Like many assistive technologies aimed at dyslexic readers and those with other print disabilities, vBookz PDF Voice Reader for iOS does not read PDF tags.
Another would be the previously mentioned lack of automatic language switching within a document. The most significant of these is that it resets zoom to fit a whole page into the screen width with each page turn (with or without text-to-speech running). GripesĪlthough this is app is excellent value for money, I do have one or two gripes. Text-to-speech also works in Text mode, and again with optional highlighting and easy control over reading speed. It also changes the font to Dyslexie as well as providing various foreground/background colour combinations of black, grey, white, blue and light yellow. Text mode reflows the text into a single column and strips out any images. Figure 2: “Text mode” with reflow, the Dyslexie font, text-to-speech and colour customisation Reflow, Dyslexie and colour customisation To enter Text mode tap the button labelled “T” above the Play button (it will change to an open book icon). This is similar to both ZoomText and SuperNova’s DocReader modes (but at a fraction of the price). “Text mode”įor those who need a larger text size than the simple zoom facility allows, the app provides a “Text mode”. The zoom facility works much the same as any other: either double tap or pinch to zoom in or out. However, unfortunately, the app is not able to switch automatically between languages within a document. I tested the app using both the English UK and French voices, and both worked well.
In total, vBookz PDF Voice Reader offers 16 language options: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English UK, English US, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese Brazil, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. Figure 1: using text-to-speech in vBookz PDF Voice Reader Language options Options are set by tapping the Settings “tin can” in the app’s Library.Īnother handy feature in this mode is that you can crop the page to avoid reading out loud headers and footers. The speed of reading is adjustable from 100 to 500 words per minute with optional highlighting of each word as it’s voiced. Tap once to toggle text-to-speech on or off. On tapping the middle of the screen a large Play button will appear. The app’s most important features are text-to-speech, zoom and “ Text mode“, which is similar both ZoomText and SuperNova’s DocReader modes. PDFs can be opened from email, or downloaded from Dropbox or Google Drive. It is also a useful tool for those creating accessible PDFs and looking to go beyond simply testing with screen readers. The vBookz PDF Voice Reader app for iOS is specifically aimed at dyslexic readers, but will also be of interest to others with accessibility. 20 December 2016 | Ted Page Low-cost PDF accessibility for dyslexic readers on iOS
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