South Africa had several official languages but just one South African synthetic voice in English, he said.ĭisability Issues Minister Tariana Turia said she was unaware of any disabled people wanting to hear a synthetic New Zealand voice and the disability sector had never raised the issue. After some time of processing, you will be presented the transcript of your audio file. Simply select your MP3/WAV/MP4 or FLAC file and upload it to our engine. Mr Allen had heard synthetic voices in the English language with accents from Wales, Ireland, India and South Africa. enables you to convert your spoken or recorded audio from Scottish English language into written text. He attended School for the Blind in West Virginia and it was ''hugely important'' to listen to an American accent to understand what was being taught.Īustralia had a synthetic voice created in English about six years ago, he said. ''When I was first made aware of computers in the early 1980s I was told to stay away from them, by people who couldn't appreciate that the computer would open doors for me that would otherwise be closed.'' ''I think it is important we get a Kiwi accent, and people's own cultures are represented and don't get lost in a standardisation.''īlind-Sight co-director David Allen, of Dunedin, said he was born blind in the mid-1960s. Mr Tigeir said the creation of a New Zealand synthetic voice would protect the New Zealand identity. The Scottish Voice website said the program was funded by the Scottish Government because of the ''strong cultural and educational imperative'' for pupils, students and people with disabilities in Scotland. The program could also create audio files with a Scottish accent. Mr Tigeir said the Scottish Government funded the Scottish Voice, a free computer voice program with Scottish voices ''Heather'' and ''Stuart'' to read text from formats including electronic books, PDF files and Microsoft Word. Mr Tigeir said American accents came as standard on text-to-speech conversion programs. Blind New Zealanders are losing their identity by listening to foreign accents on text-to-speech programs, Dunedin Social Services community co-ordinator Rob Tigeir says.
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