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How to Listen to Wikipedia With ReadSpeaker

Always wished you could listen to Wikipedia instead of reading it? You can. Find out how here.

April 18, 2023 by Amy Foxwell
How to Listen to Wikipedia With ReadSpeaker

There’s a simple way to make Wikipedia speak: ReadSpeaker’s web-based text-to-speech (TTS) tool, TextAid. This full-service TTS solution turns online text into lifelike, natural speech with the click of a mouse. (Keyboard commands work, too.)

With our AI-powered TTS voices, web-based tools from ReadSpeaker offer an uncommonly pleasant way to listen to Wikipedia. Keep reading to learn how it works, then stick around for a deep dive into the benefits of an audio Wikipedia.

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How to Listen to Wikipedia With ReadSpeaker’s TextAid

ReadSpeaker is a worldwide leader in synthetic speech technology, and we’ve been advancing the field for more than two decades. Tech giants dabble in TTS; at ReadSpeaker, it’s all we do. We create advanced, lifelike voices using proprietary deep neural networks. And we offer a range of TTS tools to fit any use case, from AI voicebots to educational accommodation.

TextAid is ReadSpeaker’s web application (including a browser extension and a bookmarklet). Log into the web app or add the browser extension to Chrome or Safari or Firefox—whichever web browser you prefer—and you can make any website speak. It’s especially helpful for sites that communicate primarily through text, like Wikipedia.

TextAid is also available as a widget, the TextAid bookmarklet we mentioned. That provides access to the tool without adding a browser extension. Like the app, it’s a web-based tool, so it doesn’t require any downloads, and you can access it from any browser or device.

While TextAid is helpful for anyone who wants to hear top-quality synthetic voices read Wikipedia articles out loud, we developed it primarily as a literacy support tool. That means it’s packed with features that help everyone from struggling readers to second-language learners consume online content on their own.

With TextAid, Wikipedia listeners can:

  • Listen to full articles with a single click or keyboard shortcut
  • Hear selected sections of the page
  • Read and listen with simultaneous highlighting on the current sentence
  • Download mp3 files of spoken articles
  • Look up words in an integrated audio dictionary
  • Personalize settings by adjusting reading speed, fonts, text size, and more
  • Focus on the text with a screen mask or reading ruler
  • Choose up to five TTS languages, with more than 20 languages available
  • Enjoy a selection of top-quality TTS voices in a variety of speaking styles

In short, TextAid offers a user-friendly way to turn any Wikipedia article into an audio experience.

Why pay for a TTS browser extension?

TextAid licenses for individuals start at just $4 per month. (We also offer institutional licenses, usually for schools or businesses.) While that’s a small price to pay for the benefits of listening to any webpage you come across, it’s not the cheapest option on the market. Free TTS browser plug-ins are out there. So why pay something when you could pay nothing?

There are two answers: voice quality and extra features. Let’s discuss each in turn.

Why TTS Voice Quality Matters When Listening to Wikipedia

Top-quality TTS voices make it a pleasure to listen to Wikipedia. Synthetic speech is a rapidly advancing field, and few providers invest in the latest, greatest voice-synthesis technology. ReadSpeaker does.

ReadSpeaker’s speech scientists use artificial intelligence (AI) to create incredibly lifelike TTS voices. Our proprietary deep neural networks handle incredibly complex tasks—and making a computer sound like a human is nothing if not complex. This generation of neural TTS voices offers extraordinary realism and expressiveness.

But don’t expect voice-synthesis technology to rest on its laurels. The science behind speech replication is always advancing. Producers of free TTS browser extensions are unlikely to keep up, which means their voice quality will suffer.

As a global enterprise dedicated solely to TTS, ReadSpeaker invests heavily in the science of speech synthesis. Our speech scientists and AI engineers discover new ways to make synthetic voices sound better. When you listen to Wikipedia with TextAid, you’re first in line for the next generation of synthetic voice technology as it develops.

Additional Reading Tools for TextAid Users

TextAid isn’t just a TTS tool. It’s a complete resource for readers and writers. Because it’s 100% web-based, TextAid is available on any device, for any content—including Wikipedia. Access TextAid to experience content how you choose. In addition to TTS, TextAid offers a suite of literacy tools including:

  • Simultaneous TTS and highlighting
  • Digital highlighting, with editing, printing, downloading, or TTS for highlighted passages
  • Dictionary access through simple text selection (with audio definitions available, of course)
  • Screen mask and reading ruler for improved focus
  • On-the-go language translation, including spoken translations
  • Proof-listening as you go, ideal for editing Wikipedia pages
  • And more!

These capabilities go far beyond Wikipedia, but there’s a reason we’re discussing that website in particular. Let’s take a closer look at why listening to Wikipedia matters.

The Benefits of Listening to Wikipedia with TTS

Wikipedia might be the world’s greatest repository of human knowledge. It features more than 6.5 million encyclopedia articles in English (and more in almost 300 other languages), with new content always on the way. The English-language Wikipedia main page racked up more than 5 million views per day in 2022, for a total of nearly 2 trillion pageviews that year. It’s basically a public utility at this point.

But in any language, Wikipedia is also an incredibly text-rich website. There are images and some media embeds, but the bulk of the experience takes place through the written word—a format that’s unavailable to many people.

Who needs to listen to Wikipedia? And who simply wants to?

Wikipedia is the rare site that realizes a vision of the internet as open, collaborative, and—above all—inclusive. After all, anyone can read and contribute to this free service. But is the site really inclusive if it lacks accessibility features like TTS?

Across the world, about 1.3 billion people have disabilities. In the U.S., adults with disabilities make up over a quarter of the population. Some of these disabilities make it difficult or impossible to read Wikipedia: blindness, vision impairments, reading disorders, developmental disabilities.

Assistive technology (AT) like screen readers, text-enlargement tools, and screen magnifiers can help. But as the World Health Organization (WHO) points out, across the globe, 90% of people who need AT don’t have it. That shortfall includes 200 million people with low vision, for whom text-heavy websites like Wikipedia may be simply unavailable.

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

Poor digital accessibility is everyone’s problem. As WHO says, “Almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their life.” When we make online resources like Wikipedia accessible today, they’ll be there for everyone who needs them tomorrow—and that’s most of us. Besides, Wikipedia users without disabilities benefit from audio versions of these articles, too.

Universal Benefits of an Audio Wikipedia

Of course, people with disabilities aren’t the only ones who benefit from an audio-enabled Wikipedia. Lots of us would rather listen than read, as evidenced by the steady rise of podcast listenership: Between 2006 and 2021, the number of Americans who’ve listened to a podcast grew by 57%, reaching 162 million people the latter year.

With text to speech, Wikipedia provides this podcast-like experience. A spoken version of the site also unlocks learning experiences like:

  • Multi-tasking. Imagine learning about Macanese cuisine while cooking up a Galinha à portuguesa for dinner. With an audio Wikipedia, you can.
  • Learning on the go. In the U.S., 30% of adults have a 15-to-29-minute commute, while 22% drive even further to get to school or work. TextAid allows you to download audio files of spoken Wikipedia articles, so you can spend your commute learning about what causes traffic jams—or virtually anything else.
  • Multimodal learning. Learning via two or more media at once (listening and reading to the same text, for instance) is called multimodal learning. If you’re like the 66% of people who prefer a multimodal approach to attaining new knowledge, you’ll learn more from Wikipedia with a TTS tool like TextAid. Maybe you’d like to learn what Wikipedia has to say about text to speech?

Clearly, there’s a need to bring TTS to text-heavy websites like Wikipedia. ReadSpeaker’s TextAid offers a simple, low-cost way to do just that.

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