self-voicing

{{Short description|Function where an application provides an in-built aural interface}}

A self-voicing application is an application that provides an aural interface without requiring a separate screen reader. Self-voicing applications can be an important form of assistive technology, useful to those who have difficulty reading or seeing.

A prominent group of self-voicing applications are talking web browsers. Traditionally, talking web browsers have been specially created, as was the case with:

• pwWebSpeak, originally developed by The Productivity Works in Princeton, New Jersey (now obsolete){{citation needed|date=January 2015}}
• Simply Web (also now obsolete){{citation needed|date=January 2015}}
• Home Page Reader (HPR) from IBM (recently discontinued){{citation needed|date=January 2015}}
• Connect Outloud from Freedom Scientific{{Cite web|url=http://www.freedomsci.de/prod03.htm|title = Freedom Scientific Connect Outloud}}
• WebAnywhere from University of Washington{{cite web |url=https://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/ |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2016-01-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160523013006/http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/ |archivedate=2016-05-23 }}

A more recent trend has seen the self-voicing capabilities added to mainstream web browsers with free add-ons. In 2004, Opera Software created a self-voicing and speech-recognition extension for the Windows version of their web browser.[http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/03/23/ Opera Sings with IBM's Speech Technology: New version of Opera Embeds ViaVoice from IBM] (Opera press release, 23 March 2004). Accessed 2007-02-03. And in 2005 Charles L. Chen devised Fire Vox, an extension that adds speech capabilities to the Mozilla Firefox web browser on Mac, Windows, or Linux.Charles L. Chen, [http://www.firevox.clcworld.net/about.html About Fire Vox]. Accessed 2007-02-03.

A second important category are broader self-voicing applications that function as what T. V. Raman calls "complete audio desktops",T. V. Raman, [http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/ Emacspeak - The Complete Audio Desktop]. Accessed 2007-02-03. including editing, browsing, and even gaming capabilities.

These include Raman's own Emacspeak enhancement for Emacs.