Text To Speech

Basic Text to Speech (TTS)

A text-to-speech Tool reads digital text to users.

Text-to-speech (TTS) converts text on a screen into speech, similar to an on-the-go audio book. These programs allow people with reading disabilities to listen to written words (such as books, newspapers articles, textbooks) on a variety of devices.

Text to speech that is built into your device or browser

Once you enable TTS or install the appropriate extension, you typically have to highlight the text you want read and choose speak.

Part of your Operating System – computers, tablets, phones:

Mac/iPad – in Settings under Accessibility
- https://support.apple.com/accessibility
Windows – in Control Panel under Ease of Access
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows
Android – Settings – Accessibility – Text to Speech Output
- https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6006983?hl=en&ref_topic=6004781
Chromebook – in Settings under accessibility
- https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/177893?hl=en

Browsers also have it built in:

Safari has great TTS – just right-click after highlighting
Chrome has several free TTS extensions – click on Window then Extensions then Add Extensions
Firefox -Add Extensions -Text to Speech
Explorer – No plugin but can use Windows accessibility options (see above)

We have one app that is specially designed for TTS use that we highly recommend:

Voice Dream – available for iOS and Android (so tablets and phones)

control over how much text you see
control highlight amount, color and background
multiple fonts including Dyslexia
compatible with the best voices, multiple languages
can load content from websites, Gutenberg, Dropbox, Google Drive and Bookshare to name a few.
highlighting and annotation available and can be exported