Hello all,
I am a teacher in a UK school and I have two Visually Impaired students. They use simple text to speech software so they can read general files (such as MS Word etc..) but it does not work in Python.
Has anyone come across any way that can aid access to Python for visually impaired?
Thanks for any help!
Lee
I can't say that I've ever used a screen reader. Perhaps you could provide more specific information about the problems being encountered. When you say "...it doesn't work with Python", is a bit vague. It might also be helpful to know what operating system the students are using. I would say, I hope they are not using a text editor that includes formatting, such as MS Word, but rather a 'plain text' editor such as Windows Notepad. Linux and Mac have similar products as well.
What text-to-speech software are you using? MAC has a really good text-to-speech software built in, Windows does not, JAWS cost money but if I recall from my time working with visually impaired individuals a long time ago JAWS was the go to for windows. I also believe NV is an option:
https://www.nvaccess.org/ it's free and open source.
When you say it does not work for Python what are you talking about? The command line interface? The Python Interpreter? Or the IDE you're talking about? As an example, Pycharm doesn't work with screen readers but Notepad++ and Visual Studio by Microsoft should work. Visual Studio has the ability to install python and works really great with it. Visual Studio Code is another software but I don't know if Visual Studio Code (not the same as Visual Code) works with screen readers.
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/edito...en-readers
With Notepad++ a simple extension for python would be the solution.
I have the same challenge at the University. My student has a Mac which has a more than acceptable TTS. However, the spaces kill us. He has an extremely hard time in getting the indentation right, because spaces are not spoken out.
I guess that is the main challenge we all face, right?
/Pedro A. Aranda