Microsoft Office math-aware applications can now speak math in over 18 different languages! Try it out with native math zones in Word by enabling Narrator (type CapsLock + Enter) and navigate a math zone as described in the post There are two math-speech granularities: coarse-grained (navigate by words), which speaks math expressions fluently in a natural language, and fine-grained (navigate by characters), which explains the content at the insertion point (IP) in sufficient detail to enable editing. I can turn off the computer screen and use a keyboard to edit complicated equations accurately by listening to the math speech. Math speech works for all math zones and doesn’t need extra editing by the document author(s). As of this post, Office math speech has been shipping for over a month on Windows, and Word’s math speech, in particular, has already gotten a lot of use.
Note that this math facility is built into Office applications (type Alt+= to insert a math zone) and differs from, which can also be used with Office applications. Coarse-grained speech isn’t tightly synchronized with the characters in memory and cannot be used directly for editing. It’s relatively independent of the memory math model. In contrast, fine-grained speech is tightly synchronized with the characters in memory and is ideal for editing. It depends on the built-up math model (“Presentation Math”), which is the same for all Microsoft math-aware products but may differ from the models of other math products.
Coarse grained navigation between siblings for a given math nesting level can be done with Ctrl+→ and Ctrl+← or Braille equivalents, while fine-grained navigation is done with → and ← or equivalents. The latter allows the user to traverse every character in a math zone. Two special cases are 1) when the IP is directly before the math zone being queried by UIA and 2) when the IP is still in the range’s math zone, but at the end.
For 1) the user needs to know that typing something won’t be in the math zone. Typing → then puts the IP into the math zone and typing enters characters inside the math zone. And for 2), the user needs to know that the IP is at the end of the math zone and still in the math zone. Case 1) returns “equation” followed by the speech for the math zone. Case 2 returns “end equation”. (Since many math zones aren’t equations, this choice of words might be a little misleading sometimes, but hopefully not too much so). The languages with math speech support include Danish (da-DK), German (de-DE), English (en-US), Spanish (es-ES), Finnish (fi-FI), French (fr-FR), Italian (it-IT), Japanese (ja-JP), Korean (ko-KR), Norwegian (nb-NO), Dutch (nl-NL), Polish (pl-PL), Brazil Portuguese (pt-BR), Portugal Portuguese (pt-PT), Russian (ru-RU), Swedish (sv-SE), Turkish (tr-TR), PRC Chinese (zh-CN), Taiwan Chinese (zh-TW).
Producing Math Speech Math speech is produced by “building down to speech”, sharing the code and concepts of building down “Presentation Math” to. This approach creates math speech just as fast as it creates UnicodeMath and is faster than representing math zones in other math formats like. A string of language tokens is created and then converted to the active natural language. On a technical level, math speech is implemented in the RichEdit dll (Office’s riched20.dll) by the GetMathSpeechText function, which has the prototype HRESULT GetMathSpeechText (ITextRange2.prg, BSTR.pbstr, LONG Flags) Coarse-grained math speech is returned in.pbstr if the range prg selects more than one character while fine-grained speech is returned if prg references an insertion point or selects only one character. GetMathSpeechText uses the same subset of ITextRange2 methods used by and hence can be used by all Microsoft Office math-aware applications on all major platforms (Windows, iOS, Mac, and Android). Key methods include to fetch individual characters from memory and to find out what kinds of math objects are in memory.
Exposing Math Speech to Assistive Technologies Math speech is exposed to clients via methods of the UIA interface. So, in principle any AT that uses these methods automatically gets math speech for math zones.
Nevertheless, it’s desirable for AT’s to know if math zones are involved. One approach is to identify math zones by a new, explicit UIA math-zone object or by a custom object with a localized name like “math zone”. But a more efficient approach that mirrors what’s in memory is to have a math-zone format attribute. Specifically, TextUnitFormat is one of the units supported. To find out an attribute, such as UIAIsItalicAttributeId, of a TextUnitFormat instance, a client calls. AT’s could know if a math zone is active if a new attribute ID, UIAIsMathZoneAttributeId, is added to identify math zones.
In fact, there is a new UIA math annotation property, which can be retrieved by calling. Off-topic (feel free to moderate away) Murray, I don’t want to waste my time going through the regular channels. EMSETWORDBREAKPROC in the new Windows 10 update introduces a “not responding” (infinite loop) bug if the callback simply returns the character-index it is given. For example, for Asian word-break processing, which wants to just disable it, if the callback doesn’t advance the cursor, (and process the codes) then the msftedit.dll module never returns from WMCHAR. Versions past must have checked the returned value to see if it’s in bounds.
