Performance of Videotex-to-speech convertor

Videotex is an electronic information service which allows sighted subscribers to access vast amounts of textual information in data bases via the telephone line. Pages of information, called via a keypad or keyboard, are normally viewed on the screen of a domestic television set. A microprocessor-based system which automatically converts Videotex pages to synthetic speech in real time has already been developed; this enables blind people also to access Videotex pages. This paper is a report on the performance of the system when used by both blind and sighted users to access the British Telecom Videotex service (Prestel).