JavaScript SpeechSynthesis API
As the web continues to be the medium for all users, standards bodies need to continue to provide new APIs to enrich user experience and accessibility. One underused API for unsighted users is speechSynthesis, an API to programmatically direct the browser to audibly speak any arbitrary string.
The Code
You can direct the browser to utter speech with window.speechSynthesis and SpeechSynthesisUtterance:
window.speechSynthesis.speak(
new SpeechSynthesisUtterance('Hey Jude!')
)
speechSynthesis.speak will robotically tell the user anything you provide as a SpeechSynthesisUtterance string. Support for this API is available in all modern browsers.
I wouldn't consider speechSynthesis as a replacement for native accessibility tools, but this API could be used to improve what native tools provide!
![Convert XML to JSON with JavaScript]()
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been working on a super top secret mobile application using Appcelerator Titanium. The experience has been great: using JavaScript to create easy to write, easy to test, native mobile apps has been fun. My...
![39 Shirts – Leaving Mozilla]()
In 2001 I had just graduated from a small town high school and headed off to a small town college. I found myself in the quaint computer lab where the substandard computers featured two browsers: Internet Explorer and Mozilla. It was this lab where I fell...
![Implement jQuery’s hover() Method in MooTools]()
jQuery offers a quick event shortcut method called hover that accepts two functions that represent mouseover and mouseout actions. Here's how to implement that for MooTools Elements.
The MooTools JavaScript
We implement hover() which accepts to functions; one will be called on mouseenter and the other...
![Fancy FAQs with MooTools Sliders: Version 2]()
A little over a year ago I authored a post titled Fancy FAQs with MooTools Sliders. My post detailed a method of taking boring FAQs and making them more robust using the world's best JavaScript framework: MooTools. I've taken some time to...
