Microsoft Word Gets 'Read Aloud' Feature to Help People With Dyslexia

Microsoft Word now has a new 'Read Aloud' feature that has been finely tuned for users with dyslexia. The Read Aloud feature is similar to the existing Read Mode that came out in December, The Verge reported on Wednesday.

The software giant has been testing text-to-speech features in Word for quite some time. The new feature has come out of the Office 365 pipeline through which users with reading difficulties can easily change speed and voice.

It has the capabilities to let the user change voice and speed and interact with edits in real-time, the report added. Read Aloud feature is currently available to Insider versions of Office 365.

Apart from Windows desktops, it will be available for other operating systems later this year. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability who have trouble reading accurately and fluently. They may also have trouble with reading comprehension, spelling, and writing.

A recent Windows 10 Insider Preview build revealed a new feature that is expected to arrive with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update - smart search for photos uploaded to OneDrive. Spotted in the updated Photos app, the feature used machine learning to categorise images, for quicker search later.

The new Photos' smart search feature reportedly takes a second per image to search. The feature is very similar to Google Photos, and the recently Photos app on iOS, it also has face detection that will group photos of what the app believes is the same person.