Claims register: how-to guides
63 claims. Each was checked against its source during drafting; none has had expert review yet.
| Claim | Evidence | Sources | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| A 2018 meta-analysis of 22 studies, mostly with school students, found a modest positive average effect of text-to-speech and read-aloud tools on reading comprehension, with study design explaining some of the variation. | Preliminary or mixed findings | Wood SG, Moxley JH, Tighe EL, Wagner RK. Journal of Learning Disabilities 51(1):73-84. doi:10.1177/0022219416688170 (2018) Peer-reviewed research | How to turn on text to speech on iPhoneHow to use text to speech on AndroidHow to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10How to make your Mac read text aloudHow to use Read Aloud in Microsoft WordHow to use reading mode in ChromeHow to use Safari Reader on iPhone and Mac |
| Studies of fonts designed for readers with dyslexia, mostly with children, have not found gains in reading speed or accuracy: 170 children read no faster or more accurately in Dyslexie than in Arial and most preferred Arial, and a study of 12 students in grades 3 to 6 found no improvement with OpenDyslexic and no student preferred it. | Preliminary or mixed findings | Kuster SM, van Weerdenburg M, Gompel M, Bosman AMT. Annals of Dyslexia 68(1):25-42. doi:10.1007/s11881-017-0154-6 (2018) Peer-reviewed researchWery JJ, Diliberto JA. Annals of Dyslexia 67(2):114-127. doi:10.1007/s11881-016-0127-1 (2017) Peer-reviewed research | How to use reading mode in ChromeHow to use text to speech and display settings on KindleHow to change text size and spacing on iPhoneHow to change text size and spacing on Android |
| A 2016 systematic review judged most studies of colored overlays and lenses to be at high or uncertain risk of bias, with effects small or close to placebo. | Established guidance | Griffiths PG, Taylor RH, Henderson LM, Barrett BT. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics 36(5):519-544. doi:10.1111/opo.12316 (2016) Peer-reviewed research | How to use Read aloud in Microsoft Edge |
| In iOS 26 and iOS 27, Speak Selection and Speak Screen are turned on under Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak, and they work even when VoiceOver is off; Speak Screen has its own switch inside the Speak Screen menu. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to turn on text to speech on iPhone |
| With Speak Selection on, you select text and tap Speak; with Speak Screen on, a two-finger swipe down from the top of the screen reads it, or you can ask Siri to "Speak screen." The controls let you pause, change rate, skip, or use Speak on Touch. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to turn on text to speech on iPhoneHow to use Safari Reader on iPhone and Mac |
| Apple's iOS 18 guide places these switches under Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content, with Speech Controller, Highlight Content and Typing Feedback options. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2024) Product documentation | How to turn on text to speech on iPhone |
| The Read & Speak screen on iPhone offers Voices, Default Language, Detect Languages, Speaking Rate and Pronunciations, and the Speak Screen and Speak Selection menus include highlighting style and color, Show Controller and Controller Actions. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to turn on text to speech on iPhone |
| Accessibility Reader on iPhone is turned on under Read & Speak, can autoplay, opens from the Accessibility Shortcut (triple-click of the side button), Control Center or the Share menu, has Play and speaking-rate controls, and lets you customize text and background color, size, font, High Legibility Characters (System Font only), bold, line, word and character spacing (Default, Loose, Open), links, playback highlighting, theme names and Reset to Default; some extras depend on Apple Intelligence. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to turn on text to speech on iPhoneHow to change text size and spacing on iPhoneHow to use Safari Reader on iPhone and Mac |
| Select to Speak is set up under Settings > Accessibility > Select to Speak by turning on its shortcut; it starts with a two-finger swipe up (three with TalkBack) or the Accessibility button, reads what you tap or drag over or the whole screen with Play, and its player can pause, skip and change speed. Some steps need Android 11 and up, and Action + Alt + S toggles it on Android 17 and up. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Android |
| On Android, supported text can be read by selecting it and tapping More > Read aloud without turning on Select to Speak; Select to Speak can also read text through the Google Camera app in listed languages, read in the background, and may not work in every mobile browser. If it is missing, Google suggests updating Android Accessibility Suite. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Android |
| Settings > Accessibility > Text-to-speech output sets the engine, language, speech rate and pitch, with a Play sample and Install voice data; engine choices vary by device. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Android |
