What is a Screen Reader?

Screenreaders provide text-to-speech functionality. Readspeaker is now integrated into Canvas, which means that you can listen to any content in Canvas by activating the Readpseaker button, located at the bottom of the page. (NOTE: It does not read text in documents, like Word files, PDFs, or other files and external URLs)

Readspeaker provides assistance if you have trouble reading text online. By having the text read out loud to you, you can understand the information on the website more easily. This makes the content more accessible and the website more pleasant to visit. As a user you don’t have to download anything.

How to use Readspeaker in Canvas

The ReadSpeaker listen icon will appear in the bottom left of the course window. To activate, click on the button and move it to any point on the page. An audio player appears (see image below).Click LIsten and ReadSpeaker starts reading the text of the webpage out loud. Highlight text and Readspeaker will begin reading the highlighted portion

Screenshot of the control panel

In the player you can:

Move the player up and down
Read about the Listening service
Pause/restart the reading
Stop the reading
Use the progress bar to navigate in the audio
Adjust the volume
Close the player

Readspeaker settings

Select Settings (click on small wheel to right of speaker in the audio player) to adjust reading speed and customize text highlighting.

Screenshot of the control panel