Week 1 · Theme 1 Role of ICT in Our Lives, Lesson 1 Explorer in Action · 3 lessons
2
Screen readers and speech-to-text
ICT P6 Term 1, Theme 1: pp. 8–13
GoalDescribe how a screen reader and speech-to-text work and who they help.
New words
screen reader · a program that reads the text on a screen aloudspeech-to-text · technology that shows spoken words as written texthearing impairment · difficulty hearing sounds and speechsocial impact · the way something changes people’s lives together
Explanation
A screen reader is a program that reads aloud the text on a screen. It can read only real text. A photo of a page is just a picture, so a program first has to turn the picture into text. Then the screen reader can speak it. Speech-to-text works the other way. A microphone hears the voice, and a program turns the words into text on the screen almost at once. For a person with a hearing impairment, this is very useful on a phone call: the words of the speaker appear while the speaker is still talking. If the person also finds speaking aloud difficult, they can type, and the program reads the typed words aloud to the other person. The other person does not need any special tool. This has a strong social impact, because people can join in conversations, lessons and jobs. It also helps everyone: you may read subtitles on a noisy bus or dictate a message when your hands are full.
Tool
It starts with
It ends with
Helps
screen reader
text on a screen
a voice
people who cannot see the screen well
speech-to-text
a voice
text on a screen
people who cannot hear well
text-to-speech
typed words
a voice
people who cannot speak aloud
Worked examples
Farida speaks→program writes the words→grandmother reads them
Farida’s grandmother has a hearing impairment. On the phone, Farida speaks and her grandmother reads the words on her screen at once. She no longer has to ask Farida to repeat.
Mina types→program speaks→teacher hears
Mina finds it hard to speak aloud. He types ‘May I ask a question?’ and the program says it in a clear voice, so the teacher hears him.
Adel scans a photo of a page. The screen reader says: ‘There is no text on this page.’ Why? The photo is only a picture of words, so the page must first be turned into real text.
Class activity
Role play with a partner. One of you speaks one slow sentence. The other writes it down at once, like a speech-to-text program. Then swap. Which words were hard to catch? Talk about how a real program might feel when the speaker talks very fast.
Practice
1
What does a screen reader do?
It reads the text on the screen aloud.
2
Which tool turns a spoken voice into text: a screen reader or speech-to-text?
Speech-to-text.
3
Look at the pictures. Which one is the start of a speech-to-text job? Say the letter.
B, the microphone that hears a voice.
4
Give one way speech-to-text can help a person who has no hearing problem.
For example: reading subtitles in a noisy place, or dictating a message when hands are full.
