Online Readers for Macs

Tip:
With Mac OS X (10.3.1) or later

  1. Go under the Finder menu (apple on far left)
  2. Select System Preferences.
  3. Click on Speech.
  4. Select Spoken User Interface in the box.
  5. Choose the Set Key command in order to select the key combination that will result in selected text being read. (Command plus L works.)
  6. You can also select Default Voice to change voices and rate of speech.

On earlier Macs, a free utility, HearIt provides the same functions.

Another Mac option is the shareware talking word processor, TextEdit Plus, which has the advantage of highlighting each word as it is read.

Submitted by:Lisa Wahl, Consultant
Julie Duffield, Research Associate, San Francisco CA
WestED's Technology to Support Diverse Learners site

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