| In Chrome for Android, More > Listen to this page plays a page with speed, voice and Highlight text & auto scroll options; it keeps playing in other tabs or with the screen locked, offers Standard and AI playback (AI is the default where available), Standard playback needs Make searches and browsing better, and it is not available on every website. | Practical suggestion | Google Chrome Help Product documentation | How to use text to speech on AndroidHow to use reading mode in Chrome |
| Microsoft describes Narrator as a screen reader for people who are blind or have low vision; it starts and stops with the Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter (Windows logo key + Enter on older versions), and Windows logo key + Ctrl + N opens its settings. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| Narrator + R reads from the cursor, Narrator + Shift + Down arrow reads a selection, Ctrl stops reading, and Narrator + Plus or Minus changes speed; the Narrator key is Caps lock or Insert by default. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentationMicrosoft Support Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| Narrator settings include voice choice with Speed, Pitch and Volume, three US English natural voices (Jenny, Aria, Guy) added with the Add button, verbosity levels 1 to 5, an on/off keyboard shortcut setting, and an option to lower other apps while Narrator speaks. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| Settings > Time & Language > Speech lets you change the Windows default voice and speed; not every language pack includes text-to-speech, and packs that do show a text-to-speech icon; extra voices can be downloaded for Read aloud in Edge and Microsoft 365. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10How to use Read aloud in Microsoft Edge |
| On a Mac, Speak selection is turned on under System Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak; Option-Esc starts and stops speech, unselected windows have their text items read, a sound plays when nothing can be spoken, and many apps offer Edit > Speech > Start Speaking. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to make your Mac read text aloudHow to use Safari Reader on iPhone and Mac |
| Apple's macOS Sequoia 15 guide puts Speak selection under Accessibility > Spoken Content, while the macOS Tahoe 26 and current guides use Read & Speak. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2024) Product documentationApple (2025) Product documentationApple (2026) Product documentation | How to make your Mac read text aloud |
| The Info button next to Speak selection sets the shortcut, word and sentence highlighting and colors, sentence style, and when the controller shows (Automatically, Never or Always); Detect languages switches language with the text; Command-F5 turns off VoiceOver. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to make your Mac read text aloud |
| The System voice menu and its Info button let you download, sample and adjust voices and set Pronunciations; voices are unavailable until downloaded and not offered in all languages. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to make your Mac read text aloud |
| Accessibility Reader on Mac is turned on in Read & Speak, opens with Command-Escape or Edit > Speech > Open in Accessibility Reader, and offers line, word and character spacing (Default, Loose, Open), readable content width and playback highlighting. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to make your Mac read text aloud |
| In Edge, More > More tools > Read aloud starts reading; a toolbar offers play, paragraph skip and Voice options for voice and speed; Pause or X stops it; Read aloud now includes Copilot voice questions that need the microphone. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read aloud in Microsoft EdgeHow to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| Edge Reading mode is shown via More > Settings > Appearance > Toolbar, opens from the address bar or F9 on supported pages, can open a selection with Open selection in Reading mode, and has Appearance settings for Font, Font size, Column width and Theme, plus Translate with more than 70 languages; some themes are inspired by Irlen Spectral Filters. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read aloud in Microsoft Edge |
| Microsoft's education page for Edge Immersive Reader describes Text preferences (Text size, Text spacing, Text column style, Page themes) and Reading preferences (Line focus of one, three or five lines moved with arrow keys, Picture dictionary, Translate), and opening selected text with Open in Immersive Reader. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read aloud in Microsoft Edge |
