Other reading tools

Reading tools

ALL Reading curriculum- Accessible Literacy Learning (ALL) Reading curriculum for students with poor verbal skills. Available through Tobii for Windows or as print edition.

ATbar for Chrome: is free and allows you to change the look and feel of webpages, have text read aloud and spell check forms. One toolbar to provide all of the functionality you would usually achieve through the use of different settings or products.

Bard App free iOS/ Android (same requirements as Bookshare) audio books/info with human voice recordings. Have to fill out application (MN talking book).

Boba for Safari (Free) is a news reader with Spritz that allows you to read some of your favorite sources including Yahoo News, NYTimes*, CNN, WSJ*, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Forbes, Fox News, Yahoo Sports, Reddit, TechCrunch and Gizmodo.

Color Overlay for Chrome: Chrome Extension that can tint the screen the preferred color

Dyslexia friendly for Chrome: Increases readability of web pages by changing fonts to either Open Dyslexic or Comic Sans. The visual appearance of all web sites is also enhanced with odd/even background shading of paragraphs and a vertical ruler that follows the mouse cursor.

High Contrast for Chrome: This tool can make webpages easier to read by changing the colors to increase contrast, invert the colors, or switch to gray-scale.

Open dyslexic font for Chrome: Override all fonts on a webpage with the OpenDyslexic font, making the text more easily readable for students with reading difficulties.

Radio Talking Book free resource: news and information service that broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week to listeners across Minnesota and the nation. Broadcast daily newspapers, current magazines and periodicals, and a wide variety of books to appeal to a diverse range of interests. RTB is now available as an Alexa Skill on Amazon devices and through an app on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. You can also listen through our online stream. Whether listening online, through an app, or your smart speaker, you can listen to live programming, or catch up on your listening by choosing the archive. Programs are archived for one week.

Readline for Chrome: Although originally designed as a speed reading tool, you can slow the WPM rate down so students can use this to focus on one word at a time when reading to not lose their place.

Snap and Read for iOS and Google Chrome. It reads both accessible and inaccessible text aloud, it levels vocabulary,/text and it translates, delivering usage data to teachers who then can more easily assess students’ reading needs individually. $4.99/month with educators and parents getting free access with student enrollment.

Spritz Chrome Extension, Mac Safari Extension, online PDF reader, iOS app or Android app . A tool that presents one word at a time with a focal point, allowing the reader to focus on only that word without need for saccading eye movements, thus decreasing eye strain. Free, Pro version is $1.99 and allows reading of TXT, PDF, FB2

The Writing Machine $0.99 iOS- Explore and identify levels of engagement, ABC and QWERTY keyboard layouts with upper and lower case options, direct selection, single and two switch scanning access methods options. At the Explore level, tap any key on the virtual keyboard to hear the letter, see a picture of a word that starts with the letter and watch the word being written as the word is spoken aloud. Use the Identify level to work on letter recognition and discrimination. The Writing Machine will ask to find a specific letter, and then visually prompt the correct answer after three attempts. 130 vocabulary words are included!

Visor for Chrome: This screen overlay tool darkens out the page except for a horizontal band you can move up and down as you read, helping the student focus.

Text leveling tools/ resources for lower lexile reading skills:

Snap and Read levels text
ReWordify is free online. Simply paste text into the box and have it simplified or use provided documents. Can create printable learning activities and word lists from pasted text.
Text Compactor from Knowledge by Design summarizes copied and pasted text.
Newsela was launched in June 2013 and publishes high-interest news articles daily at five levels of complexity for grades 3-12 via a rapid text-leveling process.
News-2-You publishes digital and print versions of picture-supported weekly student newspaper in four different reading levels and a range of supporting activities. $250/yr
AI tools (like Chat GPT, Magic School AI, IEP co-pilot, Diffit, Chat PDF etc.) to decrease lexile to desired reading level. Most currently free.

Dictionaries

Read and Write has built-in dictionary and picture dictionary. free for teachers, 30 day free trail for students.

Kindle app and device have a built-in dictionary feature. Easy to use and additional dictionaries can be added.

CVI friendly reading resources

CVI Book Nook printable or online books (slides) with CVI friendly layout, free

Working with students with complex support needs on literacy skills:

Tarheel Shared Reader resources for school staff

Dynamic Language Learning Maps- assessment tool/ roadmap for ELA, Math and Science skills

Project VC- resources for progress tracking/monitoring for language skills

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