Lectern Beta: Text to Speech Reader

Reads web pages aloud using your device's built-in voices. No account, no cloud, no data leaves your browser.

Lectern reads selected text or full pages aloud using the voices already installed in your operating system and browser. It is keyboard driven, works alongside screen readers rather than fighting them, and highlights what it reads. In its default configuration Lectern makes zero network requests. The text it reads never leaves your device. There is no account, no sign-in, no analytics, and no cloud synthesis. Lectern is built for students with reading disabilities, low vision users, institutions with Section 508 and WCAG obligations, and anyone taking a proctored assessment who needs assistive technology that will not conflict with exam software. Unlike cloud-voice readers, Lectern is a minimal, local-only, allow-list-friendly reader designed for locked-down assessment environments. Every permission it requests maps to a visible feature, it injects nothing into a page until you ask it to read, and its behavior can be audited from its public source repository. Built on Read Aloud by Hai Phan, MIT licensed. Lectern is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the original author.