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Other Ways to Make Your Computer Talk
This page introduces text to speech software for Windows.
Example software
Text to speech software
Although we have seen how Windows' Narrator (available in Windows 2000 and XP) can offer some speech output to help those with a vision impairment or literacy difficulty, it does not allow for the speaking back of chunks of text in your document or web page.
There are a number of text to speech programs that are either freeware or shareware that allow any text that can be selected with the keyboard or mouse to be spoken back in a range of different voices.
This may be a very valuable facility for someone who needs to give their eyes a rest or who has difficulties with reading.
One such program is ReadPlease. You can download a free copy of ReadPlease here.
There are various speech output software packages that can also be used with your browser (talking browsers), as well as speech output software designed especially for this purpose.
Web based text to speech software
There are two main technologies that enable websites to be read out loud, one is called Browsealoud the other ReadSpeaker, they work it slightly different ways but both need websites to sign up to be 'enabled ' but they are free to web users.
Browsealoud
To use Browsealoud you need to download and install the software, when it is running simply move the mouse over some text on a web page and it is read out, no clicking or selecting of text is required.
To view a list on enabled websites and download a copy of the software visit the Browsealoud website.
ReadSpeaker
ReadSpeaker speech enabled sites have a 'SayIt' button as shown above, when you click on it or 'Tab' to it and press 'Enter' the web page/text will be read out in a new window. Unlike Browsealoud there is no need to download and install software to make it work.
To find out more about ReadSpeaker and view the list of websites that it supports visit the main ReadSpeaker website at readspeaker.net.
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