking books. Users might want to be able to interpret the text for themselves, or imagine their own character voices