Shelydon Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 My high school age DS has used learning ally for the past 8 years, but now we need something that can read documents like PDF and worksheets for one of his classes. I am looking at speechify. But I want to make sure there isn't something free available for us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 We use natural reader. But don't know if it is free or not. It would be nice to have something free! Will look into speechify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 Microsoft puts out products if you have that on your computer. I have used One Note, in which you can upload a document. With that document open, on the View tab at the top, click Immersive Reader just under the View title. Your document opens in another window. It will look a little different and there are options to follow along at the right top. But if you scroll to the bottom, there will be a green circle/play button. Press that and your document will be read. The settings button lets you change voice speed. Microsoft explains more here about other tools, I think added as extensions, which I have not tried yet: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/learning-tools?ef_id=_k_EAIaIQobChMImavE6fOziAMVcA-tBh2oSwdsEAAYASAAEgJJYfD_BwE_k_&OCID=AIDcmmf9ba61yr_SEM__k_EAIaIQobChMImavE6fOziAMVcA-tBh2oSwdsEAAYASAAEgJJYfD_BwE_k_&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImavE6fOziAMVcA-tBh2oSwdsEAAYASAAEgJJYfD_BwE Or I am sure you can find more tutorials on Youtube. I hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 Natural Reader is free for basic, but it doesnt have speed control like Speechify, iirc. Read Aloud and Snap&Read are two others I am aware of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelydon Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 (edited) 22 minutes ago, ***** said: Microsoft puts out products if you have that on your computer. I have used One Note, in which you can upload a document. With that document open, on the View tab at the top, click Immersive Reader just under the View title. Your document opens in another window. It will look a little different and there are options to follow along at the right top. But if you scroll to the bottom, there will be a green circle/play button. Press that and your document will be read. The settings button lets you change voice speed. Microsoft explains more here about other tools, I think added as extensions, which I have not tried yet: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/learning-tools?ef_id=_k_EAIaIQobChMImavE6fOziAMVcA-tBh2oSwdsEAAYASAAEgJJYfD_BwE_k_&OCID=AIDcmmf9ba61yr_SEM__k_EAIaIQobChMImavE6fOziAMVcA-tBh2oSwdsEAAYASAAEgJJYfD_BwE_k_&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImavE6fOziAMVcA-tBh2oSwdsEAAYASAAEgJJYfD_BwE Or I am sure you can find more tutorials on Youtube. I hope this helps! He uses this occasionally, but not sure if it will work for a scanned text book. Edited September 8 by Shelydon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelydon Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 14 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said: Natural Reader is free for basic, but it doesnt have speed control like Speechify, iirc. Read Aloud and Snap&Read are two others I am aware of. Thanks. Speed control is a must, he listens at 2 to 3x speech on everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelydon Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 I just read that speechify limits the words to 150K per month for premium voices, so that is out. I'll post when we figure something out 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
***** Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 Unless he has a newer textbook that can also be viewed online (which I would think would have read aloud options), here is the same question you have: https://www.readingrockets.org/resources/expert-qa/what-options-are-available-audio-versions-textbooks-1 Hopefully someone else will chime in with their experience. We would hope that by now, things would be less expensive in the accessibility realm for textbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 56 minutes ago, Shelydon said: Thanks. Speed control is a must, he listens at 2 to 3x speech on everything It might have it at premium (pay to use) levels—I havent updated my research here in a couple of years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 32 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said: It might have it at premium (pay to use) levels—I havent updated my research here in a couple of years. Yes. With the paid version, one can listen to it at a faster rate. My son said the free version is terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 We use speechify it is easy to use Plus have bookshare . You need a letter from a speech pathologist for bookshare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 I've only skimmed this so far, but have any of you tried any of these with paper textbooks? This would be super helpful for my 8th grader because not everything is available in audiobook form easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 (edited) Speechify works very well with paper texts. That is the primary way my son uses it. It can read a wide range of fonts. Way better than a c-pen reader He uses it on his iPad, speechify takes photos of the page then it reads away. Very user friendly. My son has ID and can use it completely independently Edited September 8 by Melissa in Australia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmandaVT Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 My school district uses the Google Read Write extension and it works pretty well. It will read PDFs, can do speech to text and if I remember correctly, there are multiple voices to choose from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelydon Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 39 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said: Speechify works very well with paper texts. That is the primary way my son uses it. It can read a wide range of fonts. Way better than a c-pen reader He uses it on his iPad, speechify takes photos of the page then it reads away. Very user friendly. My son has ID and can use it completely independently Have you found a problem with running out of words. I'm reading that there is a monthly word limit on speechify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 1 hour ago, Shelydon said: Have you found a problem with running out of words. I'm reading that there is a monthly word limit on speechify. No I haven't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 2 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said: Speechify works very well with paper texts. That is the primary way my son uses it. It can read a wide range of fonts. Way better than a c-pen reader He uses it on his iPad, speechify takes photos of the page then it reads away. Very user friendly. My son has ID and can use it completely independently Natural reader does the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted September 9 Share Posted September 9 With an iPhone, Mac/safari and their native accessibility features, and Microsoft Word (the paid subscription version), we’ve been able to avoid using Speechify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted September 9 Share Posted September 9 5 minutes ago, domestic_engineer said: With an iPhone, Mac/safari and their native accessibility features, and Microsoft Word (the paid subscription version), we’ve been able to avoid using Speechify. I think it greatly depends on the child. If it is just dyslexia with no other disabilities then those options would be terrific The problem with those for my ds was there were too many steps involved. We tried . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelydon Posted September 9 Author Share Posted September 9 Speechify emailed me and and said they have 150,000 word limit. If you email them when you run out they will bump that up to 450,000 words. If I can get a coupon code for 60% off, I'll probably still go ahead and do it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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