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date: 07 March 2021

Abstract and Keywords

The author recounts her history as an aural reader and argues for her preference for the synthesized voices of text-to-speech technology over analogue recordings of human voices. Legally blind since the age of 11, she developed habits of good listening, which served to elevate her aural reading from the passive reception of oral language to a more active practice of aural discernment. Now, with the widespread popularity of audio books and the ubiquity of synthesized voice technologies in mainstream electronic devices, she perceives progress toward greater social inclusion for people who are blind and visually impaired.

Keywords: aural reading, talking books, text-to-speech (TTS) technology, synthesized voice, blindness, visual impairment, special education

Georgina Kleege

Georgina Kleege teaches creative writing and disability studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her recent books include Sight Unseen (1999), Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller (2006), and More than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art (2017).

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