---
name: Read aloud
slug: read-aloud
category: accessibility
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: Speaking a page's own prose with a synthetic voice, highlighting
  each word as it is spoken. A reading aid for people who can see the screen,
  not a screen reader.
aliases:
  - name: text to speech
    source: community
  - name: TTS
    source: community
  - name: speak selection
    source: hig
  - name: karaoke highlighting
    source: community
tags:
  - assistive-tech
  - sound
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - screen-reader
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - line-focus
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "Microsoft Support: Use Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge"
    url: https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/edge/use-immersive-reader-in-microsoft-edge
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: distinguishing text to speech from a screen reader
---

A voice reads the article in order, and the word it is on is highlighted as it goes. Browsers and
operating systems ship it under several names: Read Aloud, Speak Selection, text to speech, and the
travelling highlight is often called karaoke highlighting, which is exactly what it looks like. The
whole feature is one sentence long: the prose, out loud, with your place kept.

The reason it needs its own word is that it keeps getting confused with a
[screen reader](/screen-reader), and the two do different jobs. A screen reader is how somebody who
cannot see the page operates it: it announces structure, roles and state, so a reader hears "heading
level two", "button, collapsed", "list, six items", and navigates by those. Read aloud announces
none of that. It voices the running text and stops there, for a reader who can see the screen and
would rather have the words carried. Mixing them up leads teams to build the wrong thing, and the
expensive version of that mistake is a "listen to this page" button shipped in place of accessible
names, roles and focus order.

Who it is for is broader than most accessibility features: dyslexic readers, readers with attention
difficulties, low vision readers who use it alongside magnification, people reading in a second
language, and anybody whose hands or eyes are busy. Two design consequences follow. Reading order is
spoken order, so furniture that sits in the middle of the flow (a share bar, a related list, a pull
quote repeated from below) gets read as part of the article unless it is moved out of it. And prose
written for assistive technology is prose here too: a [long description](/long-description) under a
chart is read out like any other paragraph, which is a good reason to write it as prose rather than
as a list of coordinates.

If you are building the control rather than relying on the platform's, the parts that matter are
play and pause, a speed setting, a voice setting, and the word highlight itself, because the
highlight is what lets a reader who drifted find their place again without rewinding. Keep it clear
of text selection, since a reader following along often wants to select the sentence they just
heard. Most products should let the browser and the operating system do this and spend the effort on
the markup underneath, which both features read from.