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There are a number of options available to you when creating text-to-speech accessible questions to account for specific syntax and pronunciation. 

Read this article in its entirety or jump to a specific section:

• Customize Pronunciation
• Customize Math Equation Syntax 

Customize Pronunciation 

Customize the pronunciation of your question using one of the following options:

• Source Code
• SSML Editor

Source Code

Customize the pronunciation of your question by editing the Source code from the Rich Text Editor (RTE). Click within the Question Setup area of any question to access the RTE.

Click Source to prompt an editable pop-up of the source code. 

In this example, the text-to-speech reader could pronounce "aunt" with a hard a as in ant. To avoid confusion, you may opt to customize the Source such that "aunt" would be pronounced ahnt or ont. 

To customize the pronunciation of characters, words, or phrases, wrap the text with the following code: 

<span pron=”phonetic pronunciation”>word(s)</span> 

For example: 

<span pron="ont">aunt</span>

You can also edit the Source to expand acronyms. For example: 

<span pron="New York City">NYC</span>

Use this method as many times as needed within a question and click OK to save. 

SSML Editor

Assessment authors can use the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) editor to select text in the assessment and modify the default pronunciation that is read aloud by the Text-to-Speech tool.

To enable the editor, click SSML in the Rich Text Editor within Question Setup:

Once SSML is selected, the SSML Substitution and SSML Break options are ready to use:

Any existing pronunciation edits are highlighted in green and pauses or breaks are indicated by a red arrow:

Use Preview Question to check for any potential modifications. The Text-to-Speech toolbar appears as it would in a live assessment with Text-to-Speech enabled. Once you have identified the text that requires a pronunciation edit, select the text that you wish to modify.

In the above example, the text-to-speech reader could pronounce "aunt" with a hard a as in ant. To avoid confusion, you may opt to customize the pronunciation such that "aunt" would be pronounced ahnt or ont. 

To modify the pronunciation:

1. Click SSML Sub.
2. The selected text is displayed. Enter the desired pronunciation in the SSML Substitution text to replace selected text field.
   
3. Click OK to confirm.

To add a break:

1. Click the area in which you wish to add a pause in the speech. This can be between words or within a word.
   
   Note: It is not possible to add a break within a word that has an existing substitution markup.
2. Click SSML break.
3. Enter the duration of the pause in milliseconds in the SSML Pause/Break time (ms) field.
   
4. Click OK to confirm.

Use Preview Question after any edit to review the pronunciation and repeat the steps outlined above to make any further adjustments, as needed.

To delete any edits, select the edited text or area and click SSML Sub or SSML break and then click Delete from the dialog box.

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Customize Math Equation Syntax

To add an equation to your question, use the Add Math (LaTeX/MathML) function within the Rich Text Editor (RTE). 

This will prompt an Edit Math pop-up.

The ARIA Label will auto-populate as you create your equation. This label will be interpreted by your text-to-speech reader. 

Customize this label by editing it directly. For example, you may want the equation to read as "9 point 4 times 10 to the power of negative 2": 

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