SCREEN READERS

ADOBE READER

Perhaps you need your documents read aloud to you because reading print text is too difficult. Or maybe you’ve just downloaded a PDF file of a book to listen to, but you really want to savor the story and language slowly. Adobe Reader enables you to have your files read aloud and even customize the experience by setting the narrator’s voice and choosing the pace of the reading to best suit your needs.

How to have a PDF read aloud.

Having a PDF read aloud can increase accessibility if you are visually impaired or have difficulty reading the text. Listening to a PDF can also help you multitask. Use Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader app to have the text in your PDF read aloud to you.

Simply follow these steps to have Acrobat Reader read PDF aloud:

Open Reader and navigate to the document page you want to have read aloud.
From the top-left menu, click View, then Read Out Loud.
You can choose to have the whole document read aloud or just the page you’re on.
Select either Read to End of Document or Read This Page Only, respectively.

The reading will start at the page you’re currently on, even if you select Read to End of Document. To start at the beginning, navigate to the first page.

At any point, you can also choose from several options to customize the experience of having your PDFs read out loud:

To pause or stop the read-out-loud function, go back to the Read Out Loud selection from the View dropdown menu and select either option.
To choose your preferred reader voice, go to the top-right menu and click Edit, then Preferences. Choose Reading. Remove the checkmark on Use Default Voice, and finally choose the narration voice you like from the dropdown list.
To adjust the pace of the reading, either increase the Words Per Minute count or lower it, depending on your needs.

Now you can have your PDF read aloud with your unique preference selections.

GOOGLE DOCS, SLIDES, SHEETS

Use a screen reader IN GOOGLE CHROME

If you already use screen reader software on your computer, such as ChromeVox, NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver, follow these steps to get started.

Step 1: Turn on screen reader support

The first time you use Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides with a screen reader, you need to turn on screen reader support:

Go to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, and open a file.
In the Tools menu, select Accessibility settings.
Select Turn on screen reader support.

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