A New Read on Digital Talking Books
From: Speech Technology - 09/2007 - page 4
By: John Oberteuffer

Recorded books for the blind first became available in the 1930s. Analog
recordings created by volunteer readers were produced as 12-inch vinyl
records - about 10 double-sides for the average book. This early production
was expensive and time-consuming, so relatively few audio texts were
available.  

Today, digital hardware, synthetic speech software, and powerful standards
for digital talking books (DTBs) have dramatically enhanced the accessibility
of print-originated material. Many DTB titles, including fiction,
non-fiction, and textbooks, are available through nonprofit organizations
such as Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic and Benetech Bookshare.org.
Serving plate-sized, long-playing records and bulky phonographs have been
replaced by CD and solid-state memory media and players for talking books. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.speechtechmag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=37407

Links:
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
http://www.rfbd.org/

Benetech Bookshare.org
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html

Kurzweil Reading Machine
http://www.kurzweiltech.com/kcp.html

DECtalk
http://www.abledata.com/abledata.cfm?pageid=113583&top=0&productid=86503&trail=0
http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/DecTalk1.jpg

AT&Ts Natural Voice
http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/

Digital Accessible Information SYstem
http://www.daisy.org/

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
http://nimas.cast.org/
