How to read the screen aloud in iOS 13 for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch

In this article

How to enable Speak Screen
Using Speak Screen

How to enable Speak Screen

1. Open the Settings app .
2. In the Settings app, select Accessibility from the list.
   
3. On the Accessibility screen, select Spoken Content.
   
4. On the Spoken Content screen, select Speak Screen to set the toggle switch to On.
   
5. Speak Screen is now active, and you can use it by swiping down with two fingers from the top of the screen.
6. You can now customise the following features:

Speech Controller

Always show a Speak Screen controller button on the screen.

1. Select Speech Controller.
   
2. On the next screen, select Show Controller to set the toggle switch to On.
   
3. You can trigger actions quickly by performing a gesture on the button itself.
4. The default actions are:
   • Long Press: Read All Content
   • Double Tap: Speak on Touch
5. To swap these, or set the action to none, tap one of the actions and choose from the options.

Highlight Content

Choose what text to highlight and choose the highlight style and colour.

1. Select Highlight Content.
   
2. On the next screen, select Highlight Content to set the toggle switch to On.
   
3. Choose what content you would like highlighted when text is being read aloud:
   • Words
   • Sentences
   • Words and Sentences
4. Choose a highlight style
   • Underline
   • Background Colour
5. Choose highlight colours.
   • Word Colour - select then choose from the colour options
   • Sentence Colour - select then choose from the colour options

Voices

1. To change the voice used for the built-in screen reader apps, select Voices.
   
2. Choose the language you want to change the voice for then select the name of the voice you would like to use. You may need to download some of the voices first.
   
3. Select to use the standard voice or an enhanced version if it is available. The enhanced versions are better quality and have better pronunciation. You may need to download the enhanced version first.
   
4. Select the play button to hear a sample of this voice.

Speaking rate

Adjust the slider for Speaking Rate to speed up or slow down speech.

Pronunciations

If you find the screen reader apps mispronounce words or names, you can add your own pronunciations to use instead.

1. Select Pronunciations.
   
2. To add a new pronunciation, select the + (plus) button in the top-right corner.
   
3. Type the phrase you would like to add you own pronunciation for.
4. To add the new pronunciation of this phrase, either:
   • • Type a phonetic version of how it should sound in the Substitution box.
   • • Or select the microphone icon and speak the pronunciation.
5. You can hear how your new pronunciation sounds by selecting the Play button in the top right corner.
6. When you are happy with the new pronunciation you can choose which:
   • • Languages will use it.
   • • Which Voices will use it.
   • • Choose to Ignore case of words.
   • • Choose whether to apply it to all apps or just selected apps. If you turn off Apply to all apps, you can choose which apps should use the new pronunciation.
     

Using Speak Screen

• To activate Speak Screen, swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. The Speech Controller will appear onscreen and the contents of the screen will be read aloud.
  
• If you have enabled Show Controller, press the button to expand the Speech Controller .
• Press the Play button.
  
• Alternatively, perform one of the gestures to activate the associated action.

The Speech controller Options

1. Play / Pause speech
2. Move forward to the next paragraph or item.
3. Move backwards to the previous paragraph or item.
4. Speak on Touch – select the hand icon then tap on / or drag to any content you want to hear. Lift your finger to exit Speak on Touch.
5. Speech speed - Tap to cycle through 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 1/2x speed.
6. Minimise the Speech Controller
7. Close (not available when the Show Controller option is set to on) - close the controller and stops speech.