Text-to-Speech and Line Reader (AMP Only)

AMP customers can enable Text-to-Speech functionality and Line Reader/Screen Masking for both course assessments and managed assessments (AMP) delivered at your organization.

Text-to-speech is available for all AMP customers. If you are not an AMP customer and are interested in text-to-speech for course assessments, contact your Schoology representative to learn more about AMP.
For instructions on how to customize syntax and pronunciation for the text-to-speech reader, refer to Create questions for accessibility (text-to-speech).

Text-to-speech

Turn on text-to-speech

The text-to-speech toolbar, which also includes screen masking (line reader) functionality, is turned off by default on all assessments.

AMP admins can turn on the toolbar for managed assessments from the Settings menu. When this setting is on, any student starting or resuming the assessment will have access to the functionality.
Course instructors or assessment authors can turn on the toolbar for course assessments from the Setup tab. Students starting or resuming the assessment will then have access.

Use text-to-speech

Students can access text-to-speech functionality within the assessment. The toolbar is expanded by default when a student starts the assessment and can be collapsed by clicking the arrow icon.

Text-to-speech functionality showing the toolbar expanded by default.

Toolbar options

Options	Details
Drag handle	Move the toolbar anywhere on the screen.
Pointer	Click the pointer, and then select a location on the page to start reading from that point.
Play	Read from the start of the page or from a selected passage.
Stop	Stop the screen reader.
Pause	Pause or resume speech. Reading continues until the question, or passage with multiple questions, is fully read.
Translate	Highlight a word and click Translate to convert it from English to Spanish. The translation can also be read aloud.
Dictionary	Highlight a word and click Dictionary to display the definition. The definition can also be read aloud.
Picture dictionary	Highlight a word and click Picture Dictionary to display a pictorial definition.
Screen masking (line reader)	Shade portions of the page to guide reading. Refer to Screen masking (line reader) for details.
Magnifying glass	Enlarge text as it is read aloud.
Settings	Customize the text-to-speech experience.
Collapse/Expand arrow	Collapse or expand the toolbar.

Student settings

Click the settings button to display the text-to-speech options that students can modify.

Speech settings for voice speed, text highlight color, and speech mode.

Student text-to-speech details

Settings	Details
Voice speed	Controls how quickly words are read aloud.
Text highlight	Determines how words and sentences are highlighted during reading. Each option uses a background color and a text color. The sentence is highlighted in one color, and the word being read is highlighted in the other.
Text magnifier size	Controls how large the text becomes when the text magnifier is selected.
Speech mode	Determines how students start reading text aloud from any location on the page. When set to click, students click the pointer button and then click the sentence or word they would like to hear. When set to hover, students hover over any text on the page to begin speech after the pointer has been enabled.

The default settings for every student are:

Voice speed: Medium
Text highlight: Yellow and navy
Text magnifier size: XL
Speech mode: Click

Changes to these settings do not persist across student sessions.

Screen masking (line reader)

Screen masking, also called the line reader, is available from the text-to-speech toolbar when text-to-speech is turned on for an assessment or managed assessment.

From the text-to-speech toolbar, click Settings. Select Screen Tools to display the Screen Mask settings.

Use screen masking

To turn on the line reader or screen masking, students click the screen masking button in the text-to-speech toolbar. Then, click the screen masking button again to turn off the screen masking bar.

A practice test with the screen masking option turned on.

Feature interactions

Math equations

The text-to-speech toolbar will correctly read equations entered directly in the rich text editor.

While simple equations, like 2 + 2 = 4, will be read aloud correctly, more complex equations should be entered using the math editor to ensure accurate reading.

A question setup with simple and complex math equations as Options.

To customize how an equation is read, use the math editor in the toolbar.

The toolbar with the math editor option.

From the math editor, you can customize how the equation is read by a screen reader or assistive tool. Select Edit ARIA label and update the label to change is equal to to equal.

The math editor displaying the options to select and change the ARIA label.

Images

Enter Alternative Text in the question editor if you want the image included when text is read aloud.

Embedded images will not be read by screen readers unless alternative text is provided.

The question editor displaying an image and the option to enter Alternative Text.

Use text highlighting with text-to-speech

Students can highlight text during assessments. However, when using the text highlighting tool in conjunction with the text-to-speech tool:

The highlight pen cannot be used on a sentence currently being read aloud with Click to speak (hand icon) or Select to speak (play icon). The sentence will be read aloud when it is clicked.
Using Select to speak (play icon), students can highlight other sentences on the page while a different sentence is being read aloud. This allows annotating previously read text while listening to new content.
It’s best to use either text-to-speech or highlighting at one time, similar to reading and highlighting on paper.

Students should use either text-to-speech or highlighting at one time, just as they would on a paper page, rather than reading and highlighting simultaneously.