Text to speech tools

Access digital writing/ Audio supported reading:

Screen Readers for vision impaired students:

Screen Reader options for the blind by AFB

JAWS is a screen reader and keyboard-only navigation tool for the Windows platform.

NVDA is a free Windows OS screen reading option (open source)

Seeing AI app iOS and Android. A free app that narrates the world around you, including PDFs, pictures, and videos. Designed for the low-vision community, this research project harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text and objects.

Text Readers for students with visual access:

Chromebook apps and extensions for students with dyslexia by Call Scottland

Android TTS (Select to speak) has features to control speed, pitch of speech as well as type of language.  

Audiobooks app (free on iOS)

Bookshare Reader free Bookshare tool. Doesn't allow bookmarking, but provides synchronized highlighting, modified fonts, voice options. Available online, iOS and Android. 

Bound app (iOS and soon on Google play) to read audiobooks on your device, download books from Dropbox into the app, allows use of bookmarks. $3.99

Capti Voice for Windows, iOS and online. Offline and online reading support tool for education, work, and entertainment. Capti makes it easy to create playlists with textual content to have them narrated by high quality text-to-speech in over 20 languages, improve vocabulary, and develop active reading strategies, offers easy access to OCR for digitizing PDFs and images to make them accessible, contextually-aware reference tools for vocabulary building, active reading tools. Pricing

ClaroPDF- an iOS and Google app that converts pdf and pictures of paper documents (worksheets!) into readable and workable text. $6.99 with 5,000 credits included. $4 for 5,000 additional credits (1 credit per OCR page), has free, limited version (only works for PDFs, has 50 optical character recognition credits).

Claro ScanPen OCR Reader- Android and iOS app that provides OCR capabilities. Free first 10 scans to try, then $9.99 per year for Premium features

ClaroSpeak is a text to speech and writing app available for iOS, Android and in the Chrome browser as a Google App, but is also available for Windows 10. It is free and can read PDFs and other documents, but has a synthesized voice. It allows for text customization and has an integrated word prediction program with voice feedback while writing.

Dolphin Easy Reader- free iOS/ Android app, 30-day free trial for Windows, then $55. Browse & download from the World's largest collection of talking book and newspaper libraries including Bookshare. Open & read books from your device, email or the cloud. Or copy text from anywhere on your phone & hear EasyReader read it back to you. Experience perfectly synchronized text & audio. Or for text only titles, EasyReader can add a human sounding voice of your choice. Boost comfort or contrast - choose colors, text size and highlights to suit your visual needs. Navigate your books or newspapers by skipping directly to specific pages or headings. Search your book for words or phrases. Add text bookmarks or record your own audio bookmarks and return to them with ease. 

Go Read for Android FREE accessible ebook reader for people with print disabilities. Go Read is directly linked to the Bookshare library, letting you find, download, and read Bookshare books within seconds. You can use Go Read with or without TalkBack and enjoy reading Bookshare books with useful features that make reading accessible to people with visual, physical and learning disabilities. 

Google Play Books & Audiobooks  free Android app syncs across all devices that you have connected to your Google account 

Google Supports for Reading and Writing (PDF)

HelperBird is available as Chrome, Edge, and Firefox extension, Docs and Slides Add-on, as iPad app, and for use on websites via widget. Has some free features, $6.99/mo for Pro or $99.99/mo for unlimited licenses. Pricing info. Very similar features to Read+Write and Snap+Read available.

iBooks - iOS app pre-installed on most iOS devices. With iOS Speech Accessibility Settings on: content is highlighted by words, sentences, or both; sentence highlight style is by underline or background color; multiple word and sentence highlight colors; multiple voices (Alex is the most natural sounding); font size options; search text; bookmark; add notes; navigate by contents, bookmarks, and notes 

Immersive reader on Windows 365 OneNote- free with Windows 365 (free for students and teachers). Tools that reads text out loud, break it into syllables, and increase spacing between lines and letters. Color code nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. 1,3, or multi-line focus, Can adjust font size and style, background and font color. Included picture-dictionary. Built-in translator. Adjust speech speed, male and female synthesized voice. Has OCR function built-in.

