We have updated the Voice4u TTS (Text to Speech) app.

– More control: you can make the keyboard stay on the screen after tapping the “Speak” button.
– Smoothness: the screen became ditchy particularly when the app reads a relatively long document. We fixed this issue.

We would like to take some time to explain what Text to Speech (TTS) is.Voice4u TTS is an app for those who have trouble speaking verbally, and it will speak in your place if you type what you want to say into the app.

So how do you use Voice4u TTS?

There are many ways to use this app. Here’s one for an example form my autistic son who goes to an American college.

In an English class, students are asked to write and to speak in class. Especially in discussion-based classes, you are required to speak within small groups. For my autistic son, speaking at the right moment with his own opinion is a very hard task.

In a discussion-based class, professors or other students will not point at you and tell you to speak. You are usually trying to find the perfect moment or a small moment where you can jump in and you have to talk as much as possible or the professor will say that you are not participating in the conversation. Students become desperate to speak in the class. In this class, my son (who has trouble with speaking verbally,) always has trouble. The plan that he made to get through this problem was to use Voice4u TTS (Text to Speech) and type out what he wants to say and then raise his hand to have TTS peak for him.

Since there’s a group member that is raising his hand, it’s impossible for other members to ignore him. Since everyone will listen to him, my son can his the “Speak” button on TTS and his opinion will be spoken by the app. A group member then agreed and asked how my son felt about the scene. He was able to type and then respond, “I felt very disappointed about it. What do you think?” As you can see, he was able to jump in and join the discussion!

I believe my son spoke a bit more in elementary school. In middle and high school, the problem was his classmates conversations became more complicated. Also, many boys in that age frame tend to speak less and since my son’s mental disability added on to that, this quickened his pace to not speaking at all. By using Voice4u TTS and getting the chance to speak in class, many students have been able to speak with my son with no problem at all. Everyone knew that my son understood what was being said, but he just had problems getting his words out.

My son couldn’t even answer simple questions such as “What are you doing after class?” When he stays frozen trying to process what he want to say, another student will come and ask where his iPad is, and my son will remember to pull out his iPad and will begin to type. Once he can say where he is going, some students will join in or he can catch up with other students who were planning on going to the same place as him. With this, my son has been able to speak with other students without the help of his parents.

The next blog will be on how to write the sentences in English Class.

Note: Voice4u TTS’s standard features are all free. The premium features such as sharing, printing and saving documents can be used after activating the premium plans.