The article will deal on richness, speak, speak-numeral, speak-punctuation and speech rate properties of aural media. It is indeed almost impossible to include good aural media if these properties or a number of them are not included in the codes that influence the sound file of the web document.

These properties especially the speak, speak-punctuation and the speak-numeral properties control the very important aspect of aural media—to render certain content aurally or not. The richness and the speech rate properties on the other hand determine the quality of sound file to be played.

Richness property

This property specifies the richness, or brightness of the speaking voice. The possible value or “number: is between 0 to 100 and the greater the value the richer the sound becomes.

Speak property

This property tells whether text will be rendered aurally. If the content is to be played manner this property will also tell the browser in what particular manner the file should be rendered. The possible values are:

• none: Suppresses aural rendering so that the element requires no time to render.
• normal: Uses language-dependent pronunciation rules for rendering an element and its children.
• spell-out: Spells the text one letter at a time .

It is important to remember however the difference between an element whose ‘volume’ property has a value of ’silent’ and an element whose ’speak’ property has the value ‘none’. The first takes up the same time as if it had been spoken, including any pause before and after the element, but no sound is generated. The latter requires no time and is not rendered.

Speak-numeral property

This property tells the browser how numerals are to be said. The possible values are:

• digits: Speak the numeral as individual digits. Thus, “237″ is spoken “Two Three Seven”.
• continuous: Speak the numeral as a full number. Thus, “237″ is spoken “Two hundred thirty seven”. Word representations are language-dependent.

Speak-punctuation property

This property specifies how punctuation is spoken. The possible values are:

• code: Punctuation such as semicolons, braces, and so on are to be spoken literally.
• none: Punctuation is not to be spoken, but instead rendered naturally as various pauses.

Speech-rate property

This property tells the speaking rate. Note that both absolute and relative keyword values are allowed. The possible values are:
• number: Specifies the speaking rate in words per minute.
• x-slow: Same as 80 words per minute..
• slow: Same as 120 words per minute .
• medium: Same as 180 - 200 words per minute.
• fast: Same as 300 words per minute.
• x-fast: Same as 500 words per minute.
• faster: Adds 40 words per minute to the current speech rate.
• slower: Subtracts 40 words per minutes from the current speech rate.

Tags: Aural Media: richness, speech-rate and speak properties