08/01/2015 Dyslexia And Text-To-Speech

The word dyslexia is derived from Greek, it translates as “difficulty with words”.

Dyslexia affects an individual’s learning, such that they may struggle in areas such as reading, spelling, writing and speaking. The British Dyslexia Association found that 10% of the current UK population has dyslexia.

This is where text-to-speech comes in to its own, it can act as an assistant to those who suffer from dyslexia and be part of their reading, working and learning processes. Quite often dyslexic learners find it easier to process information through listening. CereProc's advanced text-to-speech technology which sounds realistic and at a high quality. The user is able to enjoy listening to long text without having to deal with the repetitive and robotic drone traditionally associated with lesser-quality artificial voices. CereProc offers a wide range of regional accents, allowing users to select the voice that will be perfect for them.

CereProc text-to-speech voices act as high quality replacement to the default voice provided by a device, therefore once it has been purchased it will automatically appear in the default system. As the voice has no dedicated interface, a third party software will be required such as Balabolka. This is a free software where users can use it for various tasks such as basic text-to-speech, reading ebooks as well as creating audio files. A very useful tool for who those have dyslexia.

CereProc have worked with Jisc and Call Scotland to provide high quality natural sounding voices to schools in England (Jess and Jack) and Scotland (Heather and Stuart). Check out if you are eligible for these voices here.