Dyslexic--best magazine reading app?

[Erin]

We have an ipad, a Kindle Fire and a rooted Nook running Gingerbread. Our options are open.

 

Buck(15) was flipping through Time today (the twin-study in space cover article) and was pondering questions. I asked him if he'd actually read the article and he, embarassed, said no. "It's a 3 page article, Mom."

Less than a page, he's good. Infographics, he's good. But that big wall of text still overwhelms him and he avoids it if it's not a requirement...Even if it's something of personal interest.

 

I said we can get the e-mag version of Time (or anything else we get) and he can use VoiceOver, but he pointed out that "Apple's VoiceOver is just so bad, Mom." which is kind of true. Kindle's text to speech is pretty decent for a computer-generated reader, and VoiceOver is pretty clunky in comparison.

 

What are some other options out there for magazine e-readers?

[Heathermomster]

The Google browser for PC and Ubuntu has a free app called Select and Speak that works by highlighting online text and hitting the play button.  If you have a PC, you could maybe explore this option with an online magazine. 

 

ETA:  Just tried the app over at Time and Road and Track, and it works great with the PC.

[Kanin]

Wow, I just tried Google Chrome's Select and Speak app, and it was awesome! Super easy to use!! Thanks for the tip!

[my2boysteacher]

I hope you don't mind me jumping in, but what magazines do you recommend?  I also have a VSL dyslexic son.  He loves anything technological.  

[PeterPan]

And Heather, since you just got VoiceDream, can you use VoiceDream with other sources or does it ONLY work with audiobook files?

 

http://www.voicedream.com It says here VD can read web pages, Pocket, and Instapaper.  I have no clue what those apps are.  And it lists a bunch of files.

 

The NLS has magazines.  You use their BARD Mobile app with it. That would be humans instead of TTS.  Seems like there might be a lag.  VD/TTS would get it read more instantaneously.

 

Ok, backing up here.  So if VD can read pdfs and web pages, then you wouldn't technically have to be subscribed to LA, BS, NLS, etc. to get value from it, right?  So like I could get VD and it could read these horrible, awful pdfs my poor dh has to read for grad school, right?  Merry Christmas to my man, we need to try this!  Theology Aussie-style!  I've been begging him to use readers and the technology and he's scared.  He does it for some stuff (Audible) and he uses the Siri dictation.  If VD can work for ANY web page or pdf and the voices are superior to anything else, then that would be worth the $20!

[PeterPan]

I'm back!  You buy the Voice Dream app for $10 and load on your device.  Then you go into the settings and can enable it to load files from your other accounts (dropbox, pocket, instapaper, etc.).  It downloads that file and then processes it (during which you must be connected to the internet), and then saves the completed file syncing audio and text to your device. At that point the file works offline.

 

The free Heather voice is INSANELY nice.  My dh is going to be BLOWN AWAY.  Neither my dh nor my dd would be able to understand the Aussie voice, so I'm not sure why it's so popular.  The Heather voice is fabulous, utterly fabulous, with inflection, etc.  Amazing.  And it's $10, not the $20 I thought it was.  I don't know if they dropped the price? I thought I had read it was $20.

 

So yes, I synced some disgusting theology pdfs with crazy archaelogy terms and it just blows through it.  It gets a little crunchy if the pdf (from a prof) had writing and stuff on it.  But as long as it's a nice clean pdf, it seems to read beautifully, just beautifully.

 

So wow, what a solution!!!  

[Heathermomster]

Yes, and VoiceDream works great with yucky, hard to read and scanned ePub (no images) books off of Gutenberg.