Readable® specification
Here is a comprehensive functions list for the Sensory Readable Suite v3 for Windows
Sensory Readable Suite
Computer Reading Assistant for Windows — features confirmed across applications
Version 3 · 2026What’s new in version 3
- Universal reading & word-by-word tracking in any Windows app – including images, locked / scanned PDFs and remote desktop – via the new Readable Live Layer.
- Readable Banner – a scrolling reading display synchronised with speech.
- Word Information popup (Ctrl+Shift) now works in any application.
- Twelve new Sensory Everyday voices (offline); the Microsoft Natural Voices carry over from v2.5.
- Six Sensory Fonts, the Sensory Prediction Engine, and new keyboard shortcuts.
- Improved Save to Audio and the upgraded Sensory PDF Convert 2.
✓Function available
NEWNew or upgraded in v3
Wide tables scroll sideways — the function name stays pinned.
Reading Support 1
| Function / feature | Microsoft Word | Outlook email | Web Pages (Edge) | Notepad & WordPad | Web Pages (Chrome) | Office 365 Word (Edge) | Dragon Pad | Adobe Reader | All Apps & Win System |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offline text to speech – no internet needed | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Click & Play text to speech | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Select text and speak (Speak on Select) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Underline / highlight word as spoken (improved in Adobe Reader) NEW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Speak / hover text under mouse pointer NEW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Start speech with 6-button mouse | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Read to End – Ctrl+Space NEW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stop speech instantly – tap Ctrl | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Reading Support 2
| Function / feature | Microsoft Word | Microsoft Edge | Chrome Browser | All Apps & Win System | Sensory PDF Reader / Convert |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal on-screen reading via text recognition (images, locked / scanned PDFs, remote desktop) NEW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Word Information popup – Ctrl+Shift hover (definition, pronunciation, pictogram) NEW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Speak accessible PDF files (select) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced background reading – listen and type or browse | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Web reading with no browser extension required NEW | Not applicable | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Save to MP3 audio – any selected text or clipboard, higher quality NEW | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| PDF computer reader with annotation (50–400% zoom, JCQ-compliant) | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | ✓ |
Writing Support 1
| Function / feature | Microsoft Word | All Apps & Win System |
|---|---|---|
| Echo characters and words when typing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows 11 Prediction (default) – launch & speak suggestions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sensory Prediction Engine – learning-based prediction NEW | ✓ | ✓ |
| Autocorrect typing when predicting text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Speaking offline Dictionary (147,000+ words) – now all applications NEW | ✓ | ✓ |
| Speaking offline Thesaurus (110,000+ synonyms) – now all applications NEW | ✓ | ✓ |
| Speaking spell checker (Word native) | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Speaking grammar checker (Word native) | ✓ | Not applicable |
Writing Support 2
| Function / feature | Microsoft Word | All Apps & Win System | Dragon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picture Dictionary (2000 symbols) | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Homophone identification | ✓ | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Voice Typing & Dictation | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Echo Dictation – audio confirmation of dictated speech | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Key Echo – per-keystroke audio | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Custom Pronunciations (Readable Editor) | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| AI assistant speech support – speaks and tracks replies from Copilot and other AI chat apps (browser & desktop windows) | ✓ | ✓ | Not applicable |
| Speak Dragon voice training texts | ✓ | Not applicable | ✓ |
| Speaks & underlines text created in DragonPad | Not applicable | Not applicable | ✓ |
Visual Reading Support
| Function / feature | All Apps & Win System |
|---|---|
| Word Underline – thin coloured line under the spoken word, configurable colour, now universal NEW | ✓ |
| Readable Banner – scrolling context window synchronised with speech, configurable font / size / colour NEW | ✓ |
| 6 Sensory Fonts – dyslexia-friendly typefaces installed system-wide NEW | ✓ |
| Spacing and colour adjustments | ✓ |
| Ambient Sounds with voice ducking – background sounds that lower automatically while text is spoken | ✓ |
Viewing Adjustments – in Microsoft Word
| Function / feature | Microsoft Word |
|---|---|
| Change font type with one click (including Sensory Fonts) | ✓ |
| Change font size of all text in document | ✓ |
| Change line and character spacing | ✓ |
| Enable Focus Reading mode with Readable text to speech | ✓ |
| Change background colour of Word document | ✓ |
Viewing Adjustments – All Apps (Ruler & Tint)
| Function / feature | All Apps & Win System |
|---|---|
| Enhanced Reading Ruler with colour | ✓ |
| Enhanced Reading Ruler with mono | ✓ |
| Enhanced Reading Ruler with invert and night mode | ✓ |
| Ruler AutoFit to window width | ✓ |
| Synchronised Readable speech and ruler | ✓ |
| Enhanced Screen Tint with colour tint | ✓ |
| Screen colour vision corrections | ✓ |
| Screen Tint mono mode and night mode | ✓ |
| Tint & Ruler work over system menus, fully offline | ✓ |
Text to Speech Voices
Microsoft Natural Voices – carried over from v2.5
Premium on-device Microsoft voices
- Sonia · UK
- Ryan · UK
- Guy · US
- Jenny · US
- Aria · US
- Neerja · Indian English
- Prabhat · Indian English
Sensory Everyday Voices – new in v3
Offline – no internet connection needed
- Florence
- Jenny
- Gabriel
- Estella
- Ophelia
- Alba
- Elias
- Sterling
- Beryl
- Albert
- Elowen
- Alistair
All voices run on-device using Windows SAPI 5 – no cloud, no data leaves the PC. Hierarchical voice picker grouped by source and accent; free downloadable add-on voice packs from sensoryreadable.com. (Two voices are named Jenny – an American Microsoft Natural Voice and a Sensory Everyday voice; the accent distinguishes them.)
