7 Text-to-Speech Tools for Dyslexia
The written world can sometimes feel like a maze with Dyslexia. Endless walls of text and tricky words. Here is where text-to-speech tools have a glorious entry.
These miraculous bits of modern tech breathe life into written content. Those intimidating walls of text transform into audio companions with just a few clicks. Suddenly, comprehending documents, websites, books, and more becomes as easy as listening to a friend.
We rounded up 7 of the best text-to-speech tools for the Dyslexia community.
#1 Speechify
A Body-Double Outloud Reading Bestie
Fun Fact: Did you know a lot of entrepreneurs have Dyslexia? Cliff Weitzman, the founder of Speechify, took his dyslexic brilliance to the next level with this AI tool.
Dry reports, wordy emails, or literary epics? Speechify offers a dedicated AI companion to vocalize any written content you throw its way, like a personal reading assistant on your call 24/7. It works at your pace: add pauses and adjust pronunciations of tricky words. Production studio and accessibility suite rolled into one.
Features:
- Select from a catalog of more than 200 AI voices
- Choose from more than 20 languages and accents
- Add pauses and improve pronunciations for smooth listening
- Create audio for videos, slides, and images
- Upload .txt, .docx, YouTube links or paste text
Free Trial: Yes.
Pricing: Free plan with 10 minutes per month of voice generation. Premium from $69 per month.
Pro Tip: Personalize your experience. Select from 200 AI voices across more than 20 languages and accents.
Best For: Anyone who wants to transform reading into a naturalistic audio playback.
Available: Browser extensions, iOS, Android
📽️ Learn more in the following video:
#2 iListen
Create Summary Playlists from Text
Are you a busy professional or an academic always on the go? Keeping up with lengthy articles, blogs, or web content can quickly become overwhelming. iListen, the podcast-style text summarizer, will be your new productivity sidekick.
How to use it?
Drop in any URL, and iListen will condense that entire text into a concise, easy-to-digest audio summary. Forget about long-winded intros and filler paragraphs. Get the key insights and ideas only.
Features:
- Generate 50 to 150 podcasts from text per month
- Select between a brief or overview format
- Use with articles, web pages, or longer technical reads
Free Trial: Yes. 14-day free trial.
Pricing: Basic plan starts at $3.99 per month. Premium at $9.99 per month.
Pro Tip: The Chrome extension summarizes your texts in a single click. You can create custom audio playlists from content and listen to them during commutes or workouts.
Best For: Anyone. Students, academics, and professionals can benefit from creating podcasts and getting productivity with a twist.
Available: Online, Chrome Extension
#3 MurfAI
Voiceover Versatility for the Curious
AI is everywhere and a great aid for brilliant minds like yours. For instance, Murf AI is a tool that makes written content more accessible with realistic AI voiceovers.
You can transform text into narrations in a few clicks. The cool part? Over 100 natural voice options across 20 languages.
How to use it? Add your material, pick your voice style and language, and enjoy the results.
Features:
- Choose from more than 100 AI voices with natural inflections
- Select from 20 languages for global inclusivity
- Enjoy varied voice styles from lively to formal
- Download unlimited voiceovers
- Integrate with Canva for slide narration
- Get commercial usage rights
Free Trial: Free plan. No credit card is required.
Pricing: Premium plan starts at $23 per month. Enterprise plan at $79 per month. Contact them for a quote.
Pro Tip: Got a presentation to tackle? Integrate Murf AI with Canva to get voiceovers for slide presentations.
Best For: Corporate workers looking to get professional and accessible voiceovers.
Availability: Browser
📽️ Watch a video review here:
#4 NaturalReader
A Faithful Voice for Any Format
NaturalReader is a two-decade pioneer reliable solution for transforming written text into spoken format without drama with millions of users.
The app converts documents, ebooks, PDFs, web articles, and over 20 files into naturalistic audio files or real-time speech through your computer. You can edit pronunciations using a mini-board to read other applications’ text, handle ePub formats, and more.
Features:
- Convert any text or document into natural-sounding voices
- Use with PDF, Docx, and text documents
- Convert screenshots of text from eBook apps into audio files
- Transform text into mp3 files for Windows or Mac
- Adjust reading margins to skip reading from headers and footnotes
- Manually modify the pronunciation of a specific word
Free Trial: Free version.
Pricing: Personal plan starts from $99.50. Professional from $129.50. Ultimate from $199.50. OR one-time payment for the desktop version.
