Read Out Loud on iPad only reads the page number in Digital Editions

[grahams71726065]

I want to use my iPad to read a library book I borrowed in Digital Editions, out loud.

When I swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers to activate iOS's Read Out Loud feature, all it reads is the page number.

Can anyone help please?

This is on iPadOS 14.4.2 with Digital Editions 4.5.11.2

[LorriWD40]

Unfortunately, I think that Digital Editions deliberately blocks copying text or text recognition which is incredibly bad from an accessibility perspective. The lack of compatibility with read aloud (and lack of embedded read aloud feature) has been discussed for years with Adobe stating that you need to go back to the publisher for a different version if you want accessibility (I saw posts from 2008 identifying this as an issue people wanted solved).

You can find some work arounds involving screen capture, but my understanding is that these work arounds involve you capturing text page by page, so not really practical if you want to read an entire book. 

I would also like the ability for read aloud (preferably embedded in the app), but based on comments through the years, it does not seem like a problem Adobe is willing to invest in solving. Sorry to not be able to provide a more useful answer, but unfortunately, I think the answer is that the program is designed to interfere with read aloud. 

[grahams71726065]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I feared as much. That's a pretty crap attitude on behalf of Adobe. I want to read technical library books for which there is no audio edition available. I have no allegiance to Adobe and am more than happy to avoid their software if that's the way they want to treat their users; do you know of any other apps that can read DRM-protected material out loud?

[LorriWD40 · Accepted solution]

Hi! 

I did a quick search and found on this website: 

Here is a list of Adobe DRM compatible iOS and Android apps that have read aloud functionality:

* PocketBook
* Bookari Ebook Reader (Premium version only)

That said, I don't know for sure if these will work with the document versions that you have. I did try PocketBook with my android phone and it can read the book I have that I couldn't get my PC to read aloud, so these seem to be good recommendations. 

🙂

Good luck!

Lorri

[grahams71726065]

Thanks Lorri! That's really helpful. You're awesome. 🙂

[Joanne5CC8]

On my Samsung galaxy tab, pocketbook can indeed open and read my books in Adobe digital editions