[blindLaw] Reading text aloud verbatim while listening to JAWS

Thu Jan 9 13:09:57 UTC 2020

Rahul,

I have extensive experience using the method that Dr. Harpur outlined
above.  I was able to successfully use this as an award-winning
debater and public speaker, as well as in law school on trial and moot
court teams.  I also workd for three years teaching oral advocacy and
presentation techniques, with a special focus on working with people
with disabilities.  Here are a few of my thoughts:

First, don't worry.  The fear of sounding unnatural while reading, as
well as finding ways to emphasize and hit a good tone, is not limited
to persons with vidual disabilities.  Everyone struggles with this.  I
do know that it's harder when you have a speedy robot voice in your
ear though...

It does take a bit of trial and error to get this down.  I typically
break up sentences by line based on phrases.  In other words, I often
end lines at organic pauses and begin lines with words that I want to
emphasize.  My best practice was to practice 2-3 times.  The first run
through was all the way, and then I would stop when I would lose the
thread of the phrase or begin to sound unnatural (if you have a hard
time picking up on that, I recommend recording yourself).

I keep jaws pretty fast for writing and reading.  When I am speaking,
I might slow it down 10-15%, just so it's not speeding through.  But
generally jaws will be a few words ahead of what's coming out of my
mouth.

This method also has the benefit of letting you make eye contact with
your audience.  You will appear more engaging and available as
compared to someone staring down at their notes.  (For the same
reason, I will typically keep a laptop screen tilted down, close to
the tops of my hands, to lessen the amount of my body covered by the
screen).  You can also be intentional about using the arrow keys with
one hand, leaving the other for gestures, if this is something with
which you are comfortable.

If there were particular words I wanted to emphasize (particularly in
poetry reading), I had some markup strategies.  A * before the word,
for example, would remind me to hit it harder.  A - would tell me to
soften.  A ^ would remind me to take a breath pause.  This was usually
only used in high levels of forensic competitions, where those pauses
and modulations were a way of getting a higher score.

Finally, the advice that I give most often for speakers (regardless of
sight) is that you should know your speech or presentation well enough
so that, if the pages unexpectedly went blank, you would not stop
mid-word.  Some good familiar with your speech or presentation means
that, if jaws does something weird, you are able to give a strong (if
not 100% accurate to the text) delivery.  And, unless you are quoting
something hugely important (the Constitution, a case, etc) that's
almost always good enough.

If you have other questions, I'm happy to chat off list.

Warmly yours,
Derek

Derek J. Dittmar, J.D., LL.M
(919)816-7549
derekjdittmar at gmail.com

On 1/9/20, Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Dear Dr. Harpour,
>
> This is excellent, thank you for sharing your approach. I have been
> thinking of adopting the same approach. I have some follow-ups for
> you:
>
> First, when reading text aloud in this fashion, do you speak
> organically as you listen, or do you listen, commit to memory what you
> have heard and speak it out loud in a seamless fashion?
>
> Second, at what speed rate do you keep JAWS when getting it to read
> aloud the text?
>
> Third, do you feel that you are able to sound natural and maintain the
> desired tone while doing this? One difficulty I foresee with doing it
> is sounding disjointed and unnatural while speaking. Also, I am
> wondering if it is possible to tonally emphasize some specific words
> or phrases when adopting this strategy.
>
> On the whole, it certainly does sound like a viable solution. Thank
> you, again, for sharing it.
>
> Best,
> Rahul
>
> On 09/01/2020, Paul Harpur via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> I am not sure I do it fantastically, but what I do is have a bite size
>> amount of text on each line.  I then arrow down each line as the line
>> above
>> is finishing.  I have my screen reader speaking at slightly faster than I
>> am.
>> Here is part of a speech I gave recently at the a ILO workshop.
>>
>> We are up here on a small platform but we have a big message
>> Thank you Frances
>> Today I want to focus my paper on
>> Workers with Disabilities Working in the Global Gig Economy
>> This project forms 	part of a wider collaborative work between myself and
>> Professor Peter Blanck   Professor Blanck chairs  the Burton Blatt
>> Institute
>>  Syracuse Universitywhere I am also an international distinguished fellow
>> I am going to start my presentation by analysing
>> how technology and universal design
>> is enabling workers with disabilities to participate in the global gig
>> economy
>> Second
>> I will show how this new market is creating
>> new policy and regulatory opportunities
>> to enable persons with disabilities to become
>> workers with disabilities
>> we have heard in other sessions how technology can be used as an enabler
>> Universal Design can guide the
>> design of environments
>> processes
>> policies
>> technologies and tools
>> to facilitate the inclusion of all people in society
>> Universal design however can do more than this
>> Universal design can create new work opportunities
>> Universal design can Create new opportunities  for economic advancement
>> Universal design can provide people with disabilities
>> who have been denied their right to work access
>> to work
>> it can make persons with disabilities into workers with disabilities
>>
>>
>> Dr Paul Harpur
>> BBus (HRm), LLB (Hons) LLM, PhD, solicitor of the High Court of Australia
>> (non-practicing)
>> Fulbright Future Scholar/International Distinguished Fellow, Burton Blatt
>> Institute, SU, New York/Academic Fellow, Harvard Law School Project on
>> Disabilities.
>> Associate Professor
>> The University of Queensland Law School
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rahul
>> Bajaj
>> via BlindLaw
>> Sent: Thursday, 9 January 2020 7:42 PM
>> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Rahul Bajaj <rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [blindLaw] Reading text aloud verbatim while listening to JAWS
>>
>> Hi, all,
>>
>> Are any of you here able to do this in a natural-sounding and seamless
>> way?
>> If so, how? One solution is Braille. However, I started learning Braille
>> as
>> an adult a couple of years ago and still have a long way to go to get to a
>> point where I might be able to deploy it in this context. So I’d really
>> like
>> to learn how to do this with JAWS on a war footing.
>>
>> Most blind people I know cannot do this. But some can which suggests to me
>> that it is a learnable skill.
>>
>> Best,
>> Rahul
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
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>
>
> --
> --
> Rahul Bajaj
> Candidate for the MPhil in Law
> Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018)
> University of Oxford
>
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