Text-to-speech software as assistive and mainstream technology: Transitioning from a functional to a socio-constructivist approach

This chapter presents the case for mainstreaming text-to-speech software for students with reading difficulties in the educational environment through a socio-constructivist approach. Socio-constructivism guides this chapter and communicates its purpose. The argument presented is that a purely functional approach that serves only students with reading disabilities such as dyslexia, confines the delivery of text-to-speech software to a select population, which results in limited outreach and use. Further, despite increased consumer involvement in assistive technology delivery with its potential to increase student participation, the target population is defined by professionals and based on human function rather than determined by a self-assessment of individual need, and may be further negatively impacted by human, contextual, and technological factors. By transitioning to a socio-constructivist approach, there is greater potential to assist a larger number of students who may otherwise not have the opportunity to explore text-to-speech software's potential and throughout their educational career may continue to experience difficulties in reading.