Re: [orca-list] The SayAll user experience

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

Responding inline to this message from Joanmarie Diggs:
# 1. The primary purpose of SayAll is:
#    A. To present the exact same thing I would hear if I were manually
#       arrowing through the document. I just hate those arrow keys.
#    B. To present document text and only the document text. If I wanted
#       to hear context like heading levels and the number of items in a
#       list, I'd arrow through the document or use structural navigation.
#       Plus I really hate the pauses that result each time the voice
#       changes to present all caps, links, and stuff that is not on
#       screen.
#    C. Other (please explain in your answer)

B. I use SayAll to read a web page, document or e-mail from top to
bottom, or more correctly, from my current position onward toward the
completion of the document, as if someone is reading it to me. If
someone is reading a page from a book to me, I don't want them to tell
me that chapter 3 is a level 2 heading, or that there is a list with 12
items on the page. Neither would I want a website to tell me this
information if I am only reading it for content, which is what I am
doing if I'm using the SayAll function. The pauses at every link are
also counterproductive for me. Although I may want to know that there is
a link in an article that points to another page, I don't like the, ...
... very long pauses, ... ... link, ... as they are currently being read
by SayAll. Depending on the speech synthesizer I am using, these pauses
can be so long that it actually takes less time to use the arrow keys to
read through a web page one line at a time, especially something like a
Wikipedia article that links to pretty much any Wikipedia article that
appears in the text of the page.

#    How strongly do you feel about your answer to question 1?

Very strongly. Although I can see the potential need for a continuous
reading mode that also presents the structure of a document, this is
probably better as a separate function from SayAll, which I would expect
to just read to me.

# 2. The expected behavior of my braille display when using SayAll is:
#    A. To keep up at all times with the speech. I can read really fast.
#    B. To maintain a totally independent copy of the content being spoken
#       so I can scroll through the braille and read one part of the
#       document while another part is being spoken.
#    C. It's SayAll; not BrailleAll. As long as you update my display
#       when SayAll is interrupted or completed, I'm happy.
#    D. Other (please explain in your answer)

Probably C, but I don't have access to a braille display, so I don't
really have a strong opinion about this.

#    How strongly do you feel about your answer to question 2?

Neutral. I'll leave it to the braille users to make more meaningful
comments on this matter.

#    How often do you use a refreshable braille display with Orca?

I don't have braille access at this time, and I have some rather strong
opinions regarding the refreshable braille devices currently available
which are off-topic here, but if I did have such access, I would most
certainly be using it with Orca. Braille definitely fills some gaps left
by speech synthesis, especially when it comes to proofreading.

# 3. The thing I like most about Orca's current SayAll behavior is.
#    (fill in the blank)

I can press a single key to read from where I am in a document all the
way to the bottom, or until I choose to stop reading. This is especially
useful when reading rather long text documents and even when writing
e-mail messages. I use it quite a lot for proofreading my e-mail
messages for obvious misspellings before I send them out, although I
also use the arrows for that.

#    How strongly do you feel about your answer to question 3?

Somewhat strongly. I find the function quite useful as it is, but it can
certainly use some improvements, which I will explain below.

# 4. The thing I like least about Orca's current SayAll behavior is.
#    (fill in the blank)

A couple of things actually. First of all, as I use SayAll for
proofreading my own e-mail messages and other text documents, I find it
counterproductive not to be able to use it in editable text areas on
websites. I would like to be able to use the same functionality to
proofread my blog posts, for example. However, SayAll currently only
reads the current line in the text area on a website such as the new
post content on WordPress or the text area that appears when composing
e-mail on the Gmail website, and then exits the text area, reading the
rest of the page. I need SayAll to stay in the text area, rather than
only reading a single line and breaking out. Secondly, and possibly even
more importantly, are the unusually long pauses that are spoken when
reading articles with links. I gave an example of what I hear in my
answer to question 1. We already have configurable voice settings for
hyperlinks. I'm not sure if simply allowing the voice to change to the
hyperlink voice would help control the pauses, but it does seem to help
when reading using the arrows. I personally don't mind setting a
hyperlink voice configuration that changes any combination of rate,
pitch, volume, or whatever else from the defaults, especially if it can
eliminate the pauses, which seem much longer when using SayAll than they
do when a link appears on a line when reading with the arrows. SayAll
wouldn't even need to indicate links other than via the voice change
functionality in this case.

#    How strongly do you feel about your answer to question 4

Very strongly. I use SayAll for easy and quick reading. I really need to
be able to read text areas on websites in the same way I can read them
in Thunderbird when sending an e-mail message or in Gedit when editing
or reading a long text document. I also need SayAll to just read,
without a lot of pauses and interruptions, especially when reading a
page with a lot of links.

Please don't take my answers as a criticism of the way SayAll works, or
Orca in general. My answers are merely based on my observations and
experiences, and are my opinions of how SayAll can be improved based on
the way I currently use it. Keep up the awesome work. I look forward to
the upcoming improvements. Thanks for a great jog.
~Kyle
http://kyle.tk/
-- 
"Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?"
Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"