Exploring the benefits of text-to-speech and speech-to-text tools

There are many situations where text-to-speech and speech-to-text tools can be very beneficial to you or someone you know.

Text-to-speech technology reads text on your computer or mobile device out loud. You may find text-to-speech tools beneficial if you are experiencing eye strain from looking at the screen for too long or have low vision. People who are learning English or are diagnosed with dyslexia or ADHD may find these tools helpful. Others use text-to-speech technology to proof-read their writing by listening to it read aloud. Most text-to-speech tools can read web pages, email, documents (PDF, DOCX, etc.), ebooks and more in natural sounding voices. Many tools have several voices to choose from with gender and accent variations. Reading speed can also be adjusted.

There are many free and fee-based text-to-speech tools – see a list of popular ones on the Assistive Technology page of the Colgate website.

Colgate has licensed NaturalReader to provide text-to-speech functionality beyond what is found in most of the free tools. It has the ability to read text in photos and non-searchable PDFs and to create MP3 files. It is available for use on mobile devices, iOS and Windows computers and as a Chrome browser extension. To request a NaturalReader account or find out more about it, contact ITSHelp@colgate.edu.

Speech-to-text technology, sometimes called voice typing, can be a tremendous time saver if you are a slow typist, have a hand injury or disability or just prefer dictation to typing. To try it out, see a list of free tools for dictating in Google docs, Gmail, and Microsoft Office documents.

Another speech-to-text tool, Otter.ai, can be used to transcribe voice recordings such as interviews or to provide live transcription during in-person meetings or virtual events. If you have questions about Otter.ai or would like to start using it, contact ITSHelp@colgate.edu .

While text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology has come a long way, neither of these technologies is accurate 100% of the time. Some editing may be required when dictating with speech-to-text tools. Likewise, text-to-speech tools may mispronounce words or incorrectly interpret text in images. However, there is no doubt that while these tools may be a necessity for some people, for many these tools offer the potential to significantly improve reading and writing ease and efficiency.