Many school districts are moving to a 1-1 technology model, where students are provided with a laptop or tablet and much of the curriculum is provided electronically. Text-to-speech features allow text to be read aloud to students who may struggle with reading. Here are some of the assistive technologies I use to help these kiddos.
Text-to-speech
Read&Write for Google: offers several features that may help struggling readers. The basic version is free including text-to-speech, This program is developed by Texthelp, and is also available for use with Microsoft Windows. Here is the link for the Quick reference guide https://goo.gl/TYp1Vt
Basic (free) features:
Text-to-speech reads text aloud
Translate
Practice Reading Aloud
Voice typing (this is also free in Google docs in “Tools”
Premium (additional) features:
Talking and picture dictionary
Word prediction
Factfinder
Highlighters/collect highlights
Vocabulary list builder
Voice notes/speech input
Simplify web pages
Annotation/enter text on PDF’s
Here are some text-to-speech options:
- Learning Ally, Bookshare-books
- Read&Write for Google (all)
- ClaroRead Chrome& Cloud OCR
- Kurzweil
- Voice Dream
- *WordTalk
- *Natural Reader
- *http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-text-to-speech-software
AT4OTs 