STONE DEAF PILOTS – the deaf technology blog. A blog by Kathryn Hill about deaf technology, assistive technology, and tech-related accessibility issues faced by the deaf and hard of hearing.

Due to my deafness, I speak with a speech impediment. Most people can understand my speech fine when they interact with me in person, but I think that if they could not see my face and listened to a recording of my voice, they might not understand me so well.

I wanted to be able to offer podcasts to accompany my blog posts to help make everything more accessible, but I don’t feel confident enough in my speaking pronunciation to do a podcast on my own. So I started googling for text-to-voice podcasting services, and came across Odiogo, which does this service – for free. From their website:

Check out our automated podcast “to go”: your site’s RSS feeds, text articles and blog posts can be converted automatically to iPod-ready audio files ready to download and play anywhere, anytime, on any device.

I registered with the service, and it immediately created podcasts of my text posts. I don’t have to notify the service when I update my blog; it’s subscribed to my RSS feed and finds new posts as they come in. I don’t have to install any software; I simply just keep on blogging, and Odiogo will provide podcasts of my blogs.

I had a hearing person listen to the podcasts for me, and he said that the voice transcription was very accurate and extremely understandable.

This is a good option for people with speech impediments to help their blog or news service reach an even wider audience. I’ve added the Odiogo icon to the top of all my posts; if you prefer to receive my posts as podcasts, simply click on the button and subscribe to my Odiogo feed – there’s no charge.