Text-to-Speech Devices and Programs

Specialized hardware and software designed to transform text to speech, thereby "reading" printed text, have been touted as essential tools for individuals who have poor word recognition skills or visual impairments. Text-to-speech devices have been available for nearly 30 years. Originally developed to provide print access to people who are visually impaired, devices such as the Kurzweil Reading Machine (developed in 1976) scan printed text and convert it to an electronic form through optical character recognition software. Letters are grouped into words and a speech synthesizer computes the pronunciation of each word based on thousands of rules and exceptions that are programmed into the system. Early versions of these machines were very expensive and not widely available.

Although the principles of operation are basically the same as they were 30 year ago, technology to convert text to speech is now readily available at a reasonable cost. Furthermore, synthetic speech technology continues to evolve and improve, resulting in improved intelligibility. And many products that have text-to-speech function also perform other tasks, such as checking spelling or providing definitions of words.

One type of text-to-speech option is a talking word processor, such as Write:OutLoud (Don Johnston) or IntelliTalkII (IntelliTools). These are relatively inexpensive software packages that can read text entered directly from the keyboard or read into the computer's memory from a text file. Most programs give the user control over the units of text that will be read (e.g., letters, words, or sentences) and highlight words as they are read to help users make the connection between a word and its pronunciation. Talking word processors are designed primarily as writing tools and thus contain a number of features, such as thesauri and spelling checkers, to support students' writing. Most work with standard computer operating systems and do not require any special equipment. The quality of the speech output will depend on the sophistication of the program and the hardware on which it operates.

Text-to-speech capabilities also are available in small, portable, hand-held devices such as the Reading Pen II (Wizcom Technologies). This product has a small screen, several buttons to control operation, and, at its tip, a small scanning device. The user moves the pen over a word or line of printed text and the device displays the scanned word or words on its screen and then "reads" them through its built-in speaker or earphones. The user can also see the word displayed in syllables, hear the spelling of the word, and hear a definition for 200,000 words stored in the pen's dictionary. The device is not recommended for individuals who have low vision or difficulties with fine motor control.