Read Out Loud sounds like gibberish

[Guest]

I am writing an exhibition and I want to make the panels available to the deaf community. However, when I listen to the Read Out Loud version of the pdfs, it sounds terrible. There is, for example, no pause at the end of a sentence or title. Also, ordinary words seem mangled e.g. "been", is pronounced bee-en. The intonation is all over the place. In addition, it cannot make up its mind how to pronounce "Waltham" - it varies between Walt-ham and the correct version of Wal-tham.

I made the panels in Powerpoint, if that is relevant.

All help gratefully received.

[Adorobat]

Hi pennyc97686414,

As per the issue you described above, Read Out Loud (assuming you have Acrobat Reader) not reading sentences correctly in Reader, is that correct?

Could you please let us know how you are creating the pdf- using ACROBAT tab in Powerpoint or using File>Save As>PDF?

Have you tried with other pdf files?

Which Operating System is installed on the computer?

The version of Acrobat Reader installed on the computer- Identify the product and its version for Acrobat and Reader DC

Also, check if the box next to "Use default speech attributes" is checked under Edit>Preferences>Reading.

Awaiting your response.

Shivam

[Debra5F97]

The read aloud feature in Adobe is absolutely dreadful. No amount of tweaking the pitch or voice can make this sound 'normal'.  

[Hannah35289104jl96]

This is still the case, the voice is terrible and makes it impossible to listen to. I would use the program that much more if the read-out loud option worked well, with a pleasant voice.

[Connor31943406isll]

As a disabled person trying to use Read Aloud to understand PDF's, I agree. It is beyond dreadful. It can't read anything. It frequently skips words, breaks words into what it thinks are numbers for some reason, or just fails to pronounce anything right. I do not understand how this could be considered acceptable by anyone.

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Connor31943406isll,

Thank you for reaching out, and sorry to hear about your experience.

Please let us know if you experience this behavior with all the PDFs or with some. It could be an issue with the PDF itself. Would you mind sharing the sample PDF on which the issue occurs? We can check this behavior.  

In the meantime, try the screen reader on the machine. Check if that helps. You may also refer to the information provided in the following help document: https://adobe.ly/3UqjfEU. 

Let us know if you need any help.

Thanks,

Meenakshi