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Improving health literacy: a Web application for evaluating text-to-speech engines.
- Source :
-
Computers, informatics, nursing : CIN [Comput Inform Nurs] 2010 Jul-Aug; Vol. 28 (4), pp. 198-204. - Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- The Internet is increasingly used as a medium for gathering and exchanging health information exchange. Healthcare professionals and organizations need to consider barriers that may exist within their patient-oriented Web applications. One approach to making the Web more accessible for those with lower health literacy may be to supplement textual content with audio annotation using text-to-speech engines, allowing for the creation of a virtual surrogate reader. One challenge is that with numerous text-to-speech engines on the market, objective measures of quality are difficult to obtain. To facilitate comparisons of text-to-speech engines, we developed an open-source Web application that measures user reaction times, subjective quality ratings, and accuracy in completing tasks across different audio files created by text-to-speech engines. Our research endeavor was successful in building and piloting this Web application; significant differences were found for subjective ratings of quality across three text-to-speech engines priced at different levels. However, no significant differences were found with reaction times or accuracy between these text-to-speech engines. Future avenues of research include exploring more complex tasks, usability issues related to implementing text-to-speech features, and applied health promotion and education opportunities among vulnerable populations.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Analysis of Variance
Computer-Assisted Instruction instrumentation
Female
Health Education
Health Promotion
Humans
Internet instrumentation
Male
Middle Aged
Pilot Projects
Vulnerable Populations
Attitude to Computers
Computer-Assisted Instruction methods
Health Literacy methods
Internet organization & administration
Speech Recognition Software standards
User-Computer Interface
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1538-9774
- Volume :
- 28
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Computers, informatics, nursing : CIN
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 20571370
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1097/NCN.0b013e3181e1ddca