Not sure about text to speech messaging but when I was at uni a few years ago one of my 'classmates' was dyslexic and he 'read' all the literature online via talking books - very useful in that situation.
It's true. I went to uni as a mature student. My family couldn't afford for me to go when I left school, not in terms of fees because in those days you got a grant to go but in terms of needing me to be in a job earning money to help us out.
It's over the phone. I share a building with a therapist and there's only one landline. This is ok as she gets about 10 calls a day whereas I get about that many in a year. She appears to be getting messages that are converted from sms into something approximating speech. A robotic voice intones a barely intelligible message, it starts as soon as the answering machine kicks in so half of its effort is lost during the outgoing message. It then laboriously goes over the sender's details and repeats the message. Something that could be done in 30 seconds takes about 3 minutes and you're still not certain what you've heard so have to ring back anyway.
This was the same with me - I left school at 16 and took an apprenticeship. My parents could never afford for me not to contribute until my 20's. The only difference is that I never bothered to go to uni afterwards.
It was never part of my plans. My eldest [in 6th form at the time] was keen on learning Japanese or Russian or some mad language at night school - as if he didn't have enough to do. Hope Uni were running evening classes free so we went along to the open evening to sign him up. He didn't fancy it when he looked around but I somehow managed to get talked into signing up for a BA. Honestly, despite being the eldest there [including the tutors] I loved every minute of it. I would never have coped at 18 though.
Alexa, how do I bring a multinational tech company and online retailer to its knees? Alexa? Alexa, who are you whispering to?
I imagine it would go like this. Rhc:. Alexa, you're a gobshite. Alexa:. I'm sorry I don't know that. Rhc: Alexa, you ****stain Alexa: I'm sorry I don't know that. Rhc: Alexa **** you you knobhund Alexa: placing an order for 20 pizzas from Pizza Hut.
