Text to speech for dyslexia: hear the words as you see them
Speakybara reads the text on your screen aloud and highlights the word being spoken, so reading becomes less decoding and more understanding.
A page from a scanned textbook, a long email, an error message inside a screenshot. Press the hotkey, drag a frame around the text and press Enter: it starts reading and the highlight keeps pace. Too fast? Turn the speed down. Missed a sentence? Click it and it comes back.
Why does reading take so much energy with dyslexia, and what does reading aloud change?
With dyslexia a large part of your attention goes to decoding the letters, and less is left for what the text says. When you hear the words while you see them, the voice does the decoding and you can stay with the meaning.
It is not about reading faster, and it is not a treatment: Speakybara does not diagnose anything and does not teach reading. It reads aloud what you point it at, and for many people with dyslexia that makes a long text a lot less heavy.
It runs from the tray or the menu bar and shows nothing until you ask it to, so in a classroom or an office nobody notices it.
- The thirty-page PDF for tomorrow
- The email you have started three times
- The subtitle that is already gone, or the text inside a picture
How do you get Speakybara to read a text aloud?
Press the hotkey, drag a frame around the text in any program, and press Enter: it starts reading, and there is nothing to select or copy first. Turn off Frame stays after dragging under Settings › Capture and it starts the moment you let go.
Speakybara is a free app for Windows and Mac that turns any part of your screen into text you can listen to or copy. It reads the screen, not the program, so it also works where copying cannot: a scanned PDF with no text layer, a photo of a page, an image in an email, a paused video.
Text you have already copied is read with one other hotkey, without pasting.
- One hotkey: frame the text, press Enter, and it reads
- Works on scanned PDFs, photos and screenshots
- Reads copied text without pasting it anywhere
How do you follow along while it reads?
The read-along window highlights the sentence being spoken and the words turn white as they are said. On the screen itself a yellow highlight moves over the part you framed, even when you scroll.
That keeps eye and ear on the same word. Lose the thread and you click a sentence in the read-along window, or a highlighted word on your screen, and reading continues from there. With the previous-sentence, next-sentence and ten-seconds-back buttons you can hear a passage as often as you like.
- The sentence highlighted, the words turning white as they are spoken
- A yellow highlight on the screen itself, scrolling with you
- Click a sentence or a word to continue from there
- Previous sentence, next sentence, ten seconds back
Can you change the pace and what you see?
Yes. Speed runs from 0.8x to 1.75x and a change takes effect straight away, even mid-sentence. You choose how much you see: the full window, a compact window, a subtitle bar or audio only.
A dense paragraph goes on 0.8x; a familiar text on 1.5x. The subtitle bar shows one line along the edge of your screen, in a font size you set yourself. If you only want to listen, nothing is shown at all.
- Full window with the sentence highlighted
- Compact window in a corner
- Subtitle bar, with an adjustable font size
- Audio only
Can it make a difficult text simpler?
Yes. Frame the text and choose explain or summarise. You get the simpler version or the short version, read aloud the same way.
Explain rewrites a dense paragraph in plainer words. Summarise gives you the gist of a long piece before you read all of it. Translate and improve writing sit in the same menu, useful when you write something back.
These run on your own AI key, or on a local model you install yourself, such as LM Studio or Ollama. None of it is needed to have text read aloud.
- Explain — plainer words for a dense paragraph
- Summarise — the gist before you read the rest
- Your own key, or a local model on your own computer
Is this a dyslexia suite, or a medical tool?
Neither. Speakybara is a read-aloud tool: it reads the piece of screen you point it at, on request. It does not diagnose, does not treat and does not replace reading support.
If you need more than reading aloud — spelling help, word prediction, study tools, a complete literacy suite — Kurzweil, Read&Write and ClaroRead do more than Speakybara. Speakybara is the small, free tool for that one moment: this piece of text, now, read aloud.
NVDA, Windows Narrator and VoiceOver on the Mac drive the whole computer by voice, for people who are blind. Speakybara sits next to them, not instead of them.
- No diagnosis, no treatment claim
- A companion to a dyslexia suite, not a replacement
- If your school or employer can fund assistive tools, it is worth asking
Where does my text go, and what does it cost?
Recognition happens on your own computer, and Speakybara is free to download and use. Text only leaves your machine if you pick an online voice or an online AI, and by default the image stays on it.
By default, Speakybara sends your screen nowhere. The capture is recognised by the text recognition already built into Windows or macOS, on your own computer. Choose an online voice and the sentences go to the service behind that voice, such as Microsoft or Google, to be spoken; the image does not. Explain and summarise with an online AI send the text to that AI. The local voice (Piper) works fully offline. The one exception is off unless you switch it on: with Explanations may look at your screen and an online AI, asking for an explanation of a step sends a picture of your screen to that AI.
Speakybara does keep a list of what you have read, as text, on your own computer, with a small preview image of each capture, so you can find a passage again later. You can switch the history off in the settings, and the preview image off on its own.
Free means the local Piper voices, which come with the app on Windows and are a one-time download on a Mac, the voices built into Windows or macOS, the free Microsoft Edge voices on Windows, or Google's voices with your own key. Speakybara Complete is the same app for a yearly fee: we run the Google voices for you, so there is no Google Cloud project or billing to set up yourself. Nothing is locked or watermarked in the free version.
- Free — local Piper voices, offline, no account
- Free — Google or Microsoft voices with your own key
- Speakybara Complete — we run the Google voices for you
How to have a text read aloud instead of decoding it
- Select — press the hotkey and drag a frame around the text, in any window.
- Listen — press Enter and it starts reading; the highlight follows the words.
- Repeat — click a sentence or a highlighted word to hear that part again.
FAQ
Many people with dyslexia find that hearing a text while the words are highlighted makes reading lighter, because the voice does the decoding. That is a plain reading-and-working effect, not a medical claim; Speakybara does not replace treatment or reading support.
Yes. Speakybara reads the screen, not the file, so a scanned page with no text layer, a photo, a screenshot or a paused video work just as well as an ordinary website.
Yes. Click the sentence in the read-along window or a highlighted word on your screen, or use the previous-sentence and ten-seconds-back buttons. Speed goes from 0.8x to 1.75x.
Yes. Speakybara reads 35 languages, with a voice per language, and detects most of them by itself, per selection and per sentence. On Windows it goes down to the word: an English term in a Dutch sentence is pronounced in English, by the same Piper voice.
Yes. Downloading and using it costs nothing, with the local Piper voices or with Google or Microsoft voices on your own key. Speakybara Complete is an optional yearly plan where we run the Google voices for you; the app itself is the same.
More on text to speech software for dyslexia
People arrive here searching for text to speech for dyslexia, dyslexia reading software, read aloud software for dyslexia, free text reader for Windows, or dyslexia software free — different words for the same moment: hearing a text instead of decoding it letter by letter. Speakybara covers that one moment, works in any program and alongside the tools you already have, and is free for Windows and Mac.
Try it on the next text you have to read
Free for Windows and Mac. A local voice works straight away, with no account and no card. Add your own Google key later if you want the higher-quality voices.
Download for Windows and MacLast updated September 17, 2026