Bookshare App/Website playback problem

Christina

Hello,

I'm unable to get my kids' reading app to work on a pixel tablet with GrapheneOS.

Bookshare.org app/site reads aloud & highlights for students with vision/comprehension problems, dyslexia, etc. It uses "Daisy with images" files. I have dl'd the app from the sandbox google store as well as tried accessing it from the sandboxed chrome and Mozilla browsers as well. (Their site says it works on these browsers.)

From the app I'm unable to access any of the settings tabs and from the browsers I can access the settings tabs but can't select any voices/none appear from the drop-down menu (there is usually a default voice selected but not on the grapheneOS tablet,) and I'm unable to play any sample voices in app settings.

When I try to read the book by pushing the play button, there is no audio nor highlighting. (Audio works fine elsewhere). I've given the app and browsers audio, microphone, storage permissions, any that seemed applicable I tried to give within the apps/browsers as well as within settings-àpps. I have tried downloading the book in addition to their 'read now' option but neither plays/highlights.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! This device was to be a designated school device for them to use, hoping that can still be the case! Thanks kindly in advance! -Christina 😊

DeletedUser87

Christina hey, is it possible that the app/website relies on the system TTS (Text-to-speech) engine? If there's none installed, that might be the problem. You could try installing the one from Google called "Speech recognition and synthesis".

Christina

DeletedUser87 Thank you for the reply! I will check that and report back, very much appreciated!🙏

Christina

DeletedUser87 I tried the TTS engine but still same results. No voices in the app settings or site settings, via chrome, (normally there's a handful). Nothing plays when pressing voice sample, and no reading nor highlighting when pressing the play button. When I type tts in grapheneOS settings (in case it needs turned on?) nothing comes up. If any other troubleshooting ideas, please let me know, thank you kindly!

de0u

Christina When you install the TTS engine, does it have a test button? Does it speak? In the past when installing it was necessary to disable and re-enable before it would work.

DeletedUser87

Christina no, there's no global toggle for that. You would find instances of TTS for example in Accessibility -> TalkBack, where in the settings you can tweak various parameters.
Since neither you or I know how the app or website work internally, I think it wouldn't be far fetched to send a nice email to the developers and just ask them what is required to use the TTS function.
I honestly haven't had any encounters like this and if it's that specific, it might be a dozen things.
What I'm most afraid of, is that there's some kind of DRM involved that only works on certified devices. In that case, it's gonna be harder to find a solution. That would explain why you don't get any sound though.

Christina

de0u Is the tts engine supposed to have a test button? I'm unable to access it after installing it. If you're referring to the Bookshare App, no audio plays when I hit the play button, I'm still unable to sample voices (they don't even show up in the drop-down menu like the normally do - 9 different voice options, but there is no voice selected and nothing drops down with options.)

I restarted the pixel tablet and it did install some updates when I did but still nothing playing from bookshare. Is there something I should disable/re-enable or should I reinstall the app or browsers? Or if you have any others suggestions, thank you for your ideas!

Christina

DeletedUser87 Interesting! I played around with the TalkBack features but they are not anything we would need. I hope keeping it off isn't a problem for this app. I like your suggestion of asking what is required for TTS, I will start there and see if I can get anywhere. I am also hoping the content doesn't only work on certain devices, fingers crossed! Thanks so much again for your help!

de0u

Christina Is the tts engine supposed to have a test button?

Yes. Do you see anything if you look in Settings, Accessibility, Text to speech output?