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There are many forms of AT that help a student with reading. This page focuses on the high-tech ones, specifically text-to-speech software here.
In terms of resources to use with these programs or access in alternate formats than just print, the Alternate Education Resources for Ontario has a bank of resources. Click here to check out the site and search the resources.
Kurzweil 3000
Kurzweil is a very versatile software. It allows users to scan text into the program, read text off the internet or another program. Users can highlight, make notes, answer questions, look up words, create summary study notes, etc. It can also provide synonyms, break words into syllables, or even break words down into individual letters. It has the ability to output summary notes based on what the user highlighted to print or work with in Microsoft Word.
WYNN
WYNN has similar features to Kurzweil 3000. It reads aloud, highlighting the words as it goes. It promotes a simple environment, with rotating toolbars, and the ability to begin using it in minutes. Users can scan in documents, highlight, and look up definitions and synonyms. It allows users to read webpages, and a feature I really like, is the ability to blackout extra information on webpages to focus attention on the important material being read using WYNN's WebMasking feature.
An advantage to WYNN is it is cheaper than Kurzweil 3000, although both are fairly costly software.
Premier
Premier offers a suite of AT programs including word prediction, text-to-speech, and scanning features. Premier allows you to read a whole passage, word by word, or letter by letter. Just like the other programs you can change the voice and speed. You can highlight, add notes, and bookmark. One thing that I found by watching the tutorials is Premier looks more complicated in some ways. For example, to read letter by letter you use the right arrow key; to read word by word you hold Ctrl and press the right arrow key. The other programs have buttons in the menus and less keyboard commands that need to be memorized. Another thing I didn't necessarily like is the use of tabs within the menus, similar to Microsoft Office. For some students that makes it more difficult to find buttons than if they were out and in the open all the time. Also, just to open the program the user has to select the icon on the desktop which opens a menu of all the programs within the Premier Suite; for young students that additional student may cause difficulties.
Premier is by far the cheapest of these three software.
Kurzweil Educational Systems also has a free iPad app called Firefly that allows users to access any of the resources in the Kurzweil Universal Library (includes over 2000 documents and any the user has uploaded through Kurzweil 3000).
More information regarding Kurzweil 3000 can be found here at their site including a free 30 day trial.
Below are some YouTube videos outlining the features of Kurzweil 3000.
Section 1 - Intro, Open, Close, Main Toolbar
Section 2 - The Reading Toolbar
Section 3 - Study Skill Toolbar and Creating MP3s
Section 4 - Study Skill Toolbar [Continued]
Section 5 - The Writing Toolbar
The following YouTube videos show some students using Kurzweil or explaining how it has benefited them.
Shelby Nurse is a young woman with cerebral palsy, however, that has not stopped her from cheerleading, horseback riding, and attending college. Watch her video here.
Renita Pitts' is a woman with a learning disability but that hasn't stopped her from achieving great things. Listen to her story of someone who cared, her use of Kurzweil 3000, and what she is doing now to help others. Watch her video here.
Tracy Brookshire is a mature student who struggled with college but with the assistance of Kurzweil 3000 is excelling and plans to further her education even more. Watch her video here.
This teacher uses Kurzweil 3000 in his whole group lessons. He uses it to demonstrate study skills, including highlighting, summarizing, looking up new vocabulary, etc. He then is able to give a copy of the note they create as a class to each student, eliminating the need to write notes.
Below are some videos outlining the features of Premier.
E-Text Reader General Tutorial
E-Text Reader Highlight & Extract Feature
Free Software
In addition to the many expensive forms of text-to-speech software, there are also various free programs and apps.
NaturalReader offers software for purchase as well as a free version. The free version allows you to convert any written text (Microsoft Word documents, webpages, emails, or PDFs) to speech. The features are limited to changing voices and reading speeds. However, this program does not require text to be copied into it, it simply reads what is there.
Microsoft Narrator is the feature built into Microsoft Windows 7. It is very limited in its capabilities, but it is a basic on-screen reader.
Google Chrome, and many tablets offer text-to-speech apps. Speak It is the name of the app by Google.
Obviously these are good starting points and great when working on tablets and iPads, but in terms of ability and versatility, the software mentioned above have more study features and tools.
This site includes a whole list of free text-to-speech software. Click here to go there now.
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