Provide pronunciation help on-demand
This feature involves a text-to-speech engine that reads the text on a web page aloud. This may be implemented in a number of different ways – as a built-in text-to-speech reader in the operating system, as downloadable screen reader software that operates on the user’s machine, or as a remote text-to-speech service that receives text online and returns a spoken copy as an audio file.
The way that text is read may vary depending on the implementation and the user group. This approach provides pronunciation help on-demand. This is similar to the feature that reads text when highlighted, but speaks slower or uses human voices to focus on pronunciation of difficult words.
Discussion by Disabilities
This on-demand pronunciation tool can help people with cognitive, language, and learning disabilities to learn the proper pronunciation of unfamiliar or difficult words.
Existing Products
Please note that these products are not necessarily endorsed by RtF, but represent the range of available options.
Many operating systems, including Windows Vista and Mac OS X, include limited built-in screen reading ability that can be used for pronunciation.
Online Pronunciation dictionaries
Please note that these products are not necessarily endorsed by RtF, but represent the range of available options. A few examples of dictionaries with pronunciation aids:
Related Research and Papers
- Interviewing People with Intellectual Disabilities- Prosser, Helen and Bromley, Jo
- Empowering words, disempowering actions: an analysis of interactions between staff members and people with learning disabilities in residents’ meetings- Jingree T., Finlay W.M.L and Antaki C.
- From Bliss Symbols to Grammatically Correct Voice Output: A Communication Tool for People with Disabilities- Olaszi, Peter ; Koutny, Ilouna ; Kalman, Sophia L.
- E-teacher in Inclusive e-education for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities- Bjekic, Dragana ; Obradovic, Svetlana ; Vucetic, Milica and Bojovic, Milevica
- Sudoku access: a sudoku game for people with motor disabilities- Norte, Stephane and Lobo, Fernando G.
- Serving students with disabilities in distance education programs-Paist, Esther H.