Indian Language Text to Speech (TTS)

Hear2Read TTS is designed for Visually Impaired users that rely on NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) to access digital content on Windows PCs.


Kannada NVDA Addon Demo

Select one of the languages from the list below for a demo of Hear2Read TTS that generates natural human speech using Deep Neural Network models:

Bridging the Digital Divide for the Blind and Low Vision population using Text To Speech Assistive Technology.

Have you ever browsed the internet, our most basic need today - while blindfolded? You would say “what's the use”. For a Visually Impaired (VI) person, the crucible of information that is the internet is far out of reach without text to speech technology.

Everyone with a Smart Phone uses Text To Speech (TTS) software without even thinking about it for Navigation while driving or walking.

The same technology allows VI users to read electronic content by listening, hence the phrase “Reading without Seeing”. Text to Speech (TTS) options have been widely available for English and other western languages for more than a decade. With proper accessibility tools, people with Vision Impairment (VI) can be just as effective and productive as people with normal sight in most professional jobs, including banking, engineering and teaching.

Children learn best in their native language. We cannot expect Visually Impaired children to first learn English and then use the Text to Speech software to read books, news articles, do homework in English instead of their mother tongue spoken by their family & friends.

Hear2Read fills this void using open source Text to Speech technology. The Hear2Read project was started in 2013 to develop Text-To-Speech (TTS) software for Indic languages for Android phone and tablet users. At the time, Google Android TTS did not support TTS for any Indic language. We first worked on building a Hindi TTS since Hindi is spoken by the largest percent of the population in India. In Dec 2014, Google released Hindi TTS for Android. Hear2Read team then pivoted to develop TTS for other Indic languages starting with Tamil TTS released in Aug 2016.

Over the last 8 years, Google has expanded support for Indic TTS. Google Android TTS now supports all languages supported by Hear2Read TTS and some more. Therefore, there is no need for Hear2Read TTS on Android devices. As such, going forward, Hear2Read is focusing all its resources and energy on it's NVDA Addon.

We are grateful for the several hundred thousand Android users who have used Hear2Read Apps since Aug 2016. The Hear2Read App will continue to be available in the Google Play Store. However, we do not plan to make any further improvements to it.


Thanks to the generosity of our partners (volunteers and doners) who have supported the project since 2013, Hear2Read Apps are free to use without Ads or purchases.