Have it read out to you
Have any article, email or letter on a screen read aloud in a clear voice, at a speed you choose.
A phone will read anything on its screen out loud, in a voice that sounds like a person reading rather than a machine spelling. It has been good enough to enjoy for about five years now.
People use it while the coffee brews, while the washing goes in, in the car, and at the end of a day when eyes have had enough. It is also the fastest way through a long letter from an insurance company.
Neither of these turns your phone into a talking machine. Nothing is spoken unless you ask, every time.
Key points
- Have a phone read a chosen paragraph, or a whole page, out loud
- Slow the reading voice down to a pace you can follow
- Have any web page on a computer read to you from the browser
- Tell Speak screen and VoiceOver apart, and undo either of them
What to remember
- Spoken content is under Accessibility, and the speaking rate slider matters as much as the switch.
- If a phone starts announcing everything you touch, VoiceOver has been switched on. Three presses of the side button usually turns it off again.
- Read aloud is built into the browser, so there is nothing to install and nothing to set up.
Try this
While you are in an adjusting frame of mind, open Lantern’s own Settings and look at Reading comfort — text size, line spacing and lettering. It only ever affects Lantern, so it is a safe place to find out what actually helps you before you change anything on your phone.
Practice: Have it read out to you. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.