ReadSpeaker is a text-to-speech add-on for Cirrus, powered by the ReadSpeaker service. Once enabled on your tenant, ReadSpeaker reads exam content aloud to candidates who have it activated on their profile. Use this article to understand what ReadSpeaker covers and how to activate it for a candidate.
ReadSpeaker is an add-on. Contact Cirrus through the Customer Portal to enable it on your tenant.
What ReadSpeaker reads
Cirrus uses two of ReadSpeaker's products:
- webReader: reads on-screen text in the candidate's exam, including question text, instructions, and answer alternatives.
- docReader: reads PDF and Word resource files attached to a question or to the assessment.
Which of the two is available depends on your licence.
Enable ReadSpeaker for a candidate
ReadSpeaker is not an exam setting. It is enabled per user, on the candidate's profile.
- Open Admin > Users and select the candidate.
- Tick Enable ReadSpeaker.
- Save.
The setting follows the candidate across every assessment they sit on your tenant.
What the candidate sees
When the candidate signs in:
- webReader: the ReadSpeaker button appears in the top left, next to the logo. Selecting it reads the current page.
- docReader: open a PDF or Word resource file using Source and select Listen. The file opens in ReadSpeaker's reader so the candidate can navigate paragraph by paragraph.
The candidate can also adjust the playback speed and the highlighting style from the ReadSpeaker controls.
Print Keycodes with ReadSpeaker note
From the 2026-05-26 release, the print keycode slip carries a ReadSpeaker availability note when the candidate has ReadSpeaker enabled (CR-25536). The candidate sees the note on the paper handed out at the start of the exam. See Keycode.
Sub-processor
ReadSpeaker is a Cirrus sub-processor when active. See List of sub-processors for the current data-processing scope.
Document scans and OCR
For PDF resource files to be readable by ReadSpeaker, the file must contain a text layer. A scanned page that is just an image cannot be read.
When scanning paper documents for use in exams, enable the scanner's OCR option. OCR detects the text and adds an invisible text layer to the PDF. The candidate still sees the original image; ReadSpeaker uses the text layer underneath.
A few practical notes:
- The sharper the scan, the better the OCR.
- Set the OCR language to match the document's language.
- Spot-check the OCR output before using it for an exam, because OCR errors silently become text-to-speech errors.