User:Steinsky/Encyclopaedia for the blind

I have separated this out from the WP:SPOKEN discussions because I think it's worth discussing in depth. I have started the discussion because I believe the Spoken Wikipedia could become the basis for an easy to use free encyclopedia for the blind, partially sighted and people with other reading difficulties. This could be done with some simple software, but I'm not a good enough coder to make it, though I do have some ideas for how it may work.

I will open these ideas to review by the Spoken Wikipedia project, and any free software developers and relevant computer accesibility groups.

What is the Spoken Wikipedia project?

Wikipedia is a collaboratively written encyclopedia, and the largest encyclopedia in the world. The Spoken Wikipedia is project for reading Wikipedia articles aloud. The project was not specifically started for the benefit of those unable to read the encyclopedia, though its members accommodate these users. The project was started in April 2005 and as of June 28th it has around 100 articles recorded, and adds several new recordings each week.

Notification of new recordings is placed in a special file called an RSS feed, which includes information about the recording, and a link to the audio file. People can subscribe to the RSS feed with several different kinds of software. One type will display the information on each recording, with a link, in a webpage. Others may display the info so that it looks like an email. Another type, in this case the most interesting, will automatically download the audio file, and some programmes will even transfer the file to a portable MP3 player like an iPod. This is called podcasting.

Software for the Spoken Wikipedia

Podcasting is very new technology, and as far as I am aware there is no podcasting software optimised for the blind. This page is essentially a request for comments on creating an open source podcast programme optimised for the blind and partially sighted. The Spoken Wikipedia project is pretty unique and I think very could be very useful for blind people, therefore I'd hope any such podcasting software would be especially developed with Wikipedia in mind.

This software could be relatively simple. It need not have a Graphical User Interface, though one could be added to extend the software to other users. Information on podcasted items can be stored in a database, perhaps using XML files, and the database updated from the RSS feed everytime the software is launched. The software can come with spoken menus, and where neccesary use external screen readers, for functions such as reading the metadata about entries, and describing the new items on the RSS feed. The software could perhaps use speach recognition for things such as searching for and choosing articles and menu items. For simplicity the software could send the audio file to an external player, of which there are many simple open source examples.

I'd like to suggest a solution requiring no extra software other than a webbrowser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, maybe Safari) and Macromedia Flash. Many sites, such as myspace.com and Google Video have had success using Flash to play audio files, regardless of audio codecs installed by users.

If the .oggs were converted to a flash format, a version of Wikipedia for the blind could be created that is navigated by keyboard commands (a la GMail's keyboard shortcuts) and listened to through Flash. Something simple like that would allow most users to use the spoken articles, and blind users can access spoken Wikipedia without any extra software.

The RSS idea is interesting, and I think it could alternatively be integrated into a server-side system. I think the lack of so many articles for Spoken Wikipedia lends itself to the creation of a completely separate encyclopaedia for spoken articles, navigable completely on its own. We could set up the navigation, sound files and menus visually in a graphical mode, and then have a listening mode that works well with blind users' TTS engines.

Data fields each spoken article should contain for blind users:

Location of parent (to go back to portal or section page (eg Music))
Related, mentioned pages
Location of file
Article title
Speaker (and a button to press to go to a list of the speaker's other articles)

Just throwing some wacky ideas out there, and I'm not too attached to any of them ;). I think Wikipedia for the Blind could be very useful, and aspects of it could be integrated into the regular Wikipedia (integrated sound, etc). -WAZAAAA 17:41, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Adding a Flash requirement means that people have to use non-free software to access Wikipedia content. Please don't advocate doing that. There are surely other technologies (the current ones seem fine to me) that can be used that won't add this requirement. Wikipedia is working to make non-fettering information resources for humanity - a very different goal to MySpace or Google. Gronky 20:31, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Making Wikipedia useable for the blind is a good goal, but please also keep in mind that spoken articles can be very useful for learners of the language - IF the people who make the recordings also provide a link to the version of the article which they read. Currently almost no one remembers to do this, so if the system is being re-thought, it would be good to include a more explicit way of reminding recording-makers to do this. Gronky 20:31, 17 October 2006 (UTC)