{"id":9608,"date":"2025-03-06T10:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/?p=9608"},"modified":"2025-04-25T12:46:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:46:46","slug":"assistive-technology-at-tools-text-to-speech-on-desktops-and-laptops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2025\/03\/06\/assistive-technology-at-tools-text-to-speech-on-desktops-and-laptops\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistive Technology (AT) Tools: Text-to-speech on desktops and laptops"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This is part four of a series on Assistive Technology (AT) tools anyone can use directly on their devices\u2014no extra download required.<\/em> <em>In case you missed it, the last post was<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2024\/10\/31\/assistive-technology-at-tools-live-captions-in-presentations\/\">Assistive Technology (AT) Tools: Live Captions in Presentations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many platforms offer some version of text-to-speech (TTS) to enhance accessibility, productivity, and inclusion. When people can engage with information in ways that work best for them, everyone benefits. Imagine&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You&#8217;ve been reading from a screen much of the day. You are feeling some eye fatigue and having trouble concentrating, even noticing that common words look odd or are difficult to read. <\/li><li>You&#8217;re preparing dinner, but tapping on your screen and reading the recipe is disruptive while you&#8217;re cleaning veggies, going to the fridge, and slicing and dicing.<\/li><li>You&#8217;ve written an email that is potentially contentious and want a bit of a temperature check and tone check.<\/li><li>You&#8217;ve written a paper and want proofreading help.<\/li><li>You&#8217;re finding it difficult to concentrate on large blocks of text presented to you.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Text-to-speech tools can help you if you&#8217;re experiencing disability or want to increase productivity.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Very important note:<\/strong> Text-to-speech tools are not screen readers. Screen readers are specifically designed for blind folks and allow you to take over your device with specific keystrokes while having all content read to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow the instructions below based on your device and the software you&#8217;re trying to have read to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cRead Aloud\u201d across desktop devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Adobe Acrobat: Read Out Loud<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Select the <strong>View<\/strong> menu,<\/li><li>Select <strong>Read Out Loud<\/strong><\/li><li>Then select <strong>Activate Read Out Loud<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Keyboard shortcuts:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Mac<\/strong>: Shift + Command + Y<\/li><li><strong>Windows<\/strong>: Shift + Control + Y<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Google Chrome: Reading Mode<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Open Chrome.<\/li><li>Go to a website with text that you&#8217;d like to read.<\/li><li>At the top right, select <strong>More<\/strong>, often indicated with three vertical dots.<\/li><li>Scroll down to <strong>More tools<\/strong><\/li><li>and select&nbsp;<strong>Reading mode<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll see a number of options, including a play button to allow for the page to be read out loud to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See: <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/chrome\/answer\/14218344?sjid=4774878734525879971-NA\">Use Reading mode in the side panel | Google Support<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Mac Desktop OS: Speak Screen (in some apps)<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Select the <strong>Edit<\/strong> menu,<\/li><li>Select <strong>Speech<\/strong> (when available),<\/li><li>Then select <strong>Start Speaking<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Mac Desktop OS: Speak selection <\/em>OR<em> Speak item under the pointer<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" id=\"block-61aeb4f3-4fc4-4370-a563-c4fbf3bc095f\"><li>Open <strong>System Preferences<\/strong>. <\/li><li>Select <strong>Accessibility<\/strong>.<\/li><li>Select <strong>Spoken Content<\/strong>,<\/li><li>Then select <strong>Speak selection <\/strong>or <strong>Speak item under the pointer<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Microsoft Office and Edge<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Read Aloud<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Go to <strong>Review<\/strong> menu,<\/li><li>Select <strong>Read Aloud<\/strong> (not available in Microsoft 365).<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Immersive Reader<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Go to <strong>View<\/strong> menu,&nbsp;<\/li><li>Select <strong>Immersive Reader<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Mozilla Firefox: Reader View<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Select the <strong>View<\/strong> menu,&nbsp;<\/li><li>Then select <strong>Enter Reader View<\/strong>.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Keyboard shortcuts:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Mac<\/strong>: Command + Option + r.<\/li><li><strong>Windows<\/strong>: F9.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>See: <a href=\"https:\/\/support.mozilla.org\/en-US\/kb\/firefox-reader-view-clutter-free-web-pages\">Firefox Reader View for clutter-free web pages<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Acknowledgements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This series has been inspired by previous blog posts by Corrine Schoeb, including:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2021\/03\/11\/live-transcription-now-available-in-zoom\/\">Live transcription now available in zoom<\/a><\/em><\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2020\/03\/17\/nvda-simplified\/\">NVDA simplified<\/a><\/em><\/li><li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2020\/03\/12\/voiceover-simplified\/\">VoiceOver simplified<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>and by Swarthmore\u2019s ITS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee\u2019s presentation on disability inclusion and accessibility. Thanks to&nbsp;Mark Davis, Sean O\u2019Donnell<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Ashley Turner,<\/em>&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Doug Willen for the thought and collaboration you put into your presentations, which has inspired this post!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is part four of a series on Assistive Technology (AT) tools anyone can use directly on their devices\u2014no extra download required. In case you missed it, the last post was Assistive Technology (AT) Tools: Live Captions in Presentations. Many &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/2025\/03\/06\/assistive-technology-at-tools-text-to-speech-on-desktops-and-laptops\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Assistive Technology (AT) Tools: Text-to-speech on desktops and laptops<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":9614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,71],"tags":[216,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-9608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-academic-technology","8":"category-accessibility","9":"tag-accessibility","10":"tag-featured","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Digital-Accessibility-Icon.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph2nPL-2uY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9608"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9623,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9608\/revisions\/9623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}