The Microsoft Immersive Reader is now available on Canvas Pages for staff and students. It isn’t a replacement for a screen reader but may appeal to people who prefer to hear the page being read aloud to them.

The Immersive Reader reads out the text on a page. It offers a variety of additional options that help to enhance the reading experience e.g. text formatting to help reduce visual crowding (e.g. change font, change colour theme, change background); grammar (highlight the grammatical structure of text) and reading preferences (e.g. choosing the type of voice, displaying an image of some simple words, highlighting words and sentences).

At present, the Immersive Reader is available only on Canvas Pages, not quizzes, discussions or other tools.
Enable the reader when viewing a page by clicking on the button Immersive Reader:

The reader opens in a new page, with the Play button to activate the audio reading of the text on the page. Click the left arrow at the top of the reader screen to return to the page.

Note: The Immersive Reader makes use of artificial intelligence with an algorithm that detects language automatically. Sometimes it may make the wrong choice, resulting in unexpected behaviour, especially if multiple languages appear in one page.

Further useful links and resources

How to use the Immersive Reader in Canvas:

Canvas guide
Youtube video