TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
ReadSpeaker webReader is a tool in Canvas that reads the built-in activities and resources aloud. This includes quizzes, announcements, pages, discussion forums, and anything written in the Canvas text editor. The webReader doesn’t work with third party platforms (e.g. Pearson, Cengage, McGraw Hill).
webReader Location
The webReader is located in the global navigation menu in Canvas below the Help button. Hover and click on the ReadSpeaker icon to open the webReader.
Playback Buttons
Click on the “Listen/Play” button to hear the text on the page that is currently visible. The page will be read from the top to the bottom. The alt text of images will also be read aloud. The hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) provides a variety of settings and options that can be changed. If you want to change the location of the webReader, place your cursor on the tab above the listen button to drag the webReader to a different location on the page.
Once the “Listen/Play” button is clicked, the appearance of the webReader toolbar will change and an additional toolbar will appear.
- The webReader toolbar will change to display the following buttons: Menu, Listen, Play, Stop, Skip Backward, Skip Forward, Volume, Reading Speed, and Close Player.
- An additional toolbar will appear (most likely in the upper right-hand corner of your screen with the following buttons: Play, Skip Backward, Skip Forward, Automatic Scrolling (click to toggle on and off), Close Player
Highlighting Text
Another way to listen to the text is to highlight the portion that you want to hear. Once highlighted, the “Listen” button appears. Click the button to hear the text.
webReader Menu
Click on the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) to display the following options: Settings, Reading Voice, Click and Listen, Enlarge Text, Text Mode, Page Mask, Help
Settings
The settings submenu opens as a pop-up box. Along the top of the pop-up box, the buttons include: Play, Stop, Volume, Reading Speed, Smaller Font Size, Larger Font Size, Text Mode Settings, Maximize Dialog Window, and Close.
The pop-up box sidebar includes four items:
Highlighting
- Turn text highlighting on or off when text is being read aloud
- When turned on, there are options for word color, sentence color, and text color
Other Settings
- Turn automatic page scrolling on or off when text is being read
- Pop-up Menu for Selected Text controls whether a pop-up should be displayed when text is selected
Shortcuts
- Turn keyboard shortcuts on or off
- When turned on, you can change the keyboard shortcuts from the default to any keys of your choice
Restore
- Restores settings to the default settings
Reading Voice
The “Reading Voice” submenu is directly underneath the “Settings” submenu in the hamburger menu. There are multiple male and female reading voices to choose from, including English with an American accent, Australian accent, British accent, and Spanish accent.
Click and Listen
Toggle the “Click and Listen” button on to automatically hear the text read aloud with the click of the mouse/touchpad.
Enlarge Text
Toggle “Enlarge Text” on to see a larger version of the text appear on the screen while it reads to you. In this example, The course announcement discussion forum is visible on the screen and each sentence appears larger on the bottom of the screen as it’s being read.
Text Mode
Click on “Text Mode” to open a pop-up box that contains a simplified version of the contents on the screen with continued access to play, stop, adjust the volume, read speed, text size, font type and color, and close the text mode box.
Page Mask
Page Mask helps you focus on a specific line, or lines, of text by darkening the background. Only the text that you need to focus on stays bright. Use the plus and minus signs on the page mask to increase or decrease the size of it.
Help
Clicking on “Help” opens a pop-up box that contains instructions for how to use ReadSpeaker webReader.
