What Is Talklets

Many people find it difficult to read from a computer screen - especially visually impaired users, and those with reading difficulties such as dyslexia. Many people print pages out to read them later, which isn't very efficient in terms of time (as well as paper consumption). Unsurprisingly, a number of 'read aloud' applications are emerging for web sites.

Talklets [1] is an install free text to speech screen reader for web sites to install on the site, as well as for individuals to use on whichever web-sites they wish to view. This means that users who do not have administrative priviledges on a computer can use the Talklets technology with ease. Users have the option of saving saving the spoken representation of page content (to mp3 format) for later listening.

The developers of Talklets have also released "Newslets", which turn RSS feeds (from blogs, news feeds, and web-sites ) into audio podcasts.

Our aim is to blur the line between fun new utilities with real-world applications that as well as being fun for everyone, are also accessible to people with disabilities.

Phil Teare (developer of Talklets) [2]

People wishing to use the functionality of Talklets can simply add the Talklet to their web-browser bookmarks, and once on the site they wish to hear, they simply need to open the Talklets bookmark to open the talklets panel in their browser. One possible problem is the requirement to have JavaScript enabled in your broswing agent (Talklets is AJAX based).

References

1. http://textictalk.com/shop/ - http://textictalk.com/shop/
2. http://juicystudio.com/article/talklets.php - http://juicystudio.com/article/talklets.php

By: erigena

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Article by Erigena Irish Web-Design & Accessibility.