One interesting thing I discovered when I used a screenreader in 2002-2003 was that my ability to fully understand the spoken word is much slower than the average rate of human speech. The screenreader's voice settings presented that information to me in a quantifiable fashion. It was like discovering as a young kid that you're doing poorly in school because you can't see the blackboard; nobody else has understood what your problem is because everyone else can see the blackboard.
I'm pretty sure now that I have audio processing disorder. That's why learning braille was a blessing for me; I was struggling to follow the storyline in audiobooks. These days, when reading by text to speech, I just dial down the words-per-minute rate of the TTS voice I use. I wish I could do the same with the speech of people I talk with.
I'm in complete agreement with you concerning books being lifegiving. :)
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Re: Not NFB but related
Date: 2020-07-02 01:59 pm (UTC)Hurrah about the commercial audiobooks at NLS!
One interesting thing I discovered when I used a screenreader in 2002-2003 was that my ability to fully understand the spoken word is much slower than the average rate of human speech. The screenreader's voice settings presented that information to me in a quantifiable fashion. It was like discovering as a young kid that you're doing poorly in school because you can't see the blackboard; nobody else has understood what your problem is because everyone else can see the blackboard.
I'm pretty sure now that I have audio processing disorder. That's why learning braille was a blessing for me; I was struggling to follow the storyline in audiobooks. These days, when reading by text to speech, I just dial down the words-per-minute rate of the TTS voice I use. I wish I could do the same with the speech of people I talk with.
I'm in complete agreement with you concerning books being lifegiving. :)