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A self-voicing application is an application that provides an aural interface without requiring a separate screen reader. Self-voicing applications can be an important form of assistive technology, useful to those who have difficulty reading or seeing.
A prominent group of self-voicing applications are talking web browsers. Traditionally, talking web browsers have been specially created, as was the case with:
- pwWebSpeak, originally developed by The Productivity Works in Princeton, New Jersey (now obsolete)[citation needed]
- Simply Web (also now obsolete)[citation needed]
- Home Page Reader (HPR) from IBM (recently discontinued)[citation needed]
- Connect Outloud from Freedom Scientific[1]
- WebAnywhere from University of Washington[2]
A more recent trend has seen the self-voicing capabilities added to mainstream web browsers with free add-ons. In 2004, Opera Software created a self-voicing and speech-recognition extension for the Windows version of their web browser.[3] And in 2005 Charles L. Chen devised Fire Vox, an extension that adds speech capabilities to the Mozilla Firefox web browser on Mac, Windows, or Linux.[4]
A second important category are broader self-voicing applications that function as what T. V. Raman calls "complete audio desktops",[5] including editing, browsing, and even gaming capabilities. These include Raman's own Emacspeak enhancement for Emacs and Karl Dahlke's Edbrowse.[citation needed]
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