One of the core challenges of using voice control software and a screen reader at the same time is that your screen reader's spoken words will end up giving your computer orders. 

Headphones are the most obvious solutions to this, but what if you hate headphones with the firey passion of a thousand ear-infections?

With two years of experience customizing Talon Voice Control under my belt, I set out to figure out how to let NVDA talk to me, have Talon voice control listen to me, and have Talon ignore NVDA. 

The solution is straight out of my childhood, and the game Simon Says.  The game Simon Says is simple: if the person giving orders starts their order with "Simon Says," you do whatever they say.  "Simon says jump?" you jump.  "Simon says touch your toes?"  You touch your toes.  "Jump?"  You don't jump, because the person didn't add the magic keywords 'simon says' to the beginning. 

Aegis, the developer of Talon, wrote a customization for it that has talon ignore everything you say unless you say 'listen' first.  Adding this customization, and a couple of other tweaks, means that my dream of interacting with a computer the same way they do on star trek is now my reality- and you can listen to me doing it for half an hour while going through "Basic Training for NVDA Chapter 3, Getting Started With Windows"  here:

https://youtu.be/TI7m049FgtE

 

In this podcast I start learning how to use NVDA with Talon Voice Control. I have my phone read out loud Basic Training for NVDA Chapter 3 using the Start Menu, and I do all the activities it recommneds- but instead of using hands to press keyboard shortcuts, I use voice commands via Talon Voice. I made this to prove to myself that it is possible to make using a screen reader and using voice commands at the same time, without headphones, can be a usable and somewhat pleasent experience. I have to make three modifications to make it so: There are three (four?) voices in this podcast: mine, as I give Talon commands, make commentary, and explain things, The windows OneCore voice "Microsoft David" that reports items on my window's machine , and my iphone's VoiceOver voice English(UK) Daniel (enhanced). The fourth voice is occasional meows from the cat Hot Chocolate who also walks across the keyboard at one point.

 

1. I set up Talon voice control so that, on startup, it will go into sleep mode. This is important because in sleep mode Talon ignores all voice commands. This is very important if you are running a screen reader, because the screen reader's speech will be interpreted as voice commands by Talon unless you turn Talon off.

2. In sleep mode, I created a command so that Talon will wake up and run exactly 1 command after it here's the word 'listen,' and then go back to sleep. This is the feature that makes it possible to have a screen reader read me a book and report everything a screen reader reports, and have Talon ignore everything the screen reader says. It's ignoring it because nothing the screen reader says starts with 'listen.'

3. In talon, I made a command so that NVDA will stop speaking if I hiss at it. Talon recognizes sounds a lot faster than words, and hissing at it triggers the 'stop' command ore reliably than a voice command like 'stop', which also has to compete with the screen reader's voice. Noises are shorter and are responded to faster. With this setup, I can read a manual on how to use NVDA- and do it all without hands and without needing to look at a computer screen.

This is pretty neat! Thanks for documenting it so well.

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One of the core challenges of using voice control software and a screen reader at the same time is that your screen reader's spoken words will end up giving your computer orders. 

Headphones are the most obvious solutions to this, but what if you hate headphones with the firey passion of a thousand ear-infections?

With two years of experience customizing Talon Voice Control under my belt, I set out to figure out how to let NVDA talk to me, have Talon voice control listen to me, and have Talon ignore NVDA. 

The solution is straight out of my childhood, and the game Simon Says.  The game Simon Says is simple: if the person giving orders starts their order with "Simon Says," you do whatever they say.  "Simon says jump?" you jump.  "Simon says touch your toes?"  You touch your toes.  "Jump?"  You don't jump, because the person didn't add the magic keywords 'simon says' to the beginning. 

Aegis, the developer of Talon, wrote a customization for it that has talon ignore everything you say unless you say 'listen' first.  Adding this customization, and a couple of other tweaks, means that my dream of interacting with a computer the same way they do on star trek is now my reality- and you can listen to me doing it for half an hour while going through "Basic Training for NVDA Chapter 3, Getting Started With Windows"  here:

https://youtu.be/TI7m049FgtE

 

In this podcast I start learning how to use NVDA with Talon Voice Control. I have my phone read out loud Basic Training for NVDA Chapter 3 using the Start Menu, and I do all the activities it recommneds- but instead of using hands to press keyboard shortcuts, I use voice commands via Talon Voice. I made this to prove to myself that it is possible to make using a screen reader and using voice commands at the same time, without headphones, can be a usable and somewhat pleasent experience. I have to make three modifications to make it so: There are three (four?) voices in this podcast: mine, as I give Talon commands, make commentary, and explain things, The windows OneCore voice "Microsoft David" that reports items on my window's machine , and my iphone's VoiceOver voice English(UK) Daniel (enhanced). The fourth voice is occasional meows from the cat Hot Chocolate who also walks across the keyboard at one point.

 

1. I set up Talon voice control so that, on startup, it will go into sleep mode. This is important because in sleep mode Talon ignores all voice commands. This is very important if you are running a screen reader, because the screen reader's speech will be interpreted as voice commands by Talon unless you turn Talon off.

2. In sleep mode, I created a command so that Talon will wake up and run exactly 1 command after it here's the word 'listen,' and then go back to sleep. This is the feature that makes it possible to have a screen reader read me a book and report everything a screen reader reports, and have Talon ignore everything the screen reader says. It's ignoring it because nothing the screen reader says starts with 'listen.'

3. In talon, I made a command so that NVDA will stop speaking if I hiss at it. Talon recognizes sounds a lot faster than words, and hissing at it triggers the 'stop' command ore reliably than a voice command like 'stop', which also has to compete with the screen reader's voice. Noises are shorter and are responded to faster. With this setup, I can read a manual on how to use NVDA- and do it all without hands and without needing to look at a computer screen.