Screen Readers and Text-to-Speech

Screen readers and text-to-speech (TTS) are speech synthesis applications. These applications can be part of the system accessibility settings or can be external applications that can be installed on an operating system. 

Screen readers are most often external software that students use on their device to have all onscreen content read aloud. Screen readers are often used by students who have visual impairments and require assistance navigating from page to page along with assistance reading the text and nontext elements on those pages.

TTS technology is the screen reader functionality available through a device’s operating system. TTS technology reads the text on a screen and provides image descriptions depending on available settings or preferences.

A student should configure assistive technology settings before opening Bluebook™ to answer preview questions and before exam day. The settings may include verbosity, punctuation, text processing, and other settings as approved. Students need to ensure all settings are configured before beginning the check-in process in Bluebook. On exam day, students won’t be able to adjust these settings after entering the start code at the end of the check-in process.

College Board has tested with and currently supports the leading screen readers and text-to-speech applications, including:

•    NVDA
•    JAWS
•    Apple VoiceOver and Spoken Content
•    Chromebook ChromeVox and Select to Speak
•    Windows Narrator 

Other screen readers might work with the Bluebook application. Depending on which other screen reader and which release of that software, some functions may work differently or not at all. If your software is not listed above, try a digital practice test on Bluebook to make sure your assistive technology will work on test day.

Screen Readers

In Bluebook, while answering preview questions and during the digital exam, a student using an external screen reader such as JAWS or NVDA will use the typical/native commands they normally use to navigate a webpage. Most exam pages are structured with the following regions. Wherever applicable, a student can navigate with these regions/landmarks:

• Bluebook Controls
  • Test timer
  • Test tools 
• Passage, Image, or Other Source Content
  • Footnotes
  • Referenced content
  • Long description 
• Question and Answer 
  • Question number
  • Answer options
  • Long description 
• Question Navigation

In general, the following test components are defined with a heading:

• Test name
• Set directions
• Passage title/poem title (when applicable), etc.
• Prompts for free-response questions (when applicable)
• Document title for document-based questions (when applicable)
• Algorithms and relevant steps (AP Computer Science Principles)

Recommended Verbosity and Punctuation Settings

SAT Reading and Writing Section Features in Bluebook

Underlined “Referenced Content” Text 

Some questions within the SAT Reading and Writing section contain underlined text that is the focus of a question. The underlined sentences are structured as landmark regions and are identifiable and navigable with mainstream screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, ChromeVox, and Narrator.

Answer Options with Differing Punctuation

Some questions within the SAT Reading and Writing section contain answer options that have varying punctuation characters. Some mainstream screen readers will not announce these punctuation characters by default. Users of screen readers like JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, ChromeVox, and Narrator must ensure that the punctuation settings are set correctly.

Configure the verbosity, punctuation, text processing, and other settings for each digital exam subject as needed. Configuration needs to be done before opening Bluebook to answer preview questions and again before exam day. Configurations must be in place before students begin the check-in process on exam day. On exam day, students won’t be able to adjust these settings after entering the start code at the end of the check-in process. Follow these steps below:

JAWS Screen Reader

1. Go to the JAWS Quick Settings Center (JAWS Key + F2 > choose Quick Settings). Select Editing Options > Punctuation and select an option as appropriate  (All, Most, Some, None).
2. Go to Virtual Cursor Verbosity Level and select High so that regions within passages will be announced.

NVDA Screen Reader

1. From the NVDA Settings (Insert + N > Preferences > Settings), select Document Formatting > Elements > Enable Landmarks and regions. Click Apply, then OK. 
2. From the NVDA Settings (Insert + N > Preferences > Settings), select Speech, then Punctuation/symbol level and select an option as appropriate (All, Most, Some, None).
3. Alternatively, NVDA users can change punctuation settings by activating the keystrokes Insert + P.
4. For symbol/punctuation settings for ellipses with NVDA screen reader, it is recommended to set the ellipses “...” symbol level to Most in the NVDA symbol pronunciation dialog when taking exams within the Bluebook application. 

By default, the NVDA screen reader will only announce ellipses (e.g., “...”) when punctuation settings are set to All. College Board Accessibility Compliance Office (ACO) recommends that NVDA users set the symbol/punctuation level of ellipses to Most. 

Symbol punctuation in NVDA can be adjusted to align with the speech punctuation. From the NVDA Settings (Insert + N > Preferences > Punctuation/symbol pronunciation), select Symbols to adjust the level and select an option as appropriate:

• Filter by the text “...”
• Navigate to the Level combo box and choose Most
• Either All or Most is recommended for the SAT Reading and Writing section and AP Exams that contain ellipses

Apple VoiceOver

Speech, Verbosity Category, VoiceOver Utility for macOS

Use the Speech pane of the Verbosity category in VoiceOver Utility to specify the verbosity level.

• From System Preferences > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Open VoiceOver Utility > Verbosity > Text > Punctuation
  • A higher level of punctuation can be helpful for proofreading and editing. 
  • Some students find a lower level is less distracting for more casual reading.
• Alternatively, punctuation can be adjusted while VoiceOver is enabled:
  • Press VO-F8 to open VoiceOver Utility > Verbosity > Text > Punctuation
  • Press VO-V to open Rotor and select > Punctuation > All

Windows Narrator

Narrator key: Caps Lock or Insert

Verbosity

To change the level of verbosity, press Narrator + V or Narrator + Shift + V until you hear the level of detail you want.

Formatting

To hear formatting attributes, press Narrator + F. To hear the next group of formatting attributes, press Narrator + F again. To hear the previous group of formatting attributes, press Narrator + Shift + F.

