Category: Language and Culture
Hi. I would like to know if anyone here is learning Arabic? If you know Arabic, how did you learn it, and what did you do to make things accessible? I am trying to learn it, but I find that most Arabic courses and learning materials are inaccessible to the blind. Is there a course that teaches Arabic braille? Also, can JAWS for Windows be programmed to read Arabic? If not, what screen-reading software would I need to get for reading Arabic?
Thank you,
Misty
WEll, I found one of the CD courses teaching Arabic, I d'nt have the title with me at present but might post it later today. It's a very fundamental, beginners course and it was quite fun to study a bit. About the braille, I'd imagine, probably, that you'd have to find a Jaws plug in or synth that has been written for Arabic, it doesn't come standard with Jaws, but even Icelandic synth providers have been provided so I'd imagine you can find Arabic ones.
cheers
-B
I think jaws versions 7 and later can read individual letters in Arabic but that's about it.
As odd as this sounds, it can recognize the letters but not put them together.
And this is the basic version w/o any add-ons.
What about any other screenreaders though? For example those that use sapi5? I'm thinking NVDA and System Access. Just putting it out there, dont' know, so don't bitch if I'm wrong.
arabic braille is easy i havent learned that language but i had to learn the alpherbit to be able to read the quraan if u private message me then i can give u more info the grammar is a bit difficult to grasp though
Has anyone had to take it as a class in college/university? I am planning to do that in the future probably in the summer or fall of 2009 whenever the Arabic I is available.
I know there is a screen reader for arabic users, but I can't remember what it's called. I don't think you can make jaws speak arabic too well though.
Assalamu alaikum - Hello,
Yes harmony is right, there are many screen readers which can read arabic but i want to talk about a machine called BrightSpeech.
It works probably with any version of jaws.
But first you should go to Control Panel then regional and language options and add the arabic language.
Note: You can Choose any arab country it doesn't matter.
To type anything in arabic language, just press alt+shift.
Now you should hear these letters:
A = sheen
s = seen
d = yeh
f = beh
g = lam
h = alef
j = teh
k = noon
l = meem
semi colon = kaf
apostrophe = taa
q = daad
w = saad
e = theh
r = qaaf
t = feh
y = ghain
u = eyn
i = heh
o = khaa
p = haa
left bracket = jeem
right bracket = dal
slash = thaa
period = zein
comma = waw
m = teh marboota
n = alef maqsoora
b = lam alef
v = reh
c = hamzah ala waw
x = hamza ala elsatr
z = hamza ala yeh
grauve = thal
Also i am ready to teach you arabic, all what you need is headphones with mic and skybe account.
Sincerely,
Ali
Wow, I need to look into that system. I've been learning Arabic for a while now, but spoken Arabic only. Audible has a great course called "Behind the wheel Arabic" and of course there are the Michel Thomas CD's. There are drawbacks with both--such as Michel Thomas is great for Egyptian spoken grammar, but not much vocab, and Behind the wheel seems to be a bit strange sometimes, as though the Arabic Speaker didn't quite understand what the English speaker wanted him to say--other than that though they are great courses. Good luck with your Arabic studies. I have to say I envy you studying it at college, I'd love to do that.
Cheers,
Simon
Hello dear Simon,
I am trying to upload the brightspeech after that i will tell you how to use it.
Also Remember jaws can read the letters in arabic, just switch to arabic language by pressing control+shift and type:
ßíÝ ÍÇáß
It means
How are you? (keef halak)... etc
Ali
Sorry, i think the zone use CHARSET "windows-1256: not "utf-8" therefore i can't type letters in arabic language.
Again, i am sorry.
Ali