I think that the code should have used WBFBREAKLINE instead of WBFBREAKAFTER. I might have got the WBFBREAKAFTER from an example. And did not realize there were other break-modes. The difference in the current DLL (late 2017) would seem to be that if the text is all WBFBREAKAFTER it will never wrap lines. Although I have seen it wrap after doing a paste operation, going back and changing lines above the pasted line, to then make them wrap.
Perhaps “all WBFBREAKAFTER” will only appear in procedures that want to always break and don’t know WBFBREAKLINE is more appropriate. That could be a wide net of breaking programs. (I apologize for so many comments.
There’s no edit function.) After Windows 10 Creators Update I changed WBISDELIMITER to always return 0, or FALSE. This is counter-intuitive for making all characters break. It’s probably a new bug. I’m confident it is, because the program would freeze at the end of the line, so I would’ve had to enter text to the end of the line to confirm it wasn’t freezing, and if it wasn’t wrapping then, my work would’ve been unfinished. And for good measure, I made WBCLASSIFY return all 3 break mode flags.
That’s probably not necessary. But it’s confusing what’s what. (My goal is to get a box that treats all characters equally. Because it’s a fixed width box, and breaks give users unexpected results.).
music plays Camera pans slowly across a home kitchen, then cuts to a mirror. Sady, a woman with spastic cerebral palsy, is in the mirror’s reflection. Her hair is being brushed by her caretaker. Cut to various shots of Sady being dressed by her caretaker.
(Sady — narrating with the help of electronic voice software) People think that having a disability is a barrier. wheels rolling Close-up of her electric wheelchair wheels rolling over a threshold. buttons clicking Cut to Sady, working with an iMac at a desk in her home.
She moves her head to operate switches on both sides of her wheelchair headrest, typing in Pages through Switch Control. (Sady narrating) But that’s not the way I see it. Close-up of the iMac screen reveals her narration as it’s being typed. Cut to a young man holding up his iPhone while making sign language gestures. (Sady narrating) You can catch up with friends. The man is using FaceTime to have a sign language conversation with a woman.
She signs back while smiling. Cut to a young man, a boy, and a woman in a park. The young man is taking a photo of the boy with iPhone. (Sady narrating) You can capture a moment with your family. Since the young man is blind, he uses the VoiceOver feature to follow audible commands in the Camera app. (iPhone) One face.
Camera app shutter sound Cut to a close-up of a woman’s hand holding an iPhone. She opens the Home app and taps the Good Morning button. (Sady narrating) And you can start the day bright and early.
The woman is lying in her bed. Her lamp turns on and the window shade rises automatically as a result of pressing the button. She moves from the bed to her wheelchair. Cut to a doorway as a man exits, prepared to go on a hike with friends. He looks at his iPhone.
(Sady narrating) You can take a trip to somewhere new. Close-up of his ear reveals that he is wearing a hearing aid. wind blowing loudly Cut to a close-up of the man’s iPhone screen. He selects Outdoor in his hearing aid settings.
wind blowing quietly (Woman) Three miles to the summit. He continues walking to catch up with his friends. Cut to a young boy in a classroom, studying on an iPad while wearing headphones. (Sady narrating) You can concentrate on every word of a story. Cut to a close-up of the boy’s iPad screen. “Home Before Dark” is the title of the chapter he’s reading.
His iPad reads the first sentence aloud, highlighting each word as it is spoken. (iPad) A bird began to sing. Cut to a close-up of the boy’s face as he reads and listens. (iPad) Jack opened his eyes.
Cut to a close-up of an Apple Watch on a woman’s wrist. She taps Outdoor Wheelchair Run Pace in the Workout app, then taps Start. (Sady narrating) You can take the long way home. The woman quickly propels her wheelchair down a paved path beside the beach. Suddenly, she stops and begins moving backward, as if she were in a video being played in reverse.
music swelling Camera zooms out to reveal that this is a video that Sady is editing in Final Cut Pro. All the previous scenes described above are quickly played in reverse as well. (Sady narrating) Or edit a film. Like this one. buttons clicking Cut to a close-up of Sady, moving her head to operate switches on both sides of her wheelchair headrest, as she continues editing the film. (Sady narrating) When technology is designed for everyone. buttons clicking Cut to a close-up of Sady’s iMac screen where she opens a directional controller and selects a downward motion.
