A filter to provide speech synthesis (text-to-speech/ TTS) services for arbitrary text. Text such as [Speak] Hello world! [/Speak] is replaced with a button with the text as a label. Press the button, and the text is spoken!

This is beneficial, for example, when teaching younger children. And for accessibility to those with disabilities.

Requirements: tested with Moodle 1.9.7 and 2.0.2 (all Moodle 1.9.x and 2.0.x should work). Requires Javascript. Requires a TTS service - see Readme.

Uses:  jQuery (v1.3.2).

Installation

1. Download and unzip the code files. Copy to the directory on the server, eg.

     /var/www/moodle/filter/simplespeak/

2. Log in to Moodle as admin, visit `Site Administration | Modules | Filters | Manage Filters`. Scroll down and click on the icon for Simplespeak to enable it.
3. Choose SimpleSpeak under Filters, and add a TTS service. Or set in config.php, eg.

   $CFG->simplespeak_service_url =
     'http://example.org/cgi-bin/espeak/getsound.pl?lang=!LANG&text=!TEXT';

   The string can contain two placeholders, !TEXT and optionally !LANG (language). This service can be local, or third-party - see Readme.
4. Ensure that the directory $CFG->datarootis writeable by the Apache user, or create a writeable cache directory,

     $CFG->dataroot/simplespeak/cache/

Usage

Simple example. Enable the filter (admin). Then, type the following in a Moodle resource:

  [Speak] Hello world! [/Speak]