TellMe is an information service targeting blind, deaf-blind and low vision people and people with other print disabilities living in New Zealand. It started out as a telephone-based service, allowing clients to use their telephone keypad to browse and read a wide variety of information. This information is read either by human narrators or a high quality synthesised voice. Nowadays this service can be used through a range of other technologies including an Alexa smart speaker. Using your Alexa, you can browse the same menus in much the same way, choose what you want to read, then listen to it being read to you through your speaker. Here are some of the things you can say: *Open My Information: the skill will identify itself and briefly remind you of the most commonly needed commands.
*begin: the skill will read the highest level menu of choices.
*Resume: the skill will attempt to continue playing the article you were previously reading from where you stopped.
*Play option ...: choose to play the option you want from a menu that has just been read to you.
*Again: have the last menu of options read to you again.
*Go back: go back to and play the previous menu that led to where you currently are in the menu system.
*What's new: the skill will list the articles added or updated on the service in the last couple of weeks, starting with the most recent. You can quickly see if there is anything new you are interested in and choose what you want to hear.
*Play option n n n ...: You can go directly to the article you want if you know its full location in the menu system.
Find "words to search for": the skill will try to match your words against the title of the articles it knows about and play the requested article. If more than one article is found, it will give you a list of the closest matching articles and you can use one of the above commands to make your choice. The skill stops functioning when you are reading an article, but the standard Alexa audio playback commands are available, including play and stop. If the article has multiple sections, usually indicated by headings in the original text, The next and previous commands will take you straight to the next or previous sections of the article.
Also while reading, the cancel command causes playing to stop, and the skill will then restart and play the menu that leads to that article.
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