ReadSpeaker webReader: Text to Speech for Brightspace Content and Assessments

Overview

ReadSpeaker webReader is integrated with Villanova's Brightspace Learning Management System and provides text-to-speech and reading-support tools for online course content. You can use webReader to listen to course content and assessment instructions, highlight text while listening, enlarge text, reduce visual distractions, and customize your reading experience.

ReadSpeaker webReader is designed to support different learning preferences and accessibility needs. Available features may vary depending on the type of content you are viewing.

Requirements

• Access to a Villanova Brightspace course.
• Course content that supports ReadSpeaker webReader.

Instructions

Listen to Content with webReader

1. Sign in to Brightspace and open your course.
2. Navigate to the course page or content you want to hear.
3. Locate the ReadSpeaker webReader toolbar.
4. Click Listen or the Play button to begin reading the page aloud.
5. To hear specific content, select the text you want ReadSpeaker to read and use the available playback option.

Use the webReader Menu

Select the menu icon on the webReader toolbar to access additional reading and accessibility tools.

Available features include:

• Text highlighting: Follow words and sentences visually while they are read aloud.
• Enlarge Text: Display the text being read in a larger format.
• Text Mode: View a simplified version of the page with fewer visual distractions.
• Page Mask: Focus on a section of the screen while shading surrounding content.
• Settings: Customize options such as reading speed and highlighting.
• Download MP3: Create an audio file of supported text for offline listening.

Download Content as an MP3

1. Open the Brightspace content page you want to convert to audio.
2. Open the webReader menu.
3. Select Download mp3.
4. Review the terms of use for downloaded audio.
5. If you accept the terms, select Agree and Download File. Otherwise, select Cancel.
6. Select where you want to save the MP3 file on your computer.
7. Open the saved MP3 file to listen to the content.

Listen to Word and PDF Documents

For supported documents uploaded directly to Brightspace, including Microsoft Word and PDF files, ReadSpeaker uses docReader. When available, open the document and select the docReader option to access its reading tools.

docReader can also use optical character recognition (OCR) to make text in supported image-based PDF documents available for reading.

docReader includes a built-in OCR feature to image-only PDFs into a playable format.

Additional webReader Features

ReadSpeaker includes additional options for customizing how you listen to and interact with course content, including reading settings, language tools, document reading, and other accessibility features.

ReadSpeaker TextAid

ReadSpeaker TextAid provides additional reading, writing, and study tools. TextAid can read uploaded or created documents aloud and includes tools for activities such as annotating documents, dictation, spelling support, and focused reading.

For instructions, visit the ReadSpeaker TextAid Knowledge Base.