Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text

Besides getting questions about restricting iPads (https://at-udl.blogspot.com/2019/09/restrictions-guided-access-time-limits.html), I also get questions about using text-to-speech and speech-to-text on a variety of devices.
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Speech to Text is a tool, Accessibility feature built into most computers today, that can help these students and many others. It allows a writer to dictate their thoughts and ideas into a document. Many Speech to Text options also allow you to speak the punctuation and a multitude of voice commands for editing purposes.

Google Docs has a built in Speech to Text option called Voice Typing (https://tinyurl.com/y3bmq2pc).

Google offers a fairly comprehensive instructional guide (https://tinyurl.com/y2kgqprh) for Voice Typing. The guide includes a list of languages supported by Voice Typing as well as a list of punctuation that can be voice enabled. The guide also includes a list of voice commands for formatting or editing your document in the sections under “Voice commands”. There are also some troubleshooting tips located near the end of the guide.

Because Google is available across platforms (Mac, PC...) I suggest using Voice Typing to anyone needing Speech to Text.

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Text to Speech can be used to help with reading and writing. Text to Speech can be a useful tool for struggling readers, English language learners, or readers with dyslexia as well. It can be used by students and teachers.

On a Mac, follow these directions (https://tinyurl.com/y2nkcety) to enable Text to Speech.

PC's currently do not have a text reader, only a screen reader. This can also be used to listen back to text but is designed to help visually impaired individuals navigate a computer and is therefore less "user friendly".

Chromebooks now have a built in text reader that they call select-to-speak. This can be found in the Accessibility Features of the device, if yours is compatible. I have found 2 tutorials to help you enable this feature.
Turn on Chromebook accessibility features (https://tinyurl.com/n8yk4zq) will take you to written instructions.
How to use Select-to-Speak on your Chromebook (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gz4lXWDzTQ) will take you to a video tutorial.