Who uses text to speech?

Government organisations use text to speech to help achieve compliance with guidelines to improve accessibility. Text to speech is used in conjunction with other accessibility features, such as subtitled video clips, to reach a wider audience.

Government organisations also realised the potential to reach the functionally illiterate through the availability of spoken versions of their web pages and documents. There are 7 million adults in the UK with the reading age of an 11 year old, but they can understand spoken English on a higher level. Spoken documents are the only effective way of communicating with this section of the public through websites.

Spoken websites and documents also benefit recent immigrants, who may have a working knowledge of spoken English, but may still find written English a challenge.

Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) especially charities who cater to clients with visual impairment, or who have dyslexia, will profit greatly from being able to provide webpages and documents that can speak to their clients without the need for expensive software.

Socially responsible commercial organisations can also reap the economic benefits of having more accessible webpages and documents that are faster, better and lighter, and widen their consumer base.