Emacspeak-direct speech access

Abstract

Emacspeak is a full-fledged speech output interface to Emacs, and is being used to provide direct speech access to a UNIX workstation. The kind of speech access provided by Emacspeak is qualitatively different from what conventional screen-readers provide - emacspeak makes applications speak - as opposed to speaking the screen. Emacspeak is the first full-fledged speech output system that will allow someone who cannot see to work directly on a UNIX system (Until now, the only option available to visually impaired users has been to use a talking PC as a terminal.) Emacspeak is built on top of Emacs. Once Emacs is started, the user gets complete spoken feedback. I currently use Emacspeak at work on my SUN SparcStation and have also used it on a DECALPHA workstation under Digital UNIX while at Digital's CRL. I also use Emacspeak as the only speech output system on my laptop running Linux. Emacspeak is available on the Internet: