Lab-Aids is proud to offer ReadSpeaker text-to-speech and translation. With ReadSpeaker, users can listen to an audio version of Lab-Aids online content, translate text and audio into 27 different languages, and utilize additional features to aid students in reading online. ReadSpeaker is available for all Lab-Aids online books.

  • No downloads or plugins required.
  • ReadSpeaker is not currently offered in the Windows or iOS apps. It is only offered when accessing the portal from a browser.  
  • Languages currently offered: 
Arabic German Latvian Spanish
Chinese (Mandarin) Greek Norwegian Swedish
Danish Hungarian Polish Thai
Dutch Indonesian Portuguese (Brazil) Turkish
English Italian Portuguese (Portugal) Ukrainian
Finnish Japanese Romanian Vietnamese
French (France) Korean Russian  

 

Contents:

 

How to Listen: 

Users can choose to listen to an entire page or just a selection of text. Words will be highlighted as they are read (unless disabled in settings).  

1) Listen to the entire page: Click the "play" button at the top of each page to have ReadSpeaker read the entire page.

Two side-by-side examples for Portal 1.0 and Portal 2.0. On each, an arrow is pointing to the "Play" button at the top of the page to the right of the "Listen" option.

2) Listen to only a selection of text: Highlight specific text and click the "Listen" option on the popup menu that appears.  

Two side-by-side examples, each showing a page with some highlighted text. On each, the menu with "Listen" that appears is outlined.

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How to translate:

  • Highlight a selection of text.
  • Click the "Translate" option that appears. Select language.  

Two side-by-side examples, each showing a page with some highlighted text. The "Translate" popup option is outlined and the popup showing 27 languages displayed.

  • A popup will appear with the translated text. Click through the disclaimer screen. Read the translated text on the screen and click the "play" icon to have the text read aloud to you in the selected language.

The popup screen that appears after clicking "translate". The "I understand" button under the disclaimer is outlined, there is German translated text displayed, and the "play" icon at the top is outlined.

  • Customize audio and text settings by clicking the menu icons at the top of the "translate" popup:
    • Play/Pause, Stop
    • Volume, Reading Speed
    • Decrease font size, Increase font size, Text settings (customize font size, font, text colors, and text spacing)
    • Maximize screen, Close out

Arrows point to four "settings" icons at the top of the "Translate" window and text is added to identify each. The text above explains in more detail.

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Settings and features:

Settings and additional features can be accessed by clicking on the ReadSpeaker menu icon (the icon with three lines next to the "Listen" button at the top of the page). Each feature is explained below:

The options under the ReadSpeaker menu are: Settings, Enlarge Text, Text Mode, Page Mask, and Help.

1. Settings: Personalize ReadSpeaker settings:

  • Text highlighting on/off
  • What to highlight (Word and Sentence, Sentence only, Word only, no highlighting)
  • Word color, sentence color, text color 
  • Automatic scrolling on/off
  • Popup Menu settings
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Text settings icons at the top of the page: Reading speed, increase/decrease font size, text mode settings (font, text colors, text spacing)

Click the ReadSpeaker menu icon (with three lines) to access additional ReadSpeaker settings, explained in text above.

2. Enlarge Text: Text currently being read will be displayed at the bottom of the screen in large font size with each word highlighted as it is read. 

The current sentence is displayed at the bottom of the screen in very large font and each word is highlighted as it is read.

3. Text Mode: View a clutter-free version of the web page with text in your preferred font, size, and colors.

  • Click the icons at the top of the "Text Mode" popup to personalize your text settings.
  • Click and drag the arrow in the bottom-right corner to enlarge the Text Mode screen.
  • While in Text Mode, user can highlight specific sections of text to have them read aloud.

Two examples of Text Mode; one with black text on white background with Arial font, and another with blue text on light yellow background with font type Courier New and additional settings menu opened

4. Page Mask: Dims most of the screen except for a horizontal spotlight bar the user can move up and down to help focus on specific text. 

Two examples of Page Mask; one of Portal 1.0 and one of Portal 2.0. The screen is dimmed except for the bright "page mask" horizontal bar to bring out specific lines of text

The screen is dimmed except for the brighter horizontal Page Mask bar slowly being moved downward to bring out specific lines of text as it is being read aloud

5. Help: Contains additional information for ReadSpeaker features. Open/close the Table of Contents in the top right of the "Help" screen.

Help menu example showing the Table of Contents and the "Text Mode" and "Page Mask" sections.

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ReadSpeaker Keyboard Shortcuts

You can use keyboard combinations (keyboard shortcuts) to activate most features. Each feature has its own shortcut.

  • From the ReadSpeaker menu icon at the top (to the left of the "listen" button), click the "Help" menu for additional Keyboard Shortcut information: 

From the Help menu, the Keyboard Navigation screen provides more information on Keyboard Navigation with ReadSpeaker, how to use them, and some specific examples.

The "Help" menu also contains keyboard shortcuts in italics below the heading for each feature:

Two example keyboard shortcuts are highlighted here, located in italics below the headings for Text Mode and Page Mask.

  • From the ReadSpeaker menu icon at the top, you can change these shortcuts in the "Settings" menu: 
    • Click the ReadSpeaker menu icon (the icon with three lines next to the "Listen" button at the top of the page)
    • Click "Settings"
    • Click on the third settings page for Keyboard Shortcut information.
    • Enable/disable keyboard shortcuts and customize keyboard combinations.

From this screen, user can enable/disable keyboard shortcuts and customize keyboard combinations for specific actions.

 

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Additional Help / Notes

1. Additional help and information for ReadSpeaker features can be found by clicking on the "Help" menu under the ReadSpeaker menu icon (icon with three lines at the top of the page):

Once the ReadSpeaker menu is opened, the "Help" option is found at the bottom.

2. When using ReadSpeaker in Portal 1.0, user can zoom in to make the ReadSpeaker icons appear larger.

  • Zoom in using the "Zoom" icon on the right side of the page. 
  • Then, to click on the ReadSpeaker icons while zoomed, click the "Select" arrow on the bottom right of the page to switch to "Select" mode. 

"Zoom in/out", "Select mode", and "Pan Mode" icons are found on the right side of Portal 1.0 pages. Full text above.

 

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Questions? portals@lab-aids.com

Lab-Aids Portal FAQ Page