Pro Tip: The free version gives you unlimited use of NaturalReader’s high-quality AI voices and basic controls.
Best For: Professionals. People working on a computer who need to read long-text documents in PDF, Microsoft software, or ebooks
Available: Online, Desktop*
*They recently released a mobile AI app for converting text to speech. Learn more here.
📽️ Check out how this tool works in the video below:
#5 TextAid by ReadSpeaker
Assistive Tech for Literacy Support
Do you want to take the reading aid everywhere? ReadSpeaker’s TextAid is an assistive technology that makes text accessible via audio. Tech like TextAid is the extra confidence you may need.
Get motivation for your reading tasks. The text-to-speech solution is ideal for multi-sensory learning with natural-sounding voices for turning brilliant dyslexic minds into confident and autonomous learners. Incredible, right?
Features:
- Select from more than 50 languages and 200 voices
- Follow highlighted synchronized text for reading reinforcement
- Get on-the-go translation and narration
- Customize reading masks to reduce visual distractions
- Download audio files for offline listening
- Use form-reading mode for accessible form-filling
Free Trial: No.
Pricing: Individual pricing is as little as $4 per month.
Best For: Educators, students, auditory learners, and organizations advocating for inclusivity.
Pro Tip: Got an ADHD diagnosis? The tool is a win-win. Use the reading masks to prevent extra distractions and create the best learning environment.
📽️ Get a quick tour of TextAid here:
#6 Snap&Read
A Web Comprehension Sidekick
It is 2024, and a lot of the information you need online is still written in websites, documents, and PDFs. That is why Snap&Read shines.
The browser extension adds an entire toolkit of literacy support directly to your internet sessions. Virtually capture text from any webpage or document and activate read-aloud, translation, vocabulary simplification, and even OCR capabilities with just a couple of clicks.
It is the Robin to your Batman when browsing online sources.
Features:
- Have your text read aloud for better comprehension
- Screenshot OCR and simplify text icons
- Translate from English into other languages
- Capture what you read to use later in an outlined format
- Read the web and use all these tools in PDFs
Free Trial: No.
Pricing: Requires quoting.
Pro Tip: Are you a student? Snap&Read lets you compile selections across multiple sources into a cleanly formatted outline for studying.
Best For: Professionals, parents, and teachers. Read diverse content, protect your kid’s privacy online, or monitor your student’s progress.
Available: Chrome, Safari, Edge
📽️ Learn how to use it in the video below:
#7 Lexie
A Customizable Reading Friend
You know. Text display is crucial for dyslexic comprehension. The solution? Lexie is a multiplatform reading app designed to improve text formatting for an easier experience.
How? Load any ebooks, documents, web articles, or other digital texts. Lexie lets you fully customize everything from font and spacing choices to reading ruler guides and text-to-speech preferences. Take advantage of special features like syllable breakdowns.
Features:
- Take pictures of any printed content and re-arrange them
- Combine texts and notes from different sources to create learning notes
- Follow the text with the text-to-speech note reader
- Order your files in the online library available on all your devices
- Use eBooks, PDFs, Word documents, and more
- Customize every text to the smallest detail
- Read effortlessly using the OmoType font system
Free Trial: Yes. Free basic features, and 30-day free trial for the Personal plan.
Pricing: €9 per month or €89 per month
Pro Tip: Are you the parent of a dyslexic child? Lexie comes pre-loaded with kid-friendly libraries of stories and books to explore with accessibility-minded settings already applied.
Best For: Parents, teachers, and therapists looking for a reading-friendly solution for dyslexic children.
Available: iOs, Android
Points of Action
- Test all the tools that offer a free trial or version to make your life easier: Lexie, NaturalReader, Murf AI, iListen, and Speechify.
- Do you have a reading you have been postponing? Turn it into a podcast with a tool like iListen.
- Personalize your next literary reading experience with your preferred voice with tools like Speechify.
- Ease your reading everywhere by using a dyslexia-friendly font with Lexie. Make use of space adjustment and other features too.
- Read more AI Tools for Dyslexia here.
Key Takeaways
- Tech is a friend. Text-to-speech tools are here to help you and be a companion on your reading adventures.
- There is a tool for everyone. Each tool offers specific features proper for different people, for instance, TextAid is great for educators, and Lexie can be your child’s best option for fun books.
- TextAid by ReadSpeaker is the most affordable tool on the list. They also claim on their site to be the cheapest option.
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. Please consult with a licensed professional when in doubt. Lexicminds is not liable for actions taken from this page.