Text-to-speech is a technology that converts written text into spoken words. While it has been used in assistive technology for many years, it is becoming more popular for other audiences who want to consume content in a different way. Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have made text-to-speech voices more realistic and accurate.
If you want your content to be accessible to a wider audience, it's worth considering publishing an audio version alongside the text version. This can make your information more accessible to:
- people who find it difficult to focus on long-form written material
- people who are time-poor and wish to consume content while multitasking
- people who retain information better when they listen to it as opposed to reading it.
In this article, we will explore the benefits of text-to-speech for both readers and content authors, as well as the challenges for implementing this technology in your process. We'll also look at some software for readers and content authors to use text-to-speech.
Text-to-speech in action
You can listen to the audio version of this article by clicking the 'Listen' button at the top of the article.
We also include a 'Listen' button in our Easy Read HTML products. This is especially beneficial for people with low literacy or those who struggle to pay attention to written content. You can view our Easy Read HTML online demo here.
The benefits of text-to-speech
Publishing an audio version of your content can be beneficial for:
- people who find it difficult to focus on long-form written material - for example, people with low literacy or attention difficulties
- auditory learners who find an audio version more engaging and easier to digest
- time-poor people who wish to consume content while multitasking - for example while doing household chores, commuting or exercising.
Content authors can also benefit from incorporating text-to-speech into their workflow:
- It can help you attract a larger readership - there may be people who would not have read the information in its written form.
- You can publish the same content in multiple formats, for example publishing a newsletter as an audio podcast.
Challenges of implementing text-to-speech
Incorporating text-to-speech into your content creation process can be challenging. Here are a few challenges to keep in mind:
- Manually preparing audio versions of content can be time-consuming, expensive and technically demanding. It may not always be feasible to publish every article or webpage in an audio format.
- It may be difficult to set up an automatic process for generating audio versions of your content. This could require a significant investment in software and training.
If you do not have the resources to publish an audio version of every article, you could consider prioritising key pages that would work well in an audio format.
Software and tools for text-to-speech
For content authors, there is a wide range of software products available that can generate audio versions of webpage content:
- Browsealoud and Readspeaker are 2 popular options for adding a 'Listen' button to the top of your website.
- Web developers can work directly with text-to-speech APIs such as the Microsoft Azure AI Speech service, the Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API or the OpenAI text-to-speech API.
For readers, there are a few options for listening to written content:
- Microsoft Edge offers a 'Read aloud' button that will read out the page content. This works on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
- The Safari web browser on iOS has recently added a 'Listen to Page' feature.
- Readwise Reader is a service that allows you to save articles for later reading and its mobile app features a text-to-speech function.
Conclusion
Text-to-speech technology can make your content more accessible to a wider audience. It can also help you attract a larger readership and publish your content in multiple formats. However, it can be challenging to implement text-to-speech into your content creation process. If you do not have the resources to publish an audio version of every article, you could consider prioritising key pages that would work well in an audio format.
Text-to-speech is a technology that converts written text into spoken words. While it has been used in assistive technology for many years, it is becoming more popular for other audiences who want to consume content in a different way. Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have made text-to-speech voices more realistic and accurate.
If you want your content to be accessible to a wider audience, it's worth considering publishing an audio version alongside the text version. This can make your information more accessible to:
- people who find it difficult to focus on long-form written material
- people who are time-poor and wish to consume content while multitasking
- people who retain information better when they listen to it as opposed to reading it.
In this article, we will explore the benefits of text-to-speech for both readers and content authors, as well as the challenges for implementing this technology in your process. We'll also look at some software for readers and content authors to use text-to-speech.
Text-to-speech in action
You can listen to the audio version of this article by clicking the 'Listen' button at the top of the article.
We also include a 'Listen' button in our Easy Read HTML products. This is especially beneficial for people with low literacy or those who struggle to pay attention to written content. You can view our Easy Read HTML online demo here.
The benefits of text-to-speech
Publishing an audio version of your content can be beneficial for:
- people who find it difficult to focus on long-form written material - for example, people with low literacy or attention difficulties
- auditory learners who find an audio version more engaging and easier to digest
- time-poor people who wish to consume content while multitasking - for example while doing household chores, commuting or exercising.
Content authors can also benefit from incorporating text-to-speech into their workflow:
- It can help you attract a larger readership - there may be people who would not have read the information in its written form.
- You can publish the same content in multiple formats, for example publishing a newsletter as an audio podcast.
Challenges of implementing text-to-speech
Incorporating text-to-speech into your content creation process can be challenging. Here are a few challenges to keep in mind:
- Manually preparing audio versions of content can be time-consuming, expensive and technically demanding. It may not always be feasible to publish every article or webpage in an audio format.
- It may be difficult to set up an automatic process for generating audio versions of your content. This could require a significant investment in software and training.
If you do not have the resources to publish an audio version of every article, you could consider prioritising key pages that would work well in an audio format.
Software and tools for text-to-speech
For content authors, there is a wide range of software products available that can generate audio versions of webpage content:
- Browsealoud and Readspeaker are 2 popular options for adding a 'Listen' button to the top of your website.
- Web developers can work directly with text-to-speech APIs such as the Microsoft Azure AI Speech service, the Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API or the OpenAI text-to-speech API.
For readers, there are a few options for listening to written content:
- Microsoft Edge offers a 'Read aloud' button that will read out the page content. This works on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
- The Safari web browser on iOS has recently added a 'Listen to Page' feature.
- Readwise Reader is a service that allows you to save articles for later reading and its mobile app features a text-to-speech function.
Conclusion
Text-to-speech technology can make your content more accessible to a wider audience. It can also help you attract a larger readership and publish your content in multiple formats. However, it can be challenging to implement text-to-speech into your content creation process. If you do not have the resources to publish an audio version of every article, you could consider prioritising key pages that would work well in an audio format.