Punctuation 

To change how punctuation is read aloud, press:
•    Narrator + Alt + Subtract (numeric keypad)
•    Narrator + Alt + Minus sign (-)
•    Narrator + Alt + Add (numeric keypad)
•    Narrator + Alt + Plus sign (+)

You can select from the following levels of description:
•    Default. Hear little to no punctuation. Natural pauses will indicate items such as commas and periods.
•    Math. Hear most mathematical symbols.
•    Some. Hear most conversational punctuation, such as commas and periods.
•    Most. Hear additional symbols, such as parentheses.
•    All. Hear all punctuation, including all special symbols.

ChromeVox

To adjust punctuation levels with ChromeVox, press Search + A then P to cycle through the options and choose ALL. Alternatively, a student can navigate with Shift + Search + Arrows to read out each character of the options.

By default, ChromeVox should have the Enable verbose descriptions setting checked. This setting will allow the “referenced content” region to be announced when navigating with the ChromeVox cursor.

If this setting is not enabled, access the floating accessibility menu with Shift + Alt + L and navigate to the Accessibility settings button. From Manage accessibility features, navigate to ChromeVox settings > activate Enable verbose descriptions, and set Punctuation echo: ALL.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Content

In Bluebook, some STEM content may contain acronyms, chemical equations, camelCase, or PascalCase that need to be announced clearly or verbatim by screen readers. Below are specific screen reader commands that will announce capital letters distinctly with varying pitch or, depending on the screen reader and operating system, spell out the content character-by-character.  

JAWS Screen Reader

• INSERT + Numpad 5 twice quickly. 
• If using a keyboard without a numeric keypad, INSERT + K twice quickly. 
• Refer to JAWS Reading Commands.

NVDA Screen Reader

• INSERT + Numpad 5 twice quickly. 
• If using a keyboard without a numeric keypad, INSERT + K twice quickly. 
• Refer to WebAIM Keyboard Shortcuts for NVDA - Reading Text.

VoiceOver on macOS

• VO-W-W. 
• Refer to Use VoiceOver to correct misspelled words on Mac.

VoiceOver on iOS

• Set VoiceOver settings using the rotor to Characters. 
• Refer to Control VoiceOver using the rotor on iPhone. 

ChromeVox on ChromeOS 

• From Manage accessibility features, navigate to ChromeVox settings > When reading capitals: Speak “cap” before letter
• Learn how to use the built-in screen reader.

Narrator

In Narrator settings, select Change what you hear when reading and interacting > Change how capitalized text is read:

• Don’t Announce (default)
• Increase Pitch
• Say “Cap”

Keyboard shortcut: Press Narrator + 4 to change how capitalized text is read.

Text-to-Speech

Windows Narrator

Narrator reads aloud the text onscreen. To start Narrator:

1. Press the Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter together. Press these keys again to stop Narrator.
2. Press the Windows logo key + Ctrl + N together to open Narrator settings, then turn on the toggle under Use Narrator.

To stop Narrator from reading at any time, press the Ctrl key. To use your mouse cursor to read text:

1. Go to the Narrator settings titled Use Narrator Cursor.
2. Activate (check) the following settings:
   a. Show the Narrator cursor.
   b. Move my text cursor with the Narrator cursor as Narrator reads text.
   c. Sync the Narrator cursor and system focus.
3. Activate (check) any other settings as per the student’s preference.

Important: The Narrator key is a modifier key in the Narrator commands. Both the caps lock and insert keys serve as the Narrator key by default.

Manage Your Data and Services

Turn off Help Make Narrator Better to prevent diagnostic and performance data from automatically being sent to Microsoft.
To learn more about Narrator, visit the Complete Guide to Narrator.

macOS

macOS has a speech option that will speak the text when a student presses a key, a set of keys, or uses their mouse or cursor.

To use defined key commands:

For all supported Mac operating systems (macOS 11 and higher):

1. Go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
2. Select Accessibility.
3. From the Accessibility screen, select Spoken Content from the left menu.
4. Check the option Speak Selection.
5. To change preferences, select Options/Info.
6. When the key commands are set, click OK.

After completing the above steps, each time a student types the established key combination, any text the student selects will be read aloud. To stop the speech, type the same key combination again.

To use the mouse cursor to read text:

For all supported Mac operating systems (macOS 11 and higher):

1. Go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
2. Select Accessibility.
3. From the Accessibility screen, select Spoken Content from the left menu.
4. Select Speak items under the pointer.
5. Select Options/Info to customize the speech and verbosity settings.

To learn more about how to have your Mac speak text that’s onscreen, review the user guide for your macOS.

iPad (iOS)

An iPad can speak selected text or the entire screen. For all supported iOS devices:

1. Tap the Settings icon and select Accessibility.
2. From the Accessibility screen, select Spoken Content.
3. Then select Speak Screen.
4. Enable (i.e., toggle on) Speech Controller and/or Highlight Content, as preferred.

External keyboards must be used with iPads for digital AP Exams. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Keyboards, tap Full Keyboard Access, then turn on Full Keyboard Access.

ChromeVox – Select to Speak

A user can hear full pages read aloud with ChromeVox or hear parts of a page, including specific words, read aloud with Select to Speak.

1. At the bottom right of the screen, select the time or press Alt + Shift + S.
2. Then, select Settings > Accessibility > Enable Select to Speak.

Note: If Select to Speak does not appear in the accessibility quick settings, sign in to the Chromebook and go to Settings > Accessibility > Manage accessibility features > turn on Show accessibility options in quick settings or Always show accessibility.

Depending on the keyboard, a user can press the Search key or the Launcher key for shortcuts. Both keys work the same way.

Option 1

1. Press and hold the Search key.
2. Drag the cursor over an area of text.

Option 2

1. Highlight the text to be read.
2. Press Search + S.

Tip: For devices with a touchscreen, a user can tap a line of text or drag a finger over an area of the screen.