Text-to-speech for Canvasin 5 minutes
Give every student a listen button with word-by-word highlighting on their course pages. You install one file in your Canvas theme. No LTI app to configure, no student accounts, no sales call.
The Water Cycle
Thewatercycleisthecontinuousmovementofwaterthroughtheenvironment.Waterevaporatesfromoceansandlakes,risesintotheatmosphere,formsclouds,andfallsbackasrain.
Install guide
You'll need Canvas admin access to your account or sub-account theme. Want to see exactly where each setting is? Open the illustrated Canvas guide, with troubleshooting and removal steps.
- 1
Sign up and start your pilot
Create an account, pick the tier that matches your enrolled students, and start the 30-day pilot. No sales call.
- 2
Add your Canvas domain
In your ReadingVox dashboard, add the address your students use for Canvas, for example
yourschool.instructure.com. Add your beta or test instance and any custom domain (likecanvas.yourschool.edu) too. Your key only works on domains you add. - 3
Download readingvox-canvas.js
On the Billing page of your dashboard, use the Add ReadingVox to your LMS card to download your Canvas file. It's already set up with your key, so there's nothing to edit.
- 4
Upload it to your Canvas theme
In Canvas, go to Admin → your account → Themes and Open the theme you use. On the Upload tab, choose readingvox-canvas.js as the JavaScript file. Click Preview Your Changes, then Save theme and Apply theme.
- 5
Open a course page
Students now see a ReadingVox listen button on course content. Press play to check it on a page of your own.
For your security team: what the Canvas file does
- Self-contained. The whole widget is in the file you upload. It never loads code from anywhere, so nothing changes in your Canvas until you upload a new version.
- Off on sensitive pages. On grades, SpeedGrader, Inbox, People, settings, profiles, admin, submissions and edit pages it exits before anything else runs.
- Quiet until used. It contacts ReadingVox only after a student opens the toolbar or presses play, and sends only the text being read.
- CSP-friendly. No script-src entry needed. Allow readingvox.com in connect-src, media-src (plus blob:) and font-src.
Pilot with one department first
Upload the file to a sub-account theme instead of your main one, and only courses in that sub-account get ReadingVox. Your root admin may need to let sub-accounts use the Theme Editor in account settings first.
No JavaScript file option in Themes?
Custom JavaScript uploads have to be enabled for your Canvas account by Instructure. Ask your Instructure Customer Success Manager (CSM) to turn them on, then continue from step 4. If you're not sure, check before you start your pilot.
What students see
A ReadingVox button on course content: pages, assignments, announcements, discussions, and the syllabus.
Listen with word highlighting
One button reads the page aloud in a natural voice and highlights each word as it's spoken.
Select to listen
Highlight any passage to hear just that part, at the speed the student chooses.
Translate and listen
Hear content in Spanish and 12 other languages (7 with natural voices). Translations are machine-generated; translated playback shows a caption instead of word highlighting.
Reader tools
Dictionary, text size, dyslexia-friendly fonts, high-contrast page colors, a reading ruler, a magnifier, a simplify view, and AI vocabulary simplification.
Pages ReadingVox never reads
Grades, the gradebook, SpeedGrader, Inbox, People, settings, profiles, admin pages, submissions, and any edit page. ReadingVox stays off those pages entirely, so grades, messages, and rosters are never sent to us.
What we receive, and what we don't
ReadingVox needs the words a student wants to hear. That's it. We act as a “school official” under FERPA, never sell or advertise with student data, and will sign your data processing agreement.
Full data handling details- We receive the text a student chooses to play, so we can turn it into audio.
- We don't receive names, email addresses, Canvas user IDs, or grades.
- On Institution plans, the text being read is not stored in our usage logs. Logs keep the page address, time, browser type, and IP address, for billing and abuse prevention.
- Audio is cached by a hash of the text, so a page is generated once and replayed from the cache. Cache entries aren't linked to any student.
Good to know before you start
What ReadingVox doesn't do in Canvas yet.
Canvas mobile app
ReadingVox doesn't run inside the Canvas Student app. On phones and tablets, it works when students open Canvas in a mobile browser.
Files and PDFs
Documents opened in Canvas's file viewer (PDF, Word, slides) aren't read aloud yet. Today it reads content written in Canvas itself.
Embedded tools
Content from other apps embedded in a page (LTI tools, publisher content, videos) runs in its own frame, which ReadingVox can't read.
Not on Canvas? ReadingVox also installs natively in Moodle. In Schoology, D2L Brightspace, Blackboard Ultra, and Google Classroom it works through the ReadingVox Chrome extension for now. See all install guides.
Try it in your Canvas for 30 days
One flat yearly price for your whole institution, from $750. Pay by card or purchase order. No setup fee.