| Word Read Aloud is on the Review tab, reads from the cursor or a selection, has Play, Pause, Previous, Next and Stop, and a gear icon with Reading speed and Voice Selection; Microsoft lists it for Office 2019, Office 2021 and Microsoft 365 as a subscriber feature. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read Aloud in Microsoft WordHow to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| Read Aloud shortcuts are Ctrl + Alt + Space to start, Ctrl + Space to play or pause, Ctrl + arrow keys for paragraphs and Alt + Left or Right arrow for speed on Windows; Ctrl + Option + Space, Option + Space and Option + Up or Down arrow on Mac. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read Aloud in Microsoft WordHow to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| If Read Aloud is missing, Microsoft suggests signing in to Microsoft 365 and restarting Word; neural voices need a stable internet connection; Read Aloud follows the document proofing language; Read Aloud does not store content or audio; Interactive Read Aloud needs a Copilot license; Speak reads selected text from the Quick Access Toolbar on Windows; iPhone and iPad have their own Read Aloud menus. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read Aloud in Microsoft WordHow to use text to speech on Windows 11 and Windows 10 |
| In Word for Windows, View > Immersive Reader offers Column Width, Page Color, Line Focus (one, three or five lines), Text Spacing, Syllables and Read Aloud with word highlighting; on Mac the tools are under View > Learning Tools; proofing language is set under Review > Language > Language > Set Proofing Language. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use Read Aloud in Microsoft Word |
| Chrome reading mode on a computer opens from the right-click menu (Open in reading mode), the address bar icon, More > More tools > Reading mode, or Command + Option + R on Mac and Alt + Shift + R on Windows, Linux and ChromeOS; it can show in a side panel and be pinned; it is not yet on Googlebook. | Practical suggestion | Google Chrome Help Product documentation | How to use reading mode in Chrome |
| Chrome reading mode lets you change font size, color theme, font, line height and letter spacing and hide links or images; read aloud has Play, Pause, Previous, Next, Playback speed, Voice selection and Voice highlight (Adaptive, Word, Sentence, Off), and downloads Google natural voices with a system-voice fallback. | Practical suggestion | Google Chrome Help Product documentation | How to use reading mode in Chrome |
| Google suggests updating Chrome, highlighting content to trigger reading mode, notes it may not work on galleries, maps, forms, quizzes, payment or login pages, that other apps may share its shortcut, and that its settings apply only inside reading mode. | Practical suggestion | Google Chrome Help Product documentation | How to use reading mode in Chrome |
| On iPhone, Safari Reader opens with Page Menu > Show Reader, can be set per site with Website Settings > Use Reader Automatically, or for all sites under Settings > Apps > Safari > Reader > All Websites; longer pages get a summary and table of contents. The iOS 18 guide used a Page Settings button and a Details button. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentationApple (2024) Product documentation | How to use Safari Reader on iPhone and MacHow to change text size and spacing on iPhone |
| On iPhone, Safari can read supported webpages with Page Menu > Listen to Page, paused and resumed from the same menu. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to use Safari Reader on iPhone and MacHow to turn on text to speech on iPhone |
| On a Mac, Show Reader is in the Page menu in the Smart Search field and appears only for pages with an article Reader can show; the Reader button sets background theme, font and zoom, which Reader remembers; Esc or Hide Reader exits; Summarize depends on Apple Intelligence, language, region and site support. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to use Safari Reader on iPhone and Mac |
| Kindle Assistive Reader is turned on from Aa > More, reads with word highlighting, has speed and 30-second rewind controls, and pauses when you open the navigation menu or make a note; it needs Enhanced Typesetting; on e-readers it is listed for the 11th Generation and higher, Scribe and Colorsoft in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. | Practical suggestion | Amazon Customer Service Product documentationAmazon Customer Service Product documentation | How to use text to speech and display settings on Kindle |
| In the Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Fire tablets, Assistive Reader uses the device text-to-speech engine, needs a language that engine supports, and can start from a long-pressed word with Play. | Practical suggestion | Amazon Customer Service Product documentation | How to use text to speech and display settings on Kindle |
| Kindle e-readers pair Bluetooth audio devices under Settings > Wi-Fi & Bluetooth (or Wireless) > Bluetooth Devices; only devices released in or after 2016 support Bluetooth; Amazon suggests turning off nearby devices, updating software and restarting if pairing fails; VoiceView reads menus and books over Bluetooth audio using gestures. | Practical suggestion | Amazon Customer Service Product documentationAmazon Customer Service Product documentation | How to use text to speech and display settings on Kindle |
