A speech synthesizer in the Turkmen language has been launched in Turkmenistan for people with visual impairments, who, using text-to-speech technology, have access to texts in the Turkmen language.
This innovative initiative, launched by UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan on World Children's Day, demonstrates the country's commitment to expanding educational opportunities for children and adults with visual impairments.
Dunya is available for free download and installation. It runs on Windows and Android platforms. The program is also available as a special add-on for JAWS and NVDA screen readers. The software for the Android system is available for download on the Play Market platform.
After installing the program, users can adjust their voice pitch, volume, and reading speed. In addition to traditional applications, the Turkmen text-to-speech voice program opens up possibilities for reading e-books, using other existing communication programs, and creating audio recordings from text files.
To mark the launch of the innovative product, an event was held at the UN building, which was attended by users of the new software, as well as representatives of the government, educational institutions and national media.
This achievement was made possible thanks to the active joint work of the Ministry of Education, ATScale Global Partnership for Assistive Technologies, the Society of the Blind and Deaf of Turkmenistan, Louder Pages (manufacturers of RHVoice) and UNICEF in Turkmenistan.
Close consultations with the Society of the Blind and Deaf of Turkmenistan ensured that the special needs of the visually impaired community were taken into account when developing the software, UNICEF said in a press release.