Toolbar & Settings
| Function / feature | All Apps & Win System |
|---|---|
| Uses Microsoft Fluency icon set | ✓ |
| 3 toolbar styles – colour / blue / black icons | ✓ |
| Toolbar orientation vertical or horizontal | ✓ |
| Small Toolbar – compact variant for minimal screen use NEW | ✓ |
| Toolbar position – docks, manual, or Track Window Mode | ✓ |
| Direct control from touch screen | ✓ |
| Dual monitor support – extended and mirror | ✓ |
| Browse Topics – in-app categorised help navigation NEW | ✓ |
| Dynamic toolbar adds functions per active app | ✓ |
Sensory Readable Suite – Companion Apps
Sensory RulerOverlay reading ruler with adjustable band height and opacity; colour, mono, invert and night modes; AutoFit to window width; synchronised with Readable speech.
Sensory TintWhole- or part-screen coloured tint overlay for visual stress and Irlen-pattern relief; colour-vision corrections; mono and night modes; works over system menus, fully offline.
Sensory MarkersOn-screen anchors and section markers for navigating and orienting within long documents.
Sensory PDF ReaderStandalone reader for accessible PDFs – hover read modes (including a Section mode), word highlight, tint, zoom 50–400% and annotations. JCQ-compliant. Reader only; it does not OCR.
Sensory PDF ConvertOCR tool for scanned / image-only PDFs. Brings in pages by scan, image or PDF and outputs Accessible PDF, Plain Text, RTF or DOCX. PDF Convert 2 is new in v3.
Readable Smart Dynamic OCR (optical character recognition)
Version 3 brings high-quality, on-device optical character recognition (OCR) to the heart of Readable across three complementary capabilities: automatic in-place recognition (Readable Live Layer), manual region capture (Text Extractor) and full document conversion (PDF Convert 2).
Readable Live Layer – instant in-place recognitionThe recognition engine at the heart of Readable. When on-screen text is only an image – a picture of text, a locked or scanned PDF, or a legacy app – Readable recognises it the instant you point at it and reads it aloud, with the word-by-word underline appearing directly on the original image. There is no screenshot, no separate OCR step and no converted copy to open elsewhere: recognition, speech and highlighting happen together, in place, with no perceptible delay, in every Windows application. Triggered by the normal reading gestures – Ctrl+Shift, Ctrl-hover and Ctrl+Space.
Text Extractor – manual region grabThe manual-control companion to Live Layer: drag a box around any part of the screen to grab exactly the text you want – a panel, a figure caption, a single column, or a scanned page or photo opened in a viewer. Because it uses the same on-device recognition, the response is instant. The text is placed on the clipboard and, new in v3, is also spoken aloud with word-by-word underline-highlight while the view stays on the original document (in v1 and v2 it placed text on the clipboard only).
PDF Convert 2 – document conversionTurns scanned documents and phone photos into accessible, readable files. Bring in pages by scanning, or by opening or dragging in images (JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF) or existing PDFs; reorder or remove pages as needed. On-device OCR runs automatically with auto-crop, orientation detection, deskew, multi-pass recognition and blank-page skipping. Save as Accessible (searchable) PDF, Plain Text, Rich Text (RTF) or Word (DOCX).
Performance & Security
| Function / feature | All Apps & Win System |
|---|---|
| Low footprint installation for the Readable Suite | ✓ |
| Fast start up of Readable | ✓ |
| Fully offline text to speech – no cloud, no document or clipboard data leaves the PC NEW | ✓ |
| No web connection required for installation, no online registration | ✓ |
| Optional no-update offline installer for full security | ✓ |
| .exe installer (individual) and .msi installer (network / IT-deployed) | ✓ |
| Fully signed installers | ✓ |
| Approved for UK Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funding | ✓ |
| Free 30-day trial available | ✓ |
Recommended Systems
| Operating system | Windows 11 |
|---|---|
| Recommended minimum | Intel i5 (or equivalent), 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage |
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System Specifications for Sensory Readable Suite for Windows with Natural and Sensory TTS Voices
Sensory Readable integrates and operates with Microsoft Windows system, Microsoft Office, and other programs open on the PC. It can also operate alongside other assistive technology such as screen magnifiers or Dragon speech recognition dictation software. Sensory App House recommends that users have a computer suitable to perform their study and work and be supported by assistive technology . Our recommended minimum specification for the Sensory Readable for Windows Suite is as follows.
Recommended Minimum Specification: Intel i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB HDD
If a user only require usage of elements of the Readable Suite, such as Sensory PDF Reader, then the following minimum specification is recommended.
Minimum Specification: Intel i3, 4GB RAM, HDD 128GB HDD
If you have computers on your organisation network, with lower specifications than the recommendations above, please contact us at support@sensory-AT.com – we can offer advice and support you to undertake performance testing of Sensory Readable in your computing environment.