| On Kindle e-readers, the Aa menu has Font (font, size, pinch, five bold levels), Layout (spacing between lines, paragraphs, words and characters, margins, orientation, alignment) and Themes (background color, saved settings) tabs that apply to all books and vary by model; device font size is under Settings > Screen and brightness > Display & text size on the 11th Generation and higher, Scribe and Colorsoft. | Practical suggestion | Amazon Customer Service Product documentationAmazon Customer Service Product documentation | How to use text to speech and display settings on Kindle |
| The Kindle app Aa menu offers font size, font type including OpenDyslexic, spacing, page colors (white, sepia, light green, black), continuous scrolling, margins, alignment, preset themes (Compact, Standard, Large, Low Vision), Real-time Text Highlighting, a Reading Ruler and Word Wise on Android. | Practical suggestion | Amazon Customer Service Product documentation | How to use text to speech and display settings on KindleHow to change text size and spacing on Android |
| iPhone Dictation is turned on under Settings > General > Keyboard > Enable Dictation; you tap the Dictate button and speak; it stops when you tap the button, say "Stop dictation" or stay silent for 30 seconds; the keyboard stays open during dictation. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to use dictation on iPhone |
| Apple says iPhone Dictation is processed on the device in many languages without internet, search-field dictation may be sent to the search engine, cellular charges may apply, and availability varies by language and region. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to use dictation on iPhone |
| iPhone dictation supports spoken punctuation, "new line," "new paragraph," spelling a word, "Change ... to ...," "select," "delete," "undo" and "redo," plus Cap and No space commands; editing commands are in U.S. English on iPhone 12 and later except iPhone SE; Auto-Punctuation can be turned off under Settings > General > Keyboard. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentationApple (2026) Product documentation | How to use dictation on iPhone |
| In Gboard, you tap the Microphone at the top of the keyboard and speak after "Speak now"; spoken punctuation includes period, comma, exclamation point, question mark, new line and new paragraph; a word can be replaced by touching and holding it; tablets have a voice toolbar with Show voice commands; talk-to-text does not work in all languages and some steps need Android 7.0. | Practical suggestion | Gboard Help Product documentation | How to use voice typing on Android with Gboard |
| Advanced voice typing on Pixel 6 and later is turned on under keyboard Settings > Voice typing; it adds automatic punctuation and commands such as "Delete last word," "Clear," "Clear all," "Send," "Next" and "Stop"; detailed edits need Pixel 8 and later in U.S. English; Auto punctuation and Auto-switch language can be turned off; Personalize for you saves transcripts on the device. | Practical suggestion | Gboard Help Product documentation | How to use voice typing on Android with Gboard |
| Google says advanced voice typing keeps spoken text on the device except for Fix it and detailed edits, Fix it is limited to Pixel 8 and later in English in the United States, and standard talk-to-text sends your voice to Google for transcription. | Practical suggestion | Gboard Help Product documentationGboard Help Product documentation | How to use voice typing on Android with Gboard |
| Windows voice typing starts with Windows logo key + H or the touch keyboard microphone, needs internet, a microphone and a text box, uses Azure Speech services, and stops with "Stop listening" or the microphone button; Windows logo key + Alt + H moves through its menu. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use voice typing and dictation on Windows |
| Voice typing settings include the launcher, Automatic punctuation, Filter profanity, Default microphone and Wait time before acting; Fluid dictation on English Copilot+ PCs corrects as you speak and can be undone with "Undo that," "Revert" or Ctrl + Z; English commands include "Delete that," "Select that," "Press Enter" and punctuation words; languages are added under Time & language > Language & region and switched with Windows logo key + Spacebar. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use voice typing and dictation on Windows |
| Voice access is in Windows 11 version 22H2 and later, works without internet, dictates text into a focused text box, supports "Caps" and "No space," and has Add to vocabulary. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use voice typing and dictation on Windows |
| Word Dictate is under Home > Dictate, needs a Microsoft 365 subscription, a microphone and a reliable internet connection, and supports spoken commands such as "new line," "delete that" and "bold that." | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to use voice typing and dictation on Windows |
| Mac Dictation is turned on in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation; it starts with the Microphone key, the Dictation shortcut or Edit > Start Dictation; holding the Microphone key starts Siri; it has no timeout but stops after 30 seconds without speech; Escape, the key or the shortcut ends it; on Apple silicon you can type while dictating. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to use dictation on a Mac |
