A Flash-based speech synthesizer is so cool because it carries its own speech engine in the SWF itself; no accessibility plugins are required. Although commercial screen readers such as GW Micro’s Windows-Eyes (http://www.gwmicro.com) are available, they require the Accessibility class, which requires Windows ActiveX. The Flash speech code works happily on any system that supports the Flash Player’s full sound capabilities.
You can build something that doesn't even require the user to look at the screen. (I picture someone carrying around a palmtop that says, “Reminder: your dental appointment is at 10 today.”) You could also add speech to devices that have small displays so that things like help text don’t clutter the valuable screen real estate.
Not just useful for sight-impaired users, it’s also a new Flash-to-user info stream for everyone else. How many new applications does that put on the horizon?
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