What I Didn’t Know About Text-to-Speech When I Started Using it in University.
This 3-minute video illustrates just a little of what makes reading with text-to-speech (TTS) a distinct reading experience.
Warning: At first, you might find the text-to-speech voice fast and hard to understand. Hang in there. It’s a brief demonstration of a speed a TTS user might use. Within 8 seconds, I open the tool’s settings to change the speed and run a speed test that explains a bit about the text-to-speech tool being used.
Throughout the video, the text being read by the technology is shown on the screen. If you struggle with the voice and you read by sight, you can follow along with your eyes. You will experience a jarring interruption when a footnote is being read toward the end of the video.
Do you know who uses text-to-speech and audio-supported reading technology? Or how it supports learning?
Text-to-speech technology is used by a diverse community of learners, including:
- people with vision impairments,
- people with visual information processing disorders,
- people with attention-related disabilities who experience mind wandering, and
- people who might be slower at decoding written language than they are at interpreting and understanding spoken language.
Further Reading:
Jackson, R. M. (2021). Audio-Supported Reading for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired. National Centre on Accessible Educational Materials, 19.
Parr, M. (2012). The Future of Text-to-Speech Technology: How Long before it’s Just One More Thing we do When Teaching Reading? Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 69, 1420–1429.
Reflection
What connections did you make between this post and your digital praxis?
What would you like to try doing differently?
Why?
Are you stuck?
What would make this work more accessible to you?
