Turn on the Text-to-Speech Tool in Google Docs

If you have a screen reader, you can turn on the accessibility tool in Google Docs to hear your document read to you.

When you open a document in Microsoft Word, you’ll hear “Screen reader support enabled.” You can use the controls for your screen reader or those in the Accessibility settings to listen to the document content. ..

Use Screen Reader for Google Chrome

If you’re looking for ways to make your online experience more accessible, the first place to check out is Screen Reader (ChromeVox) by Google. The tool also comes with Chrome OS, which makes it perfect for text-to-speech on that platform. ..

After you install the add-on, it begins speaking the web page you’re visiting immediately, including the document in Google Docs. ..

To manage the Chrome extension’s settings, select its button in the toolbar and select the Options menu. You can then adjust settings for the voice and mouse actions, as well as review the available keyboard shortcuts. ..

To turn off the Screen Reader, select the toolbar button and choose Manage Extension. Then, disable the toggle.

Use Read Aloud for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge

Read Aloud is a great browser extension that lets you listen to books while you work. It’s free for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

This add-on lets you control when your document plays. To use it, open a Google Docs document and select the Add-on button in the toolbar. Then use the Play button to listen to your document.

When you open a document that has been saved in an extension, you’ll see the highlighted text in the extension window. The top of that window has buttons to pause, stop, go forward, or go back. ..

To adjust the add-on’s settings, select the gear icon. You can then change the voice, speed, pitch, volume, and text highlighting.

Use VoiceOver on Mac

If you use macOS, you can take advantage of Apple’s accessibility feature, VoiceOver. Follow the steps at the beginning of this how-to to turn on the Google Docs accessibility feature. Then, follow these steps to turn on VoiceOver:

  1. Open Google Docs and click on the three lines in the top left corner of the window.
  2. Click on “Settings” in the menu that pops up.
  3. Under “Accessibility”, click on “VoiceOver” and make sure that it is turned on.
  4. To use VoiceOver, press Command + F (or Control + F for Windows users) and say what you want to do. ..

To turn off VoiceOver when you finish, use the X on the top left of the VoiceOver window.

If you have a visual impairment that makes it difficult to read your document, or you want to hear your Google Doc read aloud as you do other things, these text-to-speech options should help.

For more, look at how to use the text-to-speech feature on TikTok.