



TextAid by ReadSpeaker: Product Spotlight
By: Gabriel Ryan, School Health Blog Writer and Contributor
Having the ability to access content online can be difficult for many users if the material is too hard to see or the user is not able to read very well. Modern devices have better built-in text to speech features and technology, but these don’t always work across all material a user is trying to access online. I recently learned more about a product called TextAid by ReadSpeaker which was developed to address these challenges and help individuals increase access to text and documents online. I’d like to share a brief overview from ReadSpeaker and highlight some of this products helpful features.
TextAid is a web-based personal literacy support tool that makes it possible for the user to listen to texts and documents using text-to-speech technology in a standard web browser. This software is helpful for individuals with learning disabilities and particularly those with vision impairments or other visual challenges. TextAid works on just about any device, even an old Mac/PC/Chromebook. The latest version of Google Chrome is recommended for best results.
Here are 10 key features about the TextAid:
- Text to Speech – Read text out loud, listen to the whole text or section of text, choose reading speed and add pause between words. Create a downloadable audio file.
- Personalized Text Appearance and Synchronized Highlighting Options – Choose from 5 colors for the text color, 5 background colors, 6 text sizes, 6 fonts, and three line spacing settings for page options. Words and sentences are highlighted as they are read. Seven background colors available for highlighting sentences and/or words.
- Text Editor – Author texts in the text editor which provides text formatting features from the toolbar such as heading levels, bold/italic/underline, text formatting, etc. includes writing assistance such as read back, spellcheck, and word prediction. A user can also use dictation to enter text.
- Save and Reload Texts – Text or HTML content in the text editor can be named, saved to the TextAid library and loaded again in the text editor at a later time.
- Personal Library – Upload documents of various formats from the user’s device, Google Drive, or OneDrive, or from the user’s Book share account.
- Document Navigation and Annotations/Highlighter – User can choose a specific page or go to next or previous page, they can also make notes and add highlights in a document.
- Multiple Languages – User licenses available to support text to speech in over 20+ languages. Content that has been typed or pasted can be translated in the text editor.
- Web Reading – Add a web reading tool to the browser’s bookmarks or favorites to listen to any page on the web. The text will be read out loud and highlighted in the same manner as in TextAid.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – Using third party technology scanned images containing text can be converted to text, which can be read in the same way as other library documents in the text editor or the document viewer (PDF).
- Calculator – Embedded calculator for simple calculations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) the digits, symbols, and calculations are read out loud.
There are also several administrator features such as assigning user roles, licenses to users, grouping users, sharing documents, creating exams, and more.
Tools like ReadSpeaker TextAid help students improve comprehension, increase self-confidence and motivate readers. I have a visual impairment and primarily use text to speech technology. I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about and try TextAid. Getting started took some time for me to learn the features that would support my reading and writing style the best, but once I learned where to find those tools, the features became easier to navigate. I especially like autosave feature when writing and the ability to have the tool read content from a variety of webpages was impressive. I look forward to continuing to learn more ways I can effectively incorporate this tool as part of accessing content online.
Visit the schoolhealth.com website to learn more information about the ReadSpeaker TextAid.
What are your thoughts about this topic? Have you used this product? What other topics are of interest for consideration for Access Angle? Contact me through email at gryan@scoolhealth.com. I’d love to know how you’ve used information from the School Health Access Angle segments.