The most common advice we give on this forum is to read. The enormous amount of material to get acquainted with can be very overwhelming. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to read on the go?

iPhone/iPad users can modify a few settings so that their device will read for them. Here's how:

  • Go to the Settings app -> General -> Accessibility -> Speech
  • Toggle on "Speak Selection". After reading its short description I also suggest toggling on "Speak Screen", but it is not mandatory. Leave "Highlight Content" and "Speak Auto-text" alone.
  • Finally use the sliding bar between the turtle and rabbit to adjust the rate of reading (I leave the rate pretty low so I can better retain and think through what is being read).

Now the phone is ready to read. There are two options on how to initiate reading:

  1. Highlight and tap "Speak": Open a webpage or word document. Hold your finger down over a word to highlight it, then drag the blue dots to highlight a section of text. You'll notice that the option "Speak" appears. Tap it and you're good to go.
  • Hint: Select a word at the top of the screen, then drag the the blue dot past the top of the page (takes a little finesse, keep trying). This will cause the entire document (or text box) to become highlighted rather than you having to scroll down and highlight every paragraph.
  1. "Speak Screen": As it says in its description, swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. A small black control box will appear and it will automatically start reading the text. Use the forward and backward buttons to skip or review paragraphs. The turtle and rabbit control the rate of reading.

Both methods are easier to use if you press the "Reader View" icon in the upper left corner. If "Reader View" is not available then I favor option 1 (highlighting text) since option 2 (Speak Screen) starts reading the very top of the page which is often a lot of links that you're stuck listening to or using the forward button to get past. If you're reading a document (vs a webpage) then option 2 is preferable since you have more controls available.

Beware, "Alert" notifications will stop the reading if you're using option 1 (highlighting text). Once you've cleared the pop-up you'll have to hit Speak again and you'll find it starts reading from the beginning. This is devastating if you're reading a long document so try to figure out when these Alerts occur and either change them to "Banner" notifications or avoid long documents during these time periods. [I haven't used Speak Screen enough to know if it is affected by Alert notifications in this same way]

I hope this benefits a few of you out there. I find it especially useful during car rides but be sure to only operate the phone at safe times. It's also useful anytime you have a chance to wear ear plugs (working on the house, slow times at the office, lifting, etc.). While I can't seem to get it to work on PDFs, it works well with webpages and should help both beginners and veterans read through our ever-enlarging and quite excellent wiki page.

P.S. - I'm sure Android users and other phones have similar tools. Feel free to give details in the comments.