Hear text read aloud

You can hear full pages read aloud with Chromebook’s built-in screen reader or hear parts of a page, including specific words, read aloud with Select-to-speak.

Listen to all text

To have pages read aloud to you, turn on your Chromebook’s built-in screen reader:

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on Enable ChromeVox (spoken feedback).

Note: You can turn Chromevox on or off from any page by pressing Ctrl + Alt + z. Learn more about how to use the built-in screen reader.

Listen to part of a page

To select specific text on a page to be read to you, turn on Select-to-speak.

Step 1: Turn on Select-to-speak

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on Enable select-to-speak.

Step 2: Select and hear text

Important: Depending on your keyboard, you can press the Search key  or the Launcher key  for some shortcuts. Both keys work the same.

1. To select what text you’d like to hear:
   • Press and hold the Search key  and select a line of text.
   • Press and hold the Search key  and drag the pointer over an area of the screen.
   • ​Highlight the text and press the Search key  + s.
   • At the bottom right, near the time, select Select-to-speak . Then select a line of text or drag the pointer over an area of the screen.
   • On a touchscreen: At the bottom right, near the time, tap Select-to-speak . Then tap a line of text or drag your finger over an area of the screen.
2. Your Chromebook will read the section aloud and each word will be highlighted.
3. To stop Select-to-speak while it’s reading, press Ctrl or the Search key . You can also select Stop .

Tip: With navigation controls, you can pause and play, adjust speed, and skip lines of text.

Highlight or shade background text

If you are using Select-to-speak, each word will be highlighted as it's spoken. You can turn off highlighting, change the color of the highlighted words, or shade the screen behind selected text.

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings  .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on “Select-to-speak.”
6. Select Open select-to-speak settings. Under “Highlighting,” you can:
   • Turn on Highlight each word as it is spoken.
   • Select a color next to “Color for word highlights.” Tip: To get the strongest contrast, we recommend using green or pink, especially if you’re using high contrast mode.
   • Turn on Shade background content: This allows you to shade the whole screen, except for the text being spoken.

Change the language or voice

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," select Text-to-Speech voice settings.
6. Customize your text-to-speech voice:
   • Change the volume: Under the "Speech Properties" section, choose the rate, pitch, and loudness.
   • Change the language: In the "Preferred Voices" section, choose the language you'd like to hear.
7. Choose the type of voice. By default, Chromebooks have 2 speech engines with voices: Chrome OS TTS and eSpeak. In the "Speech Engines" section, select Settings, then choose a voice.
   • Note: Chrome OS TTS voices have a more human-sounding quality and are very responsive when navigating. eSpeak voices have a more computer-generated sound and are available in a wider variety of languages.

Buy personalized voices

You can buy voices through Acapela to personalize the voice that reads text aloud to you on your Chromebook. In addition to the voices available by default, you can choose from 100+ voices and 30+ languages.

1. Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for Acapela TTS Engine. 
2. Select Add to Chrome Add extension.
3. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
4. Select Settings .
5. At the bottom, select Advanced.
6. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
7. Select Text-to-Speech voice settings.
8. Under "Speech Engines," next to "Acapela TTS Engine," select Settings.
9. Select the voice(s) you want to purchase.
10. Return to Text-to-Speech voice settings and under "Preferred Voices," choose the voice you want to use.

Disable Navigation Features

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. Under "Accessibility," select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," select Open select to speech settings.
6. Under “Highlighting,” turn off Enable navigation controls.

Tip: When “Enable Navigation Controls” is turned off, quick access to pause and play, adjust speed, and skip lines of text is disabled.