Abstract
Formerly, people with visual disabilities accessed printed information using books in Braille or audio books prepared by welfare organizations or volunteers. IT technology made this process more efficient with the automation made available by scanners and OCR software. However, due to the time- and cost-consuming nature of the process, people with visual disabilities still cannot access books in a timely way.
The situation may be greatly improved by the advent of e-books equipped with screen reader software or other applications using synthetic speech technology, raising hopes that disabled people would soon be able to read newly published books simultaneously with the non-disabled. In fact, in the U.S., many digital books purchased with Kindle (Amazon) or iPad (Apple) devices are fitted with the readaloud function; in Japan, however, digital books are not yet suitable for practical use.
This paper evaluates the text-to-speech function for visually disabled people currently available in Japan and analyzes the tasks that need to be addressed to create an accessible environment for the era of digital publishing.
