Text to speech is one of the fundamental features of accessible design, be it for an app, a website, or software. Far from being a simple library, ResponsiveVoice accessibility features include:
Text to speech support
Its biggest and most important contribution to accessibility, ResponsiveVoice can be integrated with an existing app or website in a number of ways: we have a Voice Agent with a slew of features and a free license that will be enough for most users, an API for power users, and a free WordPress plugin. With this many possibilities, there’s no excuse not to make your website or app accessible!
Keyboard-accessible content
The Voice Agent provides a way to navigate the page so that any individual which experiences difficulty in using a mouse can peruse the content effectively. The page can be navigated with Ctrl + Up and Ctrl + Down, and content will be automatically read out by ResponsiveVoice.
Scenario integration
We have an entire page dedicated to the wonderful invention that is Responsive Design, but let us go through its main points: RD is a way of creating content that makes it objectively better and more open, and it relieves you, the creator, of the huge burden of creating and maintaining ten different versions of your content, each one for a different device. With the integration between ResponsiveVoice and Chat Mapper, Chat Mapper scenarios now offer voice over on any device, incorporate all the features you have on desktop, and are designed to create a consistent experience for all users.
Audio Descriptions
ResponsiveVoice provides audio descriptions for all content – text, links, buttons, menus…everything.
Lastly…over 50 languages!
One of the biggest hurdles for text to speech is the fact that it’s usually available only for major languages. Needless to say, that flies directly in the face of accessibility, which is why ResponsiveVoice comes with support for more than 50 languages in a variety of voices, both male and female. Not only that, many of its voices support rate of speech and pitch adjustments, so that even more voices can be created! Content must be accessible to all, and giving a voice to everyone is the first and most important step we took in this direction.
