@NVAccess@fosstodon.org I'm currently a JAWS user but have heard about NVDA (someone told me the keybinds are the same as Windows Narrator, not sure if that's true) what resources would you recommend to a Windows Screen reader newbie to learn the basics of NVDA? Would the Windows Narrator tutorial suffice, or should I look at something else?
in reply to Elaine Jackson-Pimentel 🦄🌈

Many of NVDA's keystrokes are similar to the Jaws keystrokes. We have a comparison guide here: github.com/nvaccess/nvda/wiki/…

The NVDA user guide includes a quick start guide which has some of the important things you'd likely want on day 1 of using NVDA: download.nvaccess.org/document…

For more in-depth training, we'd recommend "Basic Training for NVDA" which we do sell, it's $32 Australian for the electronic text version: nvaccess.org/product-category/…

Ok @main @mastoblind @NVAccess got a puzzler for all my #nvda users. So somehow yesterday I managed to bungle my way into where NVDA was acting like it was locked into focus mode everywhere, and could not be brought out of it, received "unsupported input" for single letter nav everywhere, and hotkeys like alt+tab would not register. I ended up having to do a full reset on it to fix the problem.I use #Braille Extender, and full#BrailleDisplay operation. Anyone got a clue what the fuck I did?

For those who wanted a SAPI5 version of NVSpeechPlayer, it is ready. You can install the file from: eurpod.com/synths/NVSpeechSapi…
This will install it as both a 32-bit and 64-bit executable file. It will also create a settings program that lets you configure which languages to uncheck from your voices list, this should be in the start menu. The engine should work in both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
in reply to Tamas G

Hmmm. Any idea what this means in my NVDA log? I go to sapi 5 in the set synth and get cannot start the sapi 5 synthesizer. This is the log:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "synthDriverHandler.pyc", line 514, in setSynth
File "synthDriverHandler.pyc", line 481, in getSynthInstance
File "synthDriverHandler.pyc", line 370, in initSettings
File "synthDriverHandler.pyc", line 385, in loadSettings
File "synthDriverHandler.pyc", line 429, in changeVoice
File "synthDrivers\sapi5.pyc", line 767, in _set_voice
File "synthDrivers\sapi5.pyc", line 642, in _getVoiceTokens
_ctypes.COMError: (-2147200967, None, (None, None, None, 0, None))
INFO - synthDriverHandler.setSynth (10:32:58.615) - MainThread (4976):
Falling back to previous synthDriver ibmeci
I know for a fact I have sapi voices and I've repared the registry countless times to no avail.
in reply to Tom Grant

@TomGrant91 Yeah — that looks like a SAPI/COM registration (or bitness) problem, not an NVDA “settings” bug.
_ctypes.COMError: (-2147200967, …) is NVDA failing while enumerating SAPI voice tokens (_getVoiceTokens). When someone says “I know I have SAPI voices” but NVDA can’t even list them, the usual culprits are:

Wrong bitness: 32-bit NVDA can only see 32-bit SAPI voices.

Broken SAPI token registry hive (or missing permissions).

Corrupted voice token (one bad token can make enumeration blow up).

SpeechUX works but NVDA doesn’t: often means only 64-bit tokens exist.
Try to see if the voices play.. run: C:\windows\syswow64\speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl (this is the 32-bit speech panel.)
Also you can try running regsvr32 on the dll to see if that fixes it - if it does, I need to check the install script and make sure it does this. for that run:
C:\windows\syswow64\regsvr32.exe "C:\Program Files\NVSpeechSapi\x86\NVSpeechSapi.dll"
to register the x86, and
C:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe "C:\Program Files\NVSpeechSapi\x64\NVSpeechSapi.dll"

ANATOMIE EINER MANIPULATION: Wie Friedrich Merz das Märchen der „faulen Deutschen“ konstruiert
linkedin.com/pulse/anatomie-ei…

Ein sehr interessanter Artikel von

Kalle Pipoh

zu dem Umstand, dass #Merz uns gerade zu einer faulen Gesellschaft degradiert.

1. Er bekämpft eine 4 Tage-Woche", die es generell nicht gibt.

Er macht das Symptom Wegfall der Ausbeutung zur Ursache des Wohlstandsverlusts.

3. Wer Angehörige pflegt oder Teilzeit arbeitet, landet im Topf der Faulen

..... 1/2

#merz

@Bri @BorrisInABox This is what stereo coiled bop it arcade sounds like. It is, as expected mostly mono content, but a couple of parts are stereo. This is slightly panned right from the daw as it was recorded slightly more left heavy when I recorded this time. I got a score of 68, which is my new personal best. That's great, but also at the same time it's annoying since they set the bonus score on that machine to 75, so if I had just been able to get that few more points, which would have included an even faster speed, I could have gottent eh victory sound. I also figured out when going to record fail states that on level one, they give you up to 2 retry attempts, so that you hopefully don't end up wasting a credit on a poorly played game.
This entry was edited (8 hours ago)

No, I am not going to do a search for the great Gatsby fanfiction, but, for some reason, that just came to mine. I mean, it is public domain, has been for a while, so it most likely exists in bulk. There is probably a huge, closet club of the great Gatsby fanfiction writers out there Just having a great old time fulfilling their Myrtle fantasies, but I will never know. Why am I even thinking about this?

Also, fun fact: that book is why I failed English in the 11th grade. I just didn't care about it, didn't do any of the assigned stuff on it, subsequently failed the class. YAY!

