Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Afrikaans screen reader (self.Blind)
submitted by Typhlosis747
- [ ] This year I switched over to the Cambridge curriculum for my last year of high school. I now find out that I am not allowed a reader for language exam papers. I can’t read Braille. I take Afrikaans as a subject. And I have not been able to find a screen reader/ text to speech Technology, that will read the papers to me. Without this screen reader I won’t be able to complete my exam and subsequently will not pass high school. If anyone knows about one I can use, it would be greatly appreciated.
taversham 2 points 3y ago
Which courses are you taking with Cambridge? I know people who've done both IGCSE and A-Levels with them who have been allowed a reader (and scribe), even for language exams. I don't know why Afrikaans would be any to French or Urdu in this regard?
$1 Was it your school who told you you can't have a reader, or the exam board themselves, and did they say why? Assuming you're in South Africa, Under Section 24 of the CRPD the state is required to give you equal access to education, which means it's your school's job to figure out how to make this exam accessible to you, whether that's getting the exam board to allow you to have a reader, or finding you a screen reader compatible with Afrikaans, or finding a new exam board for you to complete your qualification with. Don't let them trick you into thinking this is your problem to solve, legally it is theirs.
$1 Was it your school who told you you can't have a reader, or the exam board themselves, and did they say why? Assuming you're in South Africa, Under Section 24 of the CRPD the state is required to give you equal access to education, which means it's your school's job to figure out how to make this exam accessible to you, whether that's getting the exam board to allow you to have a reader, or finding you a screen reader compatible with Afrikaans, or finding a new exam board for you to complete your qualification with. Don't let them trick you into thinking this is your problem to solve, legally it is theirs.
Typhlosis747 [OP] 2 points 3y ago
I am in South Africa. I am not in an official school it is a Tutoring centre so they don’t have the same legal obligation as a normal school would.
One of the tutors is in charge of Approving the accommodations with the board. But he told me that for Languages I am not allowed a human reader. And I so far have not been able to find a suitable screen reader.
One of the tutors is in charge of Approving the accommodations with the board. But he told me that for Languages I am not allowed a human reader. And I so far have not been able to find a suitable screen reader.
taversham 2 points 3y ago
In that case I would ask the tutor in charge of approving the accommodations with the exam board why your request for a reader was refused and/or what evidence would be needed to get it approved, and if an appeal against the decision is possible.
You could also contact Cambridge Assessments directly to confirm what their policy is: https://help.cambridgeinternational.org/hc/en-gb/requests/new?ticket_form_id=53542
You could also contact Cambridge Assessments directly to confirm what their policy is: https://help.cambridgeinternational.org/hc/en-gb/requests/new?ticket_form_id=53542
bjayernaeiy 2 points 3y ago
eSpeak NG on the NVDA screen reader has Afrikaans. It's a rather dull and robotic voice though, so you might need a while to get used to it. I am forced to use it for my native language as well since there isn't another TTS that can read it.
Aditionally, sorry if I sound insensitive, but you could try reading Afrikaans with a TTS for a similar language, Dutch for instance. I don't know how well this would work or how close the two languages are, but you could certainly try it out. Vocalizer for NVDA has Dutch. PM or DM me if you need any aditional help setting up what I talk about in my post.
Aditionally, sorry if I sound insensitive, but you could try reading Afrikaans with a TTS for a similar language, Dutch for instance. I don't know how well this would work or how close the two languages are, but you could certainly try it out. Vocalizer for NVDA has Dutch. PM or DM me if you need any aditional help setting up what I talk about in my post.
Typhlosis747 [OP] 2 points 3y ago
Thank you. This is very helpful. I have tried having the screen reader read Dutch. But the two languages are very different especially in pronunciation. So that is not a viable option for me.
bjayernaeiy 2 points 3y ago
Yeah RIP. Just go with eSpeak then, that's your best bet. Are you on NVDA?
Typhlosis747 [OP] 2 points 3y ago
No I am not. I’m not sure what NVDA is.
bjayernaeiy 2 points 3y ago
It's what I regard to be the best screen reader for Windows. get it here at
https://www.nvaccess.org/
and pm me if you need help learning to navigate it around, and turn on eSpeak. It's built in.
https://www.nvaccess.org/
and pm me if you need help learning to navigate it around, and turn on eSpeak. It's built in.
CloudyBeep 2 points 3y ago
NVDA can read Afrikaans, however eSpeak NG, the speech synthesizer it uses, has a voice that many people find difficult to understand.
Typhlosis747 [OP] 2 points 3y ago
I checked on their website, but they do not list Afrikaans as a catered for language. Do you happen to know why this is?
CloudyBeep 1 points 3y ago
The user guide says that you can read text in Afrikaans. You cannot change the software language to Afrikaans, but that shouldn't be necessary, especially if it's not your first language.
IronDominion 0 points 3y ago
Probably not a large enough user base to warrant support for it
[deleted] 1 points 3y ago
[deleted]
vwlsmssng 2 points 3y ago
I've checked the range of supported languages for Dolphin Supernova and they don't support Afrikaans,
https://yourdolphin.com/product/languages?pid=4
But this website https://www.webbie.org.uk/links.htm
mentions
$1
> These free voices can be used with the Thunder or NVDA screenreaders. Includes **Afrikaans**, Bosnian, Czech, Greek, Esperanto, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Kurdish, Romanian, Slovak, Serbian, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish.
However on the eSpeak sourceforge page it carries the caveats
> Languages. The eSpeak speech synthesizer supports several languages, however in many cases these are initial drafts and need more work to improve them. Assistance from native speakers is welcome for these, or other new languages. Please contact me if you want to help.
>eSpeak does text to speech synthesis for the following languages, some better than others.
https://yourdolphin.com/product/languages?pid=4
But this website https://www.webbie.org.uk/links.htm
mentions
$1
> These free voices can be used with the Thunder or NVDA screenreaders. Includes **Afrikaans**, Bosnian, Czech, Greek, Esperanto, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Kurdish, Romanian, Slovak, Serbian, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish.
However on the eSpeak sourceforge page it carries the caveats
> Languages. The eSpeak speech synthesizer supports several languages, however in many cases these are initial drafts and need more work to improve them. Assistance from native speakers is welcome for these, or other new languages. Please contact me if you want to help.
>eSpeak does text to speech synthesis for the following languages, some better than others.
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