This study investigated navigation with route instructions generated by digital-map software and synthetic speech. The participants, either visually impaired or sighted wearing blindfolds, successfully located rooms in an unfamiliar building. Users with visual impairments demonstrated better route-finding performance when the technology provided…

This article describes a computer-based technology for generating speech called text-to-speech (TTS). This software is ready for widespread use by libraries, other organizations, and individual users. It offers the affordable ability to turn just about any electronic text that is not image-based into an artificially spoken communication. The…

The purpose of this study was to examine the status and trends of instruction in both keyboarding and speech recognition among public schools in a Midwestern state. A survey was sent to 490 members of the state business education association who returned 213 (62.5%) usable responses. The subjects represented schools from kindergarten to college.…

Although approximately half of the six million students receiving specialized services for an identified disability are learning disabled, research shows that assistive technologies are far more commonly used with students who manifest physical or sensory disabilities than they are with those with learning disabilities. Assistive technology can…