Text to Speech in Education: ReadSpeaker, Free TTS, or Both?

Around the world, more than 1 billion people (opens in a new tab) have disabilities. That includes 7.5 million (opens in a new tab) U.S. public school students, a full 15% of these learners. Many of these disabilities make reading a serious barrier to student success: vision impairments, dyslexia, specific learning disabilities (the most common among U.S. public school students), and more.

This is why assistive technology like text to speech (TTS), software that reads written language out loud, is essential for any educational endeavor, from the elementary school classroom to e-learning courses to corporate training.

At ReadSpeaker, we’ve been developing high-quality TTS voices and tools for well over two decades. Digital accessibility was our founding mission, and we continue to specialize in TTS-based assistive technology for the education field.

But ReadSpeaker’s TTS solutions aren’t free, and you can find free text to speech just about anywhere these days. Both options have their place. But which is right for your school or training program?

Here are the comparative benefits of ReadSpeaker’s education-enhancing text-to-speech software and free TTS technology, along with a few use cases for each.

Comparing ReadSpeaker Text-to-Speech Tools with Free TTS

Both ReadSpeaker TTS tools and their free counterparts provide an audio alternative to written text. They help with online learning, in-class assignments, assessments, studying, research, and any other learning task that involves digital content. The similarities end with these use cases, however.

Here are nine key areas of differences between ReadSpeaker and a free TTS system:

1. Delivery options. Most free TTS services are streaming tools; they only work online. ReadSpeaker offers TTS education tools that run online as well as on your desktop, server, mobile app, or any device. That makes these tools more accessible for diverse student populations.
2. Integrations. ReadSpeaker offers seamless TTS integrations for every major learning management system (LMS), plus assessment and corporate learning platforms. They provide support for students and educators as well as content providers, curriculum designers, and publishers. These integrations ensure that reading, writing, and studying tools are available where students learn, for all learning content. ReadSpeaker TTS tools remove the barrier of opening new apps or tabs, while creating a dependable cross-platform user experience. Free TTS can’t do the same.
3. Voice quality. In TTS as elsewhere, you get what you pay for. The quality of a free TTS voice is usually much lower than ReadSpeaker’s. We use the latest speech synthesis technology, including AI voice, to develop high quality, lifelike voices that students enjoy. We even offer human-like custom voices to match your brand.
4. Ease of use. Free TTS can be hard to install. It can also be hard to use. Paid tools like ReadSpeaker offer a better user experience thanks to continual re-investment in user interfaces and software design. This continual improvement is downright essential for TTS as a legally required accommodation.
5. Pronunciation accuracy. Natural-sounding voices aren’t the only way to deliver a great learning experience. You also need a TTS engine that can pronounce every word perfectly. That’s tough in corporate and education contexts, where you might have a lot of jargon, acronyms, and proper nouns, and free TTS providers won’t tweak their software to support your unique use case. ReadSpeaker will. In other words, ReadSpeaker’s speech scientists offer ongoing pronunciation support, and free TTS services don’t.
6. Customer support. With free TTS, you’re on your own. ReadSpeaker doesn’t just offer TTS tools; we create ongoing partnerships to support your digital accessibility strategy for the long haul. We’ll help with LMS integrations, pronunciation correction, troubleshooting, and whatever it takes to help your students get the most out of TTS.
7. Language inclusion. Free TTS providers may offer a few major world languages. This majoritarian focus leaves speakers of less widespread languages behind. It simply isn’t commercially viable for a free TTS provider to support Welsh, Basque, or Afrikaans (all of which are available from ReadSpeaker). At ReadSpeaker, we’re devoted to language justice. That’s why our TTS products support more than 50 global languages and dialects, including isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, and Xitsonga, with more always on the way.
8. Related learning tools. Along with industry-leading TTS, ReadSpeaker solutions offer a suite of reading, writing, and studying tools. These include text resizing, text-only mode, simultaneous TTS and word-highlighting, and focus tools like page masks. This variety supports the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which recommends personalized engagement for each and every student. You won’t find this level of service from a free TTS tool. (play video)
9. Pricing. Free voice technology is cheaper than ReadSpeaker’s tools. Or is it? Once you factor in set-up and integration costs, a “free” solution may end up quite expensive indeed. Plus, many “free” TTS providers severely limit service below their paid tiers. Meanwhile, ReadSpeaker offers flexible pricing models, from annual licensing fees to character-count to individual education licenses.

As this list illustrates, the strongest benefit of free TTS is that it’s, well, free.

As we mentioned, however, you can’t always trust that claim. Many TTS tools that purport to be free offer severely limited access before prompting you to “buy” characters or pay for an audio file.

In the era of voice AI, there are also ethical issues to consider when choosing a TTS tool. All AI voices are based on human voice recordings; the voice actors who make those recordings have rights.

At ReadSpeaker, we work hard to protect all our stakeholders, from voice talent to customers to your end users. We negotiate fair contracts with voice actors to produce our AI training data, and we can show you those receipts.

If you find a particularly lifelike free TTS voice, odds are it’s based on a human speaker. Ask if that speaker has signed off on this use of their voice. If the TTS provider can’t tell you, it’s best to steer clear.

That’s not to say that there’s no place for free TTS in your assistive technology toolkit. You may find TTS built into an operating system like Microsoft Windows, Android, or iOS. It’s debatable whether these tools are “free” (after all, you paid for the device!) but it’s undeniable that they can make content more accessible.

If you’re an educator, administrator, or school accessibility officer, however, text to speech from ReadSpeaker is your best bet. Contact us today for a free quote.