Text To Speech Voices
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Text To Speech Robot
“Text-to-speech voices is a tool that is often looked
at for students with disabilities to provide
them independence from having somebody to
have to read aloud for them. And what text-to-speech
basically is, is that you take any type of
digital texts available, and pair it with a
synthesized voice.
Synthesized voices have really come a long way over the years, and it’s a part of our everyday world.
Now, I mean, you can push your text on your
phone and have it read aloud to you.
So that when you’re driving you’re not distracted from that, and you can hear something read.
So it’s a tool that’s really quite ubiquitous
now, but it’s really powerful for students
who are struggling with reading? To be able
to give them access to more complex texts,
to give them access to grade-level texts, that
they might not be able to either decode or
comprehend in written format on their own.
So it’s just a different way to address that,
get to be able to listen to what you’re reading.
And whether it’s the whole thing being read
aloud, or as students encounter a challenging
word to help them be able to decode.
So it’s not an all-or-nothing strategy either.
People know how they could access it themselves
on their phone, but they’re not always thinking
about how they can use that with students.
So they do need to be taught explicitly, and
there are a lot of tools that are out there
that they can use to access text-to-speech.
Sometimes it’s built into some of the web-based
resources that teachers are using, and sometimes
it’s add-ons that you can layer on top of
digital text that’s available.
So tools like Read and Write for Google, tools
like Snap and Read from Don Johnson, you layer
right on top of any digital text that you
have available. But I do find we have to train
teachers how to use it, and give them lots
of opportunities, even to practice using it.
Even more powerful than training the teachers
is going in and training the students.
The Best Text To Speech
And I’ve seen students be very successful in learning
how to use and manage those tools from second
grade all the way up.
So when you train the students, and they don’t
have to rely on the teacher, they are often
a lot more successful.
Our kids are living in a very digital world,
and so these kinds of digital tools are just
a part of their environment.
Teachers are not always quite there yet.
I see that in the classroom all the time,
of a friend leaning over and reminding, “Oh,
you know, did you remember to turn on Snap
and Read?”
Or, you know, asking for help, or even silly
things like, “What voice did you choose?”
And then being able to find the right voice.
Kind of, you know, sometimes that silly voice
is initially appealing, and then they realize,
“Oh, I really need something that’s gonna
be more meaningful to me.”
For more information about effective, assistive, and instructional technology please visit CTDinstitute.org
Funding for this video is provided by the Center on Technology and Disability through a grant from
United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
Thank you for reading this article about text to speech voices technology.