She moves the final clip into place — a shot of the woman in the wheelchair racing toward the sunset on the horizon. (Sady narrating). It lets anyone do what they love.
Including me. Cut to a close-up of Sady, smiling. click sound Cut to the Apple logo against a white background. Taking a family portrait. Catching up over FaceTime. Raising the blinds to let in the morning light. We want everyone to enjoy the everyday moments that technology helps make possible, so we work to make every Apple product accessible from the very start.
Because the true value of a device isn’t measured by how powerful it is, but by how much it empowers you. In a living room, Carlos plays the drums. He has long, black hair and wears a black t-shirt with a red and white logo that reads: 'Distartica.' VoiceOver: ReverbNation. He uses an iPhone, running his finger across the screen. VoiceOver: Text field. Chime Carlos speaks into his iPhone.
Carlos: Album will be dropping worldwide on April 14th comma 2017 exclamation mark. Follow our ReverbNation page period. Carlos taps the screen of his iPhone. Clicking VoiceOver: Done.
He taps the screen again. Clicking VoiceOver: Successfully shared. Carlos smiles. “The Cybernetic Eye,” by Distartica Now, he drums intensely while two long-haired guitarists shred on black guitars. Carlos leans into a microphone, then lets out a shout.
Titles: Carlos V. And VoiceOver On. A white Apple logo on a black background. Shane: Get your instruments. Students chatter Sheet music is placed onto a stand. In a classroom, a student adjusts a flute.
Musical scales Shane: Now are you going to be able to play today or not, Morgan? A student hits a snare drum. Instruments warming up Shane: All right, guys. Ready to try it? She looks down at an iPhone set atop the music on the stand before her. The iPhone is synced to 'Shane Hearing Aids.” Shane: Let’s try it.
Voice Speak For Mac
Clarinets, are you up? Shane pushes her hair over her right ear, revealing a hearing device. Clarinets play quietly Shane changes the iPhone preset from Normal to Music. Shane: Clarinets, ready? In the Hearing Devices menu, she increases Hearing Device Mic Volume to fifty-five percent.
Volume increases She holds a conductor's baton and sweeps her arms upward. Shane: Breathe. Music playing Titles: Shane R. And Hearing Aids for iPhone. A white Apple logo on a black background. Water rushing Bird calls In his motorized wheelchair, Ian moves along a lush forest trail lined by ferns and tall, moss-covered trees.
He approaches a silvery waterfall. Ian reclines his chair, framing the rushing waters in the capture screen of the Camera on his armrest-mounted iPhone. Mechanical whirring Water rushing He moves his lower lip against two switches mounted in front of his mouth to use Switch Control. Clicking He selects the shutter button, now outlined by a green box, then takes a photo.
Shutter snaps Water rushing Bird calls Ian gazes up at the cascading waterfall. His long, blonde hair hangs in dreadlocks from under a black and white bandana. His black puffer jacket is coated in mist. Clicking Water rushing Titles: Ian M. And Switch Control. A white Apple logo on a black background. Whistle blows Three teenage girls sit on the sidelines of a soccer game.
They wear matching green and white uniforms. Two of the girls lean in to watch the middle girl, Meera, as she uses an iPad.
Digital Voice: We all went to Simon's Island in Georgia. Girl: I've been there. Digital Voice: I loved it. Girl: Where's another place you've been?
Meera taps the screen of her iPad, generating a response. Digital Voice: Alaska. Cheering The three girls smile as they look up at the field. Girls: Go, Violet! Meera exclaims and claps. Girl: We have a good team this year. Meera nods, then taps on her iPad.
Digital Voice: They are awesome. Girl: They really are. Girl: Yeah, even though we've only won once. Titles: Meera P.
And TouchChat on iPad. Whistle blows A white Apple logo on a black background. Powerful innovations come together to help you communicate.
Every iPad, iPhone, and Mac has built-in communication features that support learning. FaceTime lets you communicate visually, whether you use sign language, gestures, or facial expressions. Speak Selection helps with language development by speaking words you’re reading. And Text to Speech can make learning easier by letting you hear what you’re reading and writing.
There are also many third-party apps in the App Store, including TouchChat, to help you communicate more easily.