Text to Speech

Try Before You Buy

About NDX

NDX (National Digital Exchange) is a government platform that helps public sector organisations discover, evaluate, and adopt digital solutions.

Overview

Learning Artifact: This is a pre-deployed demonstration environment for learning and exploration, not a production-ready product. Use it to understand how AWS text-to-speech services can improve content accessibility.

Deployed and ready - no setup required. When you request this sandbox, you’ll receive access to a fully configured text-to-speech system that’s already running and ready to convert text to natural-sounding audio.

This Text to Speech scenario demonstrates how local authorities can use AWS AI services to automatically generate audio versions of written content, improving accessibility for residents with visual impairments or reading difficulties.

What you’ll explore

This sandbox includes a working implementation using:

Amazon Polly - Text-to-speech service with lifelike voices in multiple languages and accents
AWS Lambda - Serverless compute for orchestrating the conversion workflow
Amazon S3 - Storage for text inputs and generated audio files

In plain English: You’ll explore converting text content to natural-sounding audio for accessibility - like making council newsletters, service updates, or important notices available as audio files for residents who prefer or need to listen rather than read.

Learn More

Before requesting your sandbox, explore the scenario documentation to understand what’s deployed and how to interact with it:

View Text to Speech scenario details

Getting started

Select “Try this now for 24 hours” above
Accept the Acceptable Use Policy
Receive AWS SSO credentials via email
Access your sandbox environment through AWS Console
Follow the scenario guide to convert sample text to audio and try different voices

Why this matters for local government

Text-to-speech for accessibility can:

Improve inclusion by making content accessible to residents with visual impairments
Support diverse needs including residents with dyslexia or literacy challenges
Extend reach by offering audio versions of important communications
Meet accessibility requirements for public sector digital services

This scenario lets you evaluate whether automated audio generation could improve your council’s content accessibility.

Constraints

Budget limit: $50 maximum spend (sufficient for extensive exploration)
Duration: 24 hours from activation
Purpose: Evaluation only (non-production use)
No cost to you - the budget is provided by NDX:Try

Important Notes

Resource Lifecycle Warning: All resources in your sandbox will be automatically deleted when your session time expires OR when the budget limit is reached (whichever comes first). Do not store important data in this environment.

Before your session ends

Export any configurations or code snippets you want to keep
Download generated audio files you want to keep
Document which voices and settings work best for your content
Note any limitations or quality considerations

How this was built

This scenario is built with open source infrastructure as code. You can view the CloudFormation template, understand how it works, and adapt it for your own needs.

View the source code on GitHub (opens in new tab)

Build your own

After exploring this pre-deployed scenario, use the Empty Sandbox to build your own solution from scratch. The Empty Sandbox gives you a clean AWS environment where you can experiment freely.

Explore more scenarios

Empty AWS Sandbox - Start fresh with a clean AWS environment
Council Chatbot - AI-powered resident services
FOI Redaction - Automated sensitive data removal
Planning AI - Intelligent document analysis

Troubleshooting

Try button not working? Make sure you’re signed in to NDX
Did not receive credentials? Check your spam folder, or wait a few minutes
Cannot access the scenario? Ensure you’re using the correct AWS region (us-east-1)
Budget exhausted early? Some services have higher costs - contact support if unexpected

Support

For technical issues during your sandbox session, contact the NDX team at ndx@dsit.gov.uk.