I was recently diagnosed with Mononucleosis (apparently adults can get it too), and it has not been a pleasant experience. The worst of the symptoms has been a swollen, sore, and mostly inoperable throat, which has made it nearly impossible speak above a whisper.

After searching around for a usable text-to-speech interface, and finding a lot of incomplete or costly options, I decided it would be easier to just make a simple app that did exactly what I want. Here’s the final product, but fair warning, this was coded in a semi-delirious state between naps, and is probably not my best work.

The prototype

Just type into the box and press enter. The text will be read aloud and stored in the space below, where it can be clicked and read again.

The background will turn green to indicate that it’s speaking. Check your computer/phone audio settings if you don’t hear anything.

Bookmarkable version here, source on GitHub here.

Some notes

If you’re looking for the opposite functionality, check out my Web Speech Hearing Aid post from last year. I might revisit this to add options for voice selection and speech rate, but the defaults seem to work well enough for now.