How it works… a quick video

Turn on Speak Selection and Speak Screen

Open the Settings on your device.

In Settings: select General (1)> Accessibility (2).

In Accessibility: select Speech (3)

In Speech: turn on Speak Selection (4) and Speak Screen (5). You can also use this area to select your preferred “voice” and download an enhanced quality voice. You can also change the speaking rate to the speed of your choice. I also recommend turning on Highlight Content (6) as it shows you where the voice is reading on the page, highlighting the words as it progresses.

Go back to the Accessibility area by pressing the “< Accessibility” navigation on the top-left. In Accessibility: swipe all the way to the bottom of the page and select Accessibility Shortcut (7)

The Accessiblity Shortcut allows you to triple press the home button in order to quickly turn-on your desired Accessibility function. I use VoiceOver (8) as a way to read out Kindle books as the Speak Selection option is not available in the Kindle app (see this post for backgound on that).

Using Speak Selection

Once you have enabled Speak Selection, in many apps and also in websites you will now find that you can press and hold your finger on the text and see the Speak… option in your pop-up options. You can use the start and end selectors, which I like to call lollipop sticks, to select where you would like the reading to start and end.

Using Speak Screen

This is a great new function added in iOS8. I find it particularly helpful to use the Reader mode in Safari Web Browser in conjunction with this accessibility tool. The Reader mode strips out adverts and gives you in-app font-size controls for ease of reading. You can access it from the top-left of the menu bar in Safari.

Here is a quick video indicating how to use Speak Screen option with the necessary two-fingered swipe gesture. The key to the swipe is to start on the frame of your iPad/iPhone, so that you do not accidentally open your notifications area.