| Mac Dictation supports spoken punctuation, emoji, "new line" and "new paragraph," automatic punctuation that can be turned off, custom shortcuts, multiple languages, a microphone source choice, blue underlines for uncertain words, and is replaced by Voice Control when that is on; Apple Intelligence improvements in macOS 27 need M3 or later with 12GB memory. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to use dictation on a Mac |
| Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size has Larger Text with a slider, Larger Accessibility Sizes and Bold Text, applying to supported apps; Control Center can hold a Text Size control; Display Zoom enlarges text and interface elements. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on iPhone |
| In iOS 27, Text Size, Bold Text and Display Zoom are under Settings > Appearance; in iOS 26 they are under Settings > Display & Brightness. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentationApple (2025) Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on iPhone |
| Settings > Accessibility > Per-App Settings lets you add an app and give it its own color, text size and motion settings. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on iPhone |
| On Android, Font size and Display size are found by searching Settings and changed with sliders, with a preview and Reset settings; a Font Size Quick Settings tile goes up to 200%; Bold text and, on Android 16 and up, Outline text are under Accessibility > Display size and text; some steps need Android 13; some apps ignore font size or bold. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on Android |
| Google's developer guidance says the font size setting only affects text sized in scalable pixels and that tightly constrained layouts can crop enlarged text. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on Android |
| Chrome for Android zooms a page with More > Zoom, and Settings > Accessibility > Show Zoom shows the control on all pages. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on Android |
| Google Reading mode is a separate Play Store app for phones on Android 9 and later, set up with a shortcut and permissions, with Display settings (color theme, font size, font type, bold, line space) and Audio settings (voice, speed); it does not support PDFs, emails, chats or social feeds, needs Speech Services by Google to read aloud, and may need Voice Access or Switch Access restarted. | Practical suggestion | Google Accessibility Help Product documentation | How to change text size and spacing on AndroidHow to use text to speech on AndroidHow to use reading mode in Chrome |
| On iPhone, text replacements are created under Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement (or Keyboard Settings from the Emoji or Switch Keyboard key) with Phrase and Shortcut fields; a blank Shortcut keeps autocorrect from changing a word; iCloud Drive with Sync this iPhone keeps the dictionary on other devices; Reset Keyboard Dictionary deletes all custom words and shortcuts. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to set up text replacement shortcuts for words you often misspell |
| On a Mac, text replacements are added in System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements (or via Edit > Substitutions > Show Substitutions > Text Settings), switched on per app with Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement, applied to existing text with Replace in Selection, and are not available in all apps. | Practical suggestion | Apple (2026) Product documentation | How to set up text replacement shortcuts for words you often misspell |
| In Word for Windows, AutoCorrect is under File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options with Replace text as you type; entries are added with Replace and With boxes and removed with Delete; the list is shared across Office programs; Word for the web cannot add entries; on Mac it is under Word > Preferences > AutoCorrect. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentationMicrosoft Support Product documentation | How to set up text replacement shortcuts for words you often misspell |
| In Windows 11, Settings > Time & language > Typing > Show text suggestions when typing on the physical keyboard turns on word suggestions, chosen with the Up arrow, arrow keys and Enter. | Practical suggestion | Microsoft Support Product documentation | How to set up text replacement shortcuts for words you often misspell |
| In Gboard, tapping a red-underlined word and choosing Add to dictionary saves it; unwanted suggestions can be dragged to Trash; learned words are deleted under Settings > Dictionary > Delete learned words; Google says saved words are not sent to Google. Google's Gboard Help, as read on 2026-10-28, does not describe a dictionary shortcut code. | Practical suggestion | Gboard Help Product documentationGboard Help Product documentation | How to set up text replacement shortcuts for words you often misspell |