On screen access readers for PDA's?

[amos bokros]

To anyone who knows,
I am dyslexic. I am interested in a PDA device that can read E- books automatically out loud sometimes called an onscreen access reader like ,Open Book and other software programs can, on a desktop or
laptop. I am having great difficulty finding such a device for a Pocket PC or PDA. Does any
pocket PC or any software have this capability. All I want is a PDA
that
can take text in English from my desktop and laptop and then the text
can be
read electronically, automatically by the PDA system. I do not
understand
why I am having difficulty finding such a PDA software program.
Because it
is a far simpler program than speech recognition. If you have any
answers
please contact me. If you have any suggestions who I should ask please
tell
me.

Thank you
Amos
Bokros

[Jorgen]

I have never heard about one, probably because speech takes up a lot of space and power. I know that the following is not what you ask for but just in case you don't know about them:

You will have to stick to dedicated audiobooks like the ones from http://www.audible.com.

Project Gutenberg has today a number of audio books http://www.gutenberg.org/audio/. Or this http://audiozines.squarespace.com/journal/2004/11/15/when-we-say-free-audio-books-and-free-audiozines-we-mean-free.html

Jorgen

[dMores]

this might also not be helpful, since it's a program that does just the opposite of what you want (you speak, it types), but you might want to check it out as well:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=308149&sid=a0e479fea78c9803d68918d98166c7a6

[Jorgen]

Since no other suggestions have appeared, your best bet is to use the desktop MS Reader to read aloud and capture the output and convert it to MP3 or WMA and play it on the PPC. I personally wouldn't know how to capture the audio but I am sure someone here will know.

You can from Microsoft download a MS Word plugin that convert Word/HTML files to MS Readers .LIT format.

Jorgen

[AggieJon]

Since no other suggestions have appeared, your best bet is to use the desktop MS Reader to read aloud and capture the output and convert it to MP3 or WMA and play it on the PPC. I personally wouldn't know how to capture the audio but I am sure someone here will know.
Jorgen

I've been using this (http://www.speaktext.com) program that converts text to MP3 audio for a while. I mainly use it for long car trips. You give it a text file and it generates an MP3 very quickly. You don't have to wait for the file to be read in real-time. It uses the built in voices on your computer (Microsoft Sam :roll: ) unless you get the ATT Natural Voices plugin, which sounds great by the way.

I would have it convert a chapter at a time, to avoid large MP3 files. The MP3 files play nicely on the PPC with WMP.

[cyclist]

I would have it convert a chapter at a time, to avoid large MP3 files. The
MP3 files play nicely on the PPC with WMP.

Convert a chapter at a time is good advice.

For playing the mp3's I suggest MortPlayer. It can save as many bookmarks as you like in multiple books, so that you can pick up again without having to hunt for your place. There's a thread here on Pocket PC Thoughts about MortPlayer, the program is available from http://www.sto-helit.de/freeware/pocketpc/mortplayer/en/index.pl