What is Azure AI Immersive Reader?
Azure AI Immersive Reader is a Foundry Tools service from Microsoft Azure that improves reading comprehension for new readers, language learners, and people with learning differences such as dyslexia. The service is based on the same technology used as a read-aloud tool in Microsoft Word and OneNote, and can be integrated into your own web applications via a client library.
Immersive Reader is a standalone web application that, when invoked, displays as an iframe over your application’s existing content. Your application passes the content to display to the service; the client library handles rendering, styling, and communication with the Immersive Reader backend, which processes the content for parts of speech, speech synthesis, translation, and more.
Core Features
- Isolated, clean text display for improved readability
- Text-to-speech (read-aloud) for selected text
- Syllabification to help learn and recognize new words
- Color-coded highlighting of parts of speech (verbs, nouns, pronouns, etc.)
- Picture dictionary for common terms
- Real-time translation into numerous languages
Typical Use Cases
Schools and educational platforms integrate Immersive Reader so that learners with dyslexia or other learning differences can better process text through read-aloud and syllabification.
Language learning apps use real-time translation so users can read texts in the target language and have unfamiliar terms translated and read aloud directly.
Companies and public sector organizations improve the accessibility of their web applications to meet inclusive design requirements and make content accessible to more user groups.
Benefits
- Improved accessibility without building your own reading aids
- Support for diverse learning needs and language levels
- Easy integration via a client library with minimal code
- No permanent storage of customer data by the service itself
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports you with Azure AI Immersive Reader: integration into your platform, accessibility consulting, and UX optimization for inclusive applications.
Contact us for a non-binding consultation on Azure AI Immersive Reader and Microsoft Azure.
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Azure AI Immersive Reader?
Azure AI Immersive Reader is a Foundry Tools service that embeds as a standalone web application into your site or app, providing reading aids such as read-aloud, syllabification, parts-of-speech highlighting, and translation. It uses the same technology found in Microsoft Word and OneNote.
What features does Immersive Reader offer?
Core features include text-to-speech, syllabification, color-coded highlighting of parts of speech, a picture dictionary for common terms, and real-time translation into numerous languages.
How do I integrate Immersive Reader into my web app?
Via the JavaScript client SDK, the reader is displayed as an iframe over your existing content. You pass the content to display to the service, while the client library handles styling and communication with the backend.
Is Immersive Reader WCAG compliant?
Immersive Reader is designed as an inclusive tool and helps applications meet accessibility requirements. Whether your overall application is fully WCAG compliant also depends on your own implementation.
Is user data stored?
According to Microsoft, Immersive Reader does not permanently store customer data. Individual display settings such as font size or background color are managed on the client side.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Azure (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Azure.
