Tools for reading text aloud aren’t just for persons with disabilities. Anyone who reads or writes online can benefit from text being read aloud. Certainly every time I finish writing an article, I immediately have it read aloud to pick up on any spelling or grammar errors, to listen for proper tone and delivery, and to make sure that the sentences I write actually make sense!
And while Edge has a great feature for reading articles online, and Word can be used to read writing aloud, today we are going to look at a tool that does everything these two apps do plus much, much more.
ReadSpeaker TextAid is a reading, writing, and studying literacy support tool that is absolutely packed with helpful features. It is a web-based browser extension, and it is available for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera One.
Reading text aloud is the main feature of this app, but there’s so many more helpful features to consider:
Copy and Paste – Have text from anywhere read aloud.
Talking Calculator – Reads numbers and calculations aloud.
Text Highlighting – Text from websites, emails, and documents can be highlighted as it is being read.
Document and OCR Reading – Supports scanned documents, images, PowerPoint, PDF, Word and more.
Word Prediction and Auto-completion – Write faster with word prediction and completion.
Highlighter – Manually highlight sections of text.
Download Audio Files – Convert text into MP3s
Text Selection and Word Lookup – listen to specific passages or look up selected words in the dictionary.
Annotations – Add text directly to a document. Fill in blanks to complete assignments or add notes for more context.
Screen Mask and Reading Ruler – This tool focuses on one specific piece or line of text.
Spell Check – A built in spell checker to check your work within the same app.
Dictation – Dictate text directly into your document.
There’s also lots of features for teachers such as exam mode, Learning Management System integration, reporting tools, safety features to ensure confidentiality, and more.
ReadSpeaker TextAid is available on any device that supports any of the major browsers. Pricing starts at around $12 CDN per month for individual subscriptions. To learn more, click here (new window).
This post originally appeared on the AT Help Desk (new window) website.