Designed primarily to enable blind students to more easily use the Open University's Student Computer Services, a project was implemented to generate computer programs (in BASIC) for a limited configuration microcomputer with synthetic speech as the only output program. Three techniques can be identified with synthetic speech generation: speech-by-rule, look-up tables, and compressed digital speech. To provide a programmer support system that would facilitate the incorporation of synthetic speech output into computer programs, a dictionary/conversion program was developed which replaces PRINT, INPUT, DATA, and string statements in a program written for video display unit output, provides the phonetic commands for a voice synthesizer, and incorporates subroutines to assist blind students in using the program. Essential program subroutines that have been identified include synthetic speech output, repetition of speech output, validation and changing of input data, numeric phonemes, and output of errors. The lack of pitch or speed control limits the speech quality of the voice synthesizer used (which runs on a TRS-80 microcomputer), but its ease of use and relatively low cost compensate for the limited quality. Six references are listed. (LMM)