Welcome to the “Ashoka TTS Voice” for NVDA, designed to enhance the screen reader experience for Sinhala users!
The “Ashoka Text-To-Speech (TTS) Voice” is a high-quality neural technology-based solution tailored specifically for Sinhala content. While basic English support is available for configuration purposes, please note that this voice may not be suitable for other tasks in English.
Configuring Ashoka TTS with NVDA
Follow these steps to configure Ashoka TTS with NVDA:
- Unzip the “Ashoka TTS” folder.
- Locate and run the “ashokaPiperTTS-1.0.1.nvda-addon” file. NVDA will prompt you to install this add-on. Press “Yes” to initiate and complete the add-on installation.
- Restart NVDA.
- With NVDA running, press the NVDA key along with the “N” key to open the NVDA menu. This could be either “Insert” or “Caps Lock” depending on your keyboard layout.
- Use the up or down arrow keys to select “Piper Voice Manager” and press “Enter” to open it.
- Press “Tab” to locate the “Install from Local File” button, then press “Space Bar” or “Enter” to activate it.
- A standard “Open Dialog Box” will appear. Navigate to the “si-ashoka-low.tar.gz” file and press “Enter” on the file.
- A success message will be displayed. Press “OK” to close the dialog box.
- Find and copy the “si_dict” file supplied in the “Ashoka TTS” folder.
- Paste it into C:\Program Files (x86)\NVDA\synthDrivers\espeak-ng-data, and continue replacing with administrator privilege.
How to use the TTS with NVDA
To utilize the installed voice for reading Sinhala content, follow these steps:
- When you wish to read a Sinhala document, switch the TTS (Text-to-Speech) of NVDA by pressing “NVDA + Control + S.”
- Use the up or down arrow keys to select “Piper Neural Voices” and press “Enter.”
For example, to read a Sinhala news article, first open the article in your web browser. Then, press NVDA+control+s to open the TTS selection menu. Use the up or down arrow keys to select “Piper neural voices” and press enter. NVDA will now read the article in Sinhala using the Ashoka TTS Voice. Enjoy a seamless screen reader experience with Sinhala content using the “Ashoka TTS Voice” for NVDA.
Note: Ashoka TTS Voice is still under development, so there may be some bugs or inaccuracies. Please report any issues to the developer so that they can be fixed. Please share your Feedback, comments and concerns via email at either
ashoka@arts.cmb.ac.lk or
asokabandula@gmail.com
Note: This software is Copyrighted by Ashoka Bandula Weerawardhana.