[nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

Fri Jan 29 23:32:30 UTC 2016

Karl,

I have the same trouble as Elizabeth with the default NVDA voice. Sometimes 
your ears cannot understand the speech when its not clear.
How exactly can it work with other voices? I know it does not support the 
elloquence synthesizer jaws uses.
I looked at NVDA because I wanted to download a portable screen reader to a 
thumb drive. But like Elizabeth, I did not think its synthesizer would be a 
viable option.
The only voices I thought it used were the Real Speak  voices that you have 
to purchase.
Am I wrong in that thinking?
Maybe it uses the free sappy fi voices. How do you use other voices? Where 
can you download them and then how do you tell NVDA
to use that voice and not its default one?

Thanks.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Karl Martin Adam via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 6:15 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Cc: Karl Martin Adam
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

Elizabeth,

First of all, NVDA can work with different voices.  Second of
all, you don't know if you can understand the default voice or
not unless you've worked with it a while to acclimatize yourself.
You could of course use another screen reader, but the other's
aren't Free like NVDA.  You might even be able to put Jaws on a
thumbdrive if you have a licence already, you'd have to check
with the manufacturer.

I'm not sure what you think you're going to do if you don't want
to learn Braille and you don't want to use technology.  Those are
the ways blind people have of being literate.  At some point, you
have to use one if you're going to go to school or work.  Maybe
there are other choices, but I don't know of them, and I assume
you don't either or you wouldn't be asking.  I don't know why
you're so hostile to Braille, but it's worth pointing out that
you don't have to use Braille as efficiently as a sighted person
uses print in order to organize your thoughts for an essay and
then be able to read it to your scribe instead of doing it all in
your head.  We're not talking about you reading Braille other
people have produced hear, so you could write in uncontracted
braille if you wanted and memorizing the contractions is part of
your problem.

Best,
Karl

----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 17:54:02 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some
Advice

Hello Karl,

I am really getting frustrated by the fact that it appears as
though no one
is listening to me. I cannot understand the voice that comes with
NVDA, and
no amount of using this program is not going to change my ability
to
understand the voice that comes with NVDA.

And if I really need to learn Braille to the point that I can use
it in
class or for tests, then I am royally screwed. At this point in
my life I do
not believe I could learn braille well enough to be able to read
and
understand it enough to be able to read it and understand it at
the same
rate and level as someone who reads print. This is simply not
going to
happen, so please stop shoving this down my throat as if this is
the only
answer.

Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Karl
Martin
Adam via nabs-l
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 5:36 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Cc: Karl Martin Adam <kmaent1 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some
Advice

Dear Elizabeth,

You're right that many of the suggestions people have given you
won't help
for your test in two weeks.  If you want to continue college
though,
learning braille whether from a training center or a Hadley
course or
whatever or learning how to use something like NVDA will be
something you
have to do.  We can't do that for you.  I wish we could, but you
have to
actually learn the skills you need to do college assignments.
One thing you
could do is take an incomplete get the skills you need and finish
the class
in the fall.  I'm assuming that's more drastic than you want to
do though.
You could work on trying to learn something like NVDA for the
next test, and
maybe your professor would allow you to take this one later if
you explained
it to them or maybe they would let you take it orally.  I
understand not
wanting to learn new technology, I really do.  I hate it, and
I've never
been able to learn Windows and a screen reader well enough to
function
effectively, which is why I use my Braillenote for everything.  I
think you
might be surprised at how easy it is to learn how to make a
smartphone work
though.  Androids are known for taking some time to figure out,
but Iphone's
are fairly intuitive.  When I got mine I hated it for a day or
two because I
couldn't make it work, but then it clicked.  All you really need
is to type
your answers into the body of an e-mail and either send it to
your professor
or have your scribe write it out onto the test or e-mail your
answers to DSS
and have them print them.  Learning how to do that much really
wouldn't be
very difficult--even someone who has as hard a time with
technology as I do
can manage it.  I really hope you can find a way to do well on
your exam!

Best,
Karl

----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 17:02:48 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some
Advice

Hello All,

I honestly wish I had never posted my email to this email list. I
really
hate the fact that it just seems like all you are wanting to do
is tell me
that an NFB training center is somehow going to solve all the
problems in my
life. Even if I could ever go to an NFB training center, I will
probably
never gain the Braille skills necessary to be able to use them in
a testing
situation.

I have never used a smart phone before, so this option would not
work for
me. There is absolutely no way I would be able to learn how to
use it good
enough to use for a test that is in two weeks.
I am already trying to catch up in this class after being sick,
so I am not
looking to add anything more to my plate than what is already on
it.

Using NVDA sounds like a good option, but again, I have never
used it
before, and I cannot understand the voice that comes with it . So
I am not
quite sure how this option would work for me.

I am sorry that I am not able to fight my college and the
vocational
rehabilitation all on my own. The Client Assistant Program does
not do much
of anything here. And no one in the NFB has never really been
willing to
help me either. All I wanted to do was to find a way to pass this
class. But
it looks as though I simply do not have the support, resources,
and capacity
to do the things I wanted to be able to do before my accident.

I should have never signed up to take this class. I really did
not have the
money to pay for it in the first place, and right now it just
feels like
this was only a waste of my money. And I should just learn that I
am never
going to be the same person that I was before my accident.

Elizabeth

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