Read Back Comments

Hi! This plugin will only work for a few select browsers. Mainly because it uses the Speech Synthesis API. For the full effect, you will want to come back on one of these browsers that support speechSynthesis, caniuse.com, opens in a new window.. At this time, that’s Chrome, Safari 9+, and Opera. With some tweaking, the button can be enabled in Firefox as well, but you’ll want to make sure to completely restart the browser and results may vary. So if you’re not on any of these browsers, please switch. You’re not going to get anything out of this otherwise. I’ll wait here.

Alright, are you on a browser that supports the Speech Synthesis API? Great! So, what this plugin does is add an additional button to the WordPress comment form that will allow you to “read back” your comment before you post it. Nice and simple.

It will let you, almost literally, listen to yourself, an XKCD comic (will open in a new window). If you heeded my warning at the top of the post and swapped to a supported browser, this post should have that very button for you to play with!

This one’s just for fun, while the a11y applications are potentially there, I’d probably use a live-region to do it instead.

Find the Read Back Comments repository on Github.