This entry was edited (9 hours ago)

Anyone happen to know how to get SoX on a Synology DS1815+? I have a bunch of things I want to automate on a schedule that needs it specifically. I could mount the filesystem and do all that on another host, but really don't want to do it that way. I might be able to do what I want with ffmpeg, which is installed, but would rather use SoX if I can.
This entry was edited (10 hours ago)

I was apparently arrested at age 20 for committing arson, killing 8 out of 10 people in a building. It was ruled self-defense, as I was escaping a horrible situation.

I was apparently traumatized by this whole deal, and had to live in a group home, where I met a girl who also murdered in self-defense.

Things were going well.

Just as we were really starting to get to know each other, I woke up, and the dog was frantically barking about something, so I guess I'll never know how things turned out.

#WeirdDream

This entry was edited (12 hours ago)
in reply to Cleverson

@clv1 hm, this is where the lengthenedScale setting can help you, the default is very short but you can change it for portuguese if it is helpful for that language to be something like 1.14. Try that first too. You can add this rule to the PT language file, rules don't require a restart of NVDA, just a restart of the engine (so switch synthesizers, switch back, rule applies.) So in Pt.YAML inside packs\lang for the add-on:
# --- Portuguese "-ião" glide length ---
# In words like "avião" / "religião" eSpeak emits ...iˈɐ̃ʊ̃.
# The /i/ here behaves like a glide into the nasal diphthong, but it can sound too short
# in our timing model. Add a length mark so the engine gives it a little more time.
- from: "iˈɐ̃ʊ̃"
to: "iːˈɐ̃ʊ̃"
in reply to Tamas G

@Tamasg Thanks a lot. It appears the best compromise is around 2.44 for scale lenght. Also, I tried adding your mapping suggestion in the phoneme editor, but it wasn't accepted, perhaps because there is more than one key for the To field. And speaking of nasal diphthongs, I'm not quite pleased with ã and õ. Tomorrow I'm gonna try cloning and modifying them.
This entry was edited (11 hours ago)
in reply to Joshua

@J3317 actually I try to keep my laptop extremely simple, and as I don't have the same keyboard layout in his program, and his doesn't have telegram inj it. I just keep it with what I know. I don't want to be half awake, and try using what I think is telegram in tweesecake, and accidently send out something on mastodon that would be rather imbarrasing. lol.

Gosh, with all these tools we should already be so fsafe beyond safety's own limits. Why do we then need ICE and all these oso-called law enforcement agencies? I mean just put a guy in a cowboy hat and boots, show them how to use Tangles, and the rest of us can go party. What's wrong with this formula? @TexasObserver texasobserver.social/@TexasObs…


Thanks to a software program called "Tangles," #police—sheriffs, Texas state cops, and even #ICE—can follow the location of your smartphone without a warrant.

Yet, we know little about how it has been used. Here's what our investigation revealed: texasobserver.org/texas-police…

#privacy #tech #surveillance #Texas #politics #USpol #news


Amazing news! NVSP Phoneme Editor V4 is here, and it brings much needed improvements.
For starters, we directly consume libespeak.dll, thanks to learnings from our SAPI5 wrapper. No more running Espeak in another process this way, but still side-loading the DLL into the process. The .exe is included so as to keep the distribution of Espeak intact.
This also allows us to get correct IPA mappings just like the NVDA driver gets, so letters should not be dropped during speech. Check it out! Wow!
Also, the spin controls can now use page up and page-down for movement by increments of 50. This should allow wider mapping but finer if you arrow. Wait, spin control? That's right, hitting "edit" on a phoneme will let you increment it using the arrow keys, or type in the value. Why not be flexible!
We solved an issue with loading: no matter where you unzip this, it will load both the DLL and Espeak NG folders, locating Espeak-NG.exe in it. There's still a bit of a bug here because we don't check for libespeak.dll but the executable, but this is a minor one for the next version to fix. If you point it at a dll, it will also load the packs if it exists in the same folder, which also means less hitting "open" and "set" everywhere.
Enjoy! eurpod.com/synths/NVSPPhonemeE…
And yes, I tested this with at least 4 KB of text thrown at it at once in the text-box, it didn't crash. I'm sure there's a limit, but still, impressive it only took like 7 seconds to generate the speech.
This entry was edited (14 hours ago)

Thanks to a software program called "Tangles," #police—sheriffs, Texas state cops, and even #ICE—can follow the location of your smartphone without a warrant.

Yet, we know little about how it has been used. Here's what our investigation revealed: texasobserver.org/texas-police…

#privacy #tech #surveillance #Texas #politics #USpol #news

One thing that's tough for people who just join the Fediverse, like most of the folks on #theforkiverse , is that there are self-appointed experts who reply to their public posts saying that "the Fediverse" doesn't like that kind of content.

This is untrue. They don't speak for all of us. Nobody does. You can't spell "Fediverse" without "diverse"; for good or ill, there are different viewpoints on almost any topic found here.

I'm helping an elderly person with a patient portal, and wow, there are about 4 different problems ranging from unclear instructions to pages that don't work well when the phone is zoomed in enough for an older person to actually read the text.

Plus, the iPhone keeps popping up unhelpful gunk.

This person isn't particularly afraid of technology either, but they literally can't do it.

I now think every web developer should be forced to walk through their processes with an 85-year-old.

in reply to Mignon Fogarty

*Round of applause, some cheerful whistles and yelling can be heard* Welcome to the club of people needing accessibility! We struggle with such things every single day. I mean, "we" as in "blind people" even more, but still 😊 On a more serious point, try reporting the issues to the dev. As you are in the US, your strong words to mention are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), Section 508 and WCAG.

Appeasement didn't work with Hitler.

Appeasement didn't work with Putin.

Appeasement isn't working with Trump.

When will Europe learn this most basic lesson about how to deal with imperialist bullies?

politico.eu/article/hit-back-d…