Fire Vox
Encyclopedia
Fire Vox is a free and open source
extension for the Mozilla Firefox
web browser that transforms it into a self-voicing
application. Easy to install and operate, it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It can work independently, or together with screen readers such as Orca
. Since its debut in 2005, Fire Vox has garnered an increasing amount of interest in the accessibility community. It has several features not found in commercial screen readers, such as the ability to handle CSS 3 Speech Properties (resulting in it being cited as "the only implementation of aural style sheets"). It has also received mentions in several articles related to Firefox and/or web accessibility
and even a mention in a techniques document from the W3C. As of February 2007, Fire Vox supports WAI-ARIA
markup for AJAX live regions.
In November 2007, a new version of Fire Vox was released with built in support for AxsJAX
scripts. AxsJAX is a JavaScript framework that injects WAI-ARIA based accessibility into AJAX applications, and these scripts can be used without needing to be added to the web sites directly. These scripts are essentially Greasemonkey
scripts for accessibility.
Fire Vox was last updated August 6th 2008. The version released by Chen is not currently compatible with Firefox 3.6 and higher.
For this reason, Filippo Battaglia at Visilab Research Center of the University of Messina has
released ML-FireVox that is compatible with any version of the browser and that supports
both english and italian voice.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
extension for the Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
web browser that transforms it into a self-voicing
Self-voicing
A self-voicing application is an application that provides an aural interface without requiring a separate screen reader. Self-voicing applications can be an important form of assistive technology, useful to those who have difficulty reading or seeing....
application. Easy to install and operate, it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It can work independently, or together with screen readers such as Orca
Orca (assistive technology)
Orca is a free and open source, flexible, extensible assistive technology for people with visual impairments. Using various combinations of speech synthesis, braille, and magnification, Orca helps provide access to applications and toolkits that support the AT-SPI .The development of Orca has been...
. Since its debut in 2005, Fire Vox has garnered an increasing amount of interest in the accessibility community. It has several features not found in commercial screen readers, such as the ability to handle CSS 3 Speech Properties (resulting in it being cited as "the only implementation of aural style sheets"). It has also received mentions in several articles related to Firefox and/or web accessibility
Web accessibility
Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality...
and even a mention in a techniques document from the W3C. As of February 2007, Fire Vox supports WAI-ARIA
WAI-ARIA
is a draft technical specification published by the World Wide Web Consortium that specifies how to increase the accessibility of dynamic content and user interface components developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript and related technologies...
markup for AJAX live regions.
In November 2007, a new version of Fire Vox was released with built in support for AxsJAX
AxsJAX
AxsJAX is an open source JavaScript library for enhancing the accessibility of Web 2.0 applications. One of the key abstractions that AxsJAX provides to web developers is the ability to cause assistive technology to speak. Although AT do not provide such an interface to web developers, they do...
scripts. AxsJAX is a JavaScript framework that injects WAI-ARIA based accessibility into AJAX applications, and these scripts can be used without needing to be added to the web sites directly. These scripts are essentially Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to HTML web page content on the DOMContentLoaded event, which happens immediately after it is loaded in the browser .As Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web...
scripts for accessibility.
Fire Vox was last updated August 6th 2008. The version released by Chen is not currently compatible with Firefox 3.6 and higher.
For this reason, Filippo Battaglia at Visilab Research Center of the University of Messina has
released ML-FireVox that is compatible with any version of the browser and that supports
both english and italian voice.