Spoken Text

My new favorite website...at least for the week is spoken text. This site allows you to upload any e-text, and in a few short minutes it is converted to an MP3 file...all for free! Too good to be true? Let's take a look. First, you do have to register (that's easy enough). Then, you need to select the e-text you'd like converted. (The site indicates it will convert pdf, doc, ppt, txt, RSS feeds, emails, html, web pages, ...is there anything left? ) I choose a book from Project Gutenberg, which is in public domain. Two minutes later I had a MP3 file. The computer generated voice was of fair to good quality, I adjusted to it within a minute of listening. (But like I tell the teachers I work with, if you have difficulty reading, any computer voice is golden!)

This site was created by Mark McKay and the Carleton School of Psychology Human-Oriented Technology Laboratory (HOT Lab). Mark himself, has a visual impairment and reportedly wrote most of the code for this wonderful tool.
Hats off to you Mark and the HOT Lab!