Whether you’re using it to hear a story while relaxing, to listen to a work document on your commute, or to have presentation notes read to you, the accessibility tool Voice Dream Reader can helpfully turn any text into speech. And the app’s customizable text viewer and support for VoiceOver make reading itself more accessible.

What we love: How versatile Voice Dream Reader is. Drag PDFs, documents, EPUB and DAISY books, or URLs into the app’s window to add them to your library; or choose File > Add From Clipboard to paste text into a new item. Open any item to have its text read using your choice of macOS system voice and language. You can create folders and reading lists for one-click listening sessions and add bookmarks and notes in the document viewer.

Quick tip: To save web articles directly to Voice Dream Reader, click Safari’s Share menu and choose Save To Voice Dream. (If the option doesn’t appear, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Extensions > Sharing and check the box next to Save To Voice Dream; in older versions of macOS, the setting is located in System Preferences > Extensions > Share Menu.)

Meet the creator: Boston-based developer Winston Chen initially created Voice Dream Reader as a personal project for listening to text while driving or at the gym. It evolved into a true accessibility tool thanks to requests from users—a process Chen says totally changed his perspective on making apps.