I must confess to generally hating sections entitled “how to read this book” and so I feel that, if I bought it, I should be able to read it any way I damn well please! Nevertheless, I feel some guidelines may be useful. ― Paul Taylor, Text-To-Speech Synthesis
Websites need to be able to produce creative strategies to help keep their visitors engaged. Digital content needs to be accurate, up to date, and interesting. Moreover, its delivery has to speak volumes. The concept of Text-to-speech is not new, but its application helps in addressing challenges in delivering content to a wide array of audiences. The Text-to-speech solution allows any digital material to have its own voice regardless of the medium (application, websites, ebooks, online documents). This is a winner solution to those visually impaired, and those challenged with reading. It is important to highlight that these are not the only benefits of the Text-to-speech technology.
So here are some reasons why Text-to-speech is useful and why we need it.
1. TTS provides an easy access to digital content for those with visual impairment.
Visual impairment makes our capability to process written content very difficult. By enabling TTS, you allow your content to be easily accessible by people who are visually impaired, and are having difficulties reading large amounts of text.
2. TTS caters to more audience with language proficiency issues.
TTS delivers assisted language learning. This is useful when you need your content to be understood by non-native users of the language. The use of highlighted text assisted with TTS helps in the process of learning a new language.
15-20 percent of the worldwide population has some form of learning disability. In addition, only around 86% of the US population has advanced reading skills. TTS lets the user to easily follow along the content while their device reads the text out loud.
3. TTS caters to the growing aging population.
Almost 60% of senior citizens use the internet in the US alone. Enabling content to be read out loud makes for a better user experience.
4. TTS caters to those who need to be mobile.
Convenience is key. People can listen to digital content on the go.
5. TTS allows more flexibility for the content owner.
The traditional voice-enabled sites use a combination of audio recording to make the website read its content. With new TTS platforms, content creators can easily update the content without having to code and restructure the synthesized speech. The speech is updated as the content is updated.
The internet has its ways of inundating people with new information daily. This is why your digital content needs to be dynamic and accessible. Enable TTS on your website and help change the way your audience experience your content. Let your website read out loud to you.