Kurzweil is an online program that gives students with reading difficulties/ ELL/physical disabilities access to common core curriculum. Requires Windows operating system.  Features: 31 Natural Text-to-Speech voices, Text-to-Speech in 18 languages and dialects, Customizable reading rate and presentation, OpenDyslexic font and Text magnification, OCR-highest accuracy in reading aloud, Magnify text, Keyboard shortcuts, Read text in Word, PDF, EPUB, RTF, Daisy, and on the Web, Read locked text in PDFs and images, exactly as they appear, Access to over 1,800 classic literature texts, Create MP3 files and add to iTunes Playlist, Resume Reading brings opens the exact page you were last reading, Ensure reading and test-taking integrity—now even faster—with Dual Zone Editing, Use Page Range to bring in select pages or chapters into the online library, Read aloud basic math with Talking calculator, Change background and text color.

Libby  free Android application to manage the content you borrow from public libraries. You can use more than one library card, and all the content from different libraries will appear in the unified, user-friendly library. Most importantly, if your connected libraries offer audiobooks, you can borrow them just like ebooks. And you can play them within the app.

MyDys- OCR capable app for iOS or Android. 30 free credits each month, then purchase if more needed. Has several features such as text customization (choice of font, size, spacing of characters, lines, and words), highlight confusing letters and numbers, vocal synthesis, color customization, text translation in 21 languages.

Natural Reader  is a text to speech tool available for all platforms (iOS and Android apps, chrome extensions, online version and downloadable) free online for 20 minutes per day and for limited downloadable version. Apps are free for basic version, upgrades are $0.99-$9.99

Prizmo Go- free iOS app with OCR feature, voice over abilities (so easy to use for students with vision needs), text capturing

Read and Write has multiple access features (text to speech, speech to tecxt OCR option, hover speech, text simplification, picture and word dictionary, highlighting and collection of highlights , practice reading, screen masking, translation, vocab lists.). All features are free for teachers indefinitely, 30-day free trail for students, then only basic features like text to speech available for free (list of free features)- available as on-screen keyboard for iOS and Android, as Chrome extension usable on Chromebook, Windows and Mac systems.

Seeing AI app iOS and Android. A free app that narrates the world around you, including PDFs, pictures, and videos. Designed for the low-vision community, this research project harnesses the power of AI to describe people, text and objects. It does a nice job reading inaccessible text aloud, even for sighted students.

Snap and Read for iOS and Google Chrome. It reads both accessible and inaccessible text aloud, it levels vocabulary, and it translates, delivering usage data to teachers who then can more easily assess students’ reading needs individually. It now reads math, has picture dictionaries, definitions, and removes distractions $4.99/month with educators and parents getting free access with student enrollment. 

SnapType Pro 2 ($49.99) by SnapType for iOS, free for basic version (up to 3 documents on app), allows taking a picture of a worksheet and typing/voice typing/stylus writing onto document, then share via various platforms. Has OCR feature and provides text to speech option.

Speak it- Google Chrome Extension that reads accessible PDFs! Free

Speechify- AI-powered OCR capable reading tool, available as Chrome Extension, Edge add-on, Web-based, Android or iOS app. FREE for up to 3 documents loaded at a time (need to delete if you'd like to add more) with limited voices, the paid version has high-quality, natural-sounding voices. Can read neatly written handwriting and inaccessible PDFs!  Integrates into browser with extensions/ add-ons.

Text Fairy- free Android based OCR app, TTS, edit/share/export as PDF

Open Lore Windows based reads electronic text and e-books (ePUB and DAISY formats) out loud using text-to-speech (TTS) with synchronized word/sentence tracking. The software provides a user configurable library, voice and visual tracking settings, dictionary, and custom background appearance. $19.99

Voice Dream Reader for iOS. Pull in text/books from Bookshare and various other sources. Pause, rewind, change speed, finger-read. Change font, size, spacing, color for optimal readability. Highlight and take searchable notes. Speed-read. Finger Read. Synchronized highlighting. $79.99 annual subscription.