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Text-to-Speech
For struggling readers, having text read
aloud often provides relief from focusing on
the sounds in the words so that more energy
can be devoted to understanding the ideas
behind the text. Free technology tools that
turn ordinary written text into the spoken
word are available. This software is
commonly referred to as Text-to-Speech, or
TTS.
Text-to-Speech on the Web
One of the most convenient ways to have web
information read aloud is to use a TTS
program that lays on top of or is fully
integrated into your web browser. This means
that TTS is available on every web page no
matter where you browse, no need to copy and
paste or leave the web browser to hear the
text.
ClickSpeak – For Mozilla's FireFox (MAC
or PC)
http://clickspeak.clcworld.net/downloads.html
CLiCk, Speak is a simple, mouse driven
program that works with Mozilla's FireFox.
Download the CliCk, Speak add-on and its
added to your FireFox browser as a new tool
bar. Highlight the text you want read and
click the speak button. CliCk, Speak
highlights the text as it speaks. It has
several voices to choose from and comes with
multilingual support, which could be
beneficial for students learning a foreign
language who need to hear their foreign
language web sites read aloud.
NaturalReader -PC
www.naturalreaders.com/
NaturalReader reads text directly from the
web and can be used as a desktop TTS reader.
When reading on the web, launch the
NaturalReader Miniboard (Pict #1) from the
Windows Taskbar. Highlight the portion of
the web page text you want read and click
the play button. NaturalReader reads the
text aloud, no need to copy and paste into
new reader document. The Miniboard also
reads whatever has been copied to the
clipboard, making reading inside office
documents such as MS Word possible.
NaturalReader can also be used as a
full-document reader. The document reader
works best when trying to read large
portions of text. It also provides
additional support features such as
highlighting each word as its read.
NatualReader's biggest appeal is its ability
to convert text into clear, natural sounding
voices.
Desktop Text to Speech
Although not as convenient as web based
programs, desktop TTS programs are more
commonly available and offer features most
web based programs do not.
Tex-Edit Plus - Mac
www.tex-edit.com/
Tex-Edit Plus is an open source text editor
that adds additional features to Apple's
bare-bones SimpleText word processor. It's
simple interface makes it easy to use for
beginning TTS users. Tex-Edit uses the Mac's
built-in speech synthesizer to read text,
but can be used in conjunction with new more
natural voices.
http://www.cepstral.com/
Please Read PC
www.readplease.com/
The free edition of ReadPlease 2003 supports
all Microsoft and AT&T natural voices. It
reads text copied from any program such as
email, word processor, spreadsheet or any
web browser. ReadPlease offers several voice
choices and two unique slider tools that
allow the user to quickly adjust font size
and reading speed. (Pict #2) To use
ReadPlease, locate the text you want read,
copy it to the Windows clipboard, launch
ReadPlease, paste the text into the
ReadPlease window and press the play button.
This is one of the easiest and most reliable
text-to-speech programs free to download.
Its a great place to start.
Reading in PowerPoint Slides
Power Talk - PC
http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/
PowerTalk turns any PowerPoint presentation
into an accessible, engaging slide show.
PowerTalk uses the standard synthesized
computer voices provided in Windows or any
of the new natural voices to speak the
slide's text as it appears in your
presentation. This is a great tool for
students to use when reviewing teacher
created PowerPoint slide shows.
Text on the Go!
Text Reader - Mac OS X
www.codepoetry.net/projects/textreader/
Text Reader turns a plain-text file into an
audio file that can be saved in your
documents or exported to an iTunes playlist
that ultimately winds up on your iPod. With
Text Reader, you can listen to your text
anywhere! It's easy to set up the export
default so that all the files you create
automatically get exported to one iTunes
playlist. Although it doesn't come with too
many voice options, you can adjust the voice
rate and pitch before it’s saved.
Adjusting the Text Presentation
Sometimes students struggle with text
because there's too much text on a page, the
font size is too small or the lines of text
are too tightly spaced on the page. Several
freeware tools can be used to help present
the text in a more user friendly way.
Vu-Bar 4
www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm
Vu-Bar provides the reader with an
on-screen, adjustable, slotted ruler. Set
the width and font size of the opening so
that only one line of text, or small chunks
of text are readable at a time. This tool is
great for students who often skip lines when
reading or need a more focused guide on a
text cluttered page.
WordFlashReader
http://wordflashreader.sourceforge.net
This is an essential program for readers
who have difficulty with visual
discrimination, eye control, visual tracking
or who find the text on a standard web page
just too overwhelming. WordFlashReader works
by flashing each word, or chunks of words
from the text sequentially onto the screen.
It chucks words based on the structure of
the sentence and inserts logical pauses
based on text punctuation. The background
color, font size and color and text chuck
size are fully adjustable.
Virtual Magnifier
http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/
Virtual Magnifier is prefect for students
with low vision. It provides the reader with
a magnifying glass that follows your mouse's
movement. Move the lens around the screen to
magnify any area of interest. After
downloading, Virtual Magnifier installs an
icon in your system's tray. To use the
magnifier in any program, just left-click on
the icon. Right-click the icon to open the
options menu and adjust the lens width,
height or magnification. This is also a
great tool to use to zoom in on a specific
part of a document or a URL while doing a
presentation! (Pict #5)
Places to find good Electronic Text
Okay, so now you have all of these great
reading tools, but where are the best places
to find good electronic text to read?
Project Gutenberg
www.promo.net/pg/
This is a classic etext site. With over 7000
titles, searchable by author or title, its
hard to beat. Project Gutenberg store
electronic versions of books in the public
domain from authors like Shakespeare, Jack
London, Lewis Carroll and and Edgar Allen
Poe. These etexts are available in the
simplest form, “Plain Vanilla ASCII”, making
them compatible with 99% of the software
used around the world. Simple search for the
book you want and click on the link to open
a plain text version of the book.
Net Trekker d.i.
http://mi.learnport.org
One of the best resources available to
Michigan teachers is Net Trekker d.i.,
available through Michigan LearnPort. It has
a deep educational database of research
articles and websites that can be searched
by subject, title, author, language,
Michigan's Grade Level Content Expectations
(GLCE), reading level and much more. When
logged in, you can conduct a search, edit it
and save it to you file for later reference.
Net Trekker is filled with all kinds of
teaching resources, lesson plans and
reference materials. It even has a built in
text to speech reader that reads aloud any
text document in Net Trekker.
The Digital Book Index
www.digitalbookindex.org/
This site is a portal to other etext sites,
providing links to over 141,000 full-text
digital books from commercial and
non-commercial publishers, universities, and
various private sites. Most of these books,
texts, and documents are available free and
many others are available at very modest
cost. They site provides an advanced search
features author, title, keyword, publisher
or subject.
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