We report observation of electric-field-modulated infrared absorption at room temperature in electrochemically self-assembled CdS quantum dots produced by electrodepositing the semiconductor in 50-nm pores of an anodic alumina film. The absorption is associated with photoassisted real space transfer of electrons from the CdS dots to surrounding trap sites in the alumina. Similar absorption was observed in the past [Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 4423 (2001)] and was the basis of a room temperature near infrared photodetector. An electric field modulates this absorption by altering the overlap between the wavefunctions of electronic states in the quantum dots and the trap states in the surrounding alumina, thereby affecting the matrix element for radiative transitions, similar to the quantum confined Stark or Franz-Keldysh effect. The ability to electrically modulate absorption in these structures can result in inexpensive infrared signal processing devices operating at room temperature.