The Impact of Text-to-Speech on Expository Reading for Adolescents with LD

Abstract

Text-to-speech (TTS) technology holds promise as a compensatory tool for adolescents with learning disabilities in accessing grade-level expository text. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design examined the effectiveness of TTS on oral reading fluency, comprehension, and task completion time for two males and one female with reading disabilities in a Midwest junior high school. TTS did not affect students' fluency, comprehension, or task completion time, although social validity interviews revealed that each student valued the independence and efficiency TTS provided. Students believed they comprehended fully, read more fluently, and finished the reading task more quickly with TTS than without it. Limitations and implications for future research are addressed in this article.