# Re: text to speech?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-text-to-speech/97381>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 6, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-text-to-speech/97381 "2006-07-06T19:00:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jamal86)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-text-to-speech/97381/1 "2006-07-06T19:00:11Z")

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I happen to be blind, myself (challenges of both the speech interface  
and Microsoft Outlook make top posting much easier for me). I do not  
have experience with Ruby on Linux, just Windows. In case feedback  
about this platform is also of interest, I have found that the available  
IDE’s for programming in Ruby do not work well with a screen reader such  
as JAWS (the one I use).

Programming is practical, however, with a text editor like TextPad or  
NoteTab. In fact, I have personally developed a text editor called  
TextPal, using the Ruby language and wrappers for the WxWidgets GUI  
library (which produces accessible controls unlike other cross-platform  
libraries). It is fully keyboard accessible and offers almost every  
feature I’ve found in a text editor (I compared many), and does so in a  
manner intended to maximize usability by blind persons.

For anyone interested, the installer for TextPal, a free, open source  
editor is available at the following direct download address:  
[http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/palsetup.exe](http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/palsetup.exe)  
It may be easily uninstalled as well.

Under Windows, Ruby console mode utilities work well with a screen  
reader. These include irb, ri, and gem.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask further questions either publicly or  
privately.

Jamal

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ebca7d/32.png) [@jamal86](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jamal86)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-text-to-speech/97381/2 "2006-07-10T15:47:52Z")

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A live Linux distribution with support for text to speech can be  
downloaded here:

> **[Free(b)soft CDROM](https://freebsoft.org/freebsoft-cdrom)**
>
> Free Accessibility Solutions

It is quite old, and supports text to speech on the console and in  
emacs. At least that’s what I heared.

It is specially made for Czech users so it may not speak English by  
default.

Thanks

Michal