Assistive Technology

Text-to-speech

Text-to-speech is a type of assistive technology that converts text into speech.

Phone/Tablet

• Built into Android is an option called Select to Speak. Once enabled, all you have to do is tap on the information you want to hear spoken.
• If you have a phone running Android, you can ask the Google Assistant to Read it Aloud. There are a few limitations, such as it cannot read articles that require a subscription.
• For iPhones, you can turn on Speak Selection under the Accessibility tab in the settings.

Web-based

• Read Aloud is a Chrome extension that is fairly easy to use. You can highlight the text and then press the Read Aloud icon to activate the speech.
• You can drag and drop files or type, paste and edit text in the online version of Natural Reader.
• Microsoft Edge has a built-in reader called Immersive Reader.

Desktop

• You can have your Mac read text to you.
• Natural Reader reads any recognizable text on the screen and is available for Mac or Windows. The free version is limited, but still pretty good.
• Balabolka is a document reader that also converts to MP3. It is free for Windows users. 
• The Read Aloud feature is available in Microsoft Office 365, Office 2019, and Office 2021 for both PC and macOS users

ePub Readers

• You can install Thorium Reader on a Windows computer.
• Calibre can both read ePub files as well as convert them to PDFs.

Kurzweil 3000

• Kurzweil 3000 is both a Chrome extension that can read text on the web as well as a website that you can upload documents to for reading. If you are approved for this technology, DAR will provide you will login information.
• Watch how to login and start reading a document (video) or learn how to upload documents to Kurzweil (video).

Note Taking

Livescribe Smartpens

Livescribe Smartpens record audio and “link” to notes taken in Livescribe notebooks. Pens can be checked out by students approved for this accommodation.

Glean

Glean is a note-taking tool that allows to you record audio and flag moments as important while in class. Afterward, you can review the recordings and processed transcript. Glean has many helpful tools to improve studying as well.

AudioNote 2

AudioNote 2 allows you to type notes, write notes, record audio while taking notes, organize notes, pick the paper and pen, annotate PDF PowerPoints and more. It is available in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Windows Store.

Otter.ai

Otter.ai records audio as it transcribes in real time. You can highlight and edit the text as you go or after the recording is processed. After the recording is processed, you can playback at 0.5x, 1x or 2x. The processed recording identifies speakers and generates a summary keywords and word cloud, and you can search by keywords. Introduction Video to Otter.ai. There are limited features for the free version.

ASR Voice Recorder

ASR Voice Recorder is only for Android and it records audio in multiple formats, such as MP3, FLAC, and M4A. There is also integration for uploading to Dropbox, Google Drive and others. Features include things like playback speed controls, the ability to automatically skip silent parts of a recording, and support for Bluetooth devices. 

Notability

Notability app by Ginger Labs is iOS only. There is a cost to this app but it is worth it! This app combines handwriting, photos and typing notes using a variety of note taking and sketching tools. Also, it includes an annotation tool for PDFs. View a Prezi about the features.

SoundNote

SoundNote is iOS/Mac only. You can type or write out your notes while the audio recording is synced to each word or pen stroke. You can tap on the word and then the play button to play back what was being said at that moment in the audio recording.

Word Prediction

Desktop

• You can turn on the Text Suggestions on Windows 10.
• Microsoft Word has predictive text options.

Web-based

• You can turn on Smart Compose for Gmail.
• If you are approved for Kurzweil 3000, there is an option to use word prediction.

Screen Readers

A screen reader is a form of assistive technology that converts text and image content into speech.

Windows

• Narrator is a screen reading program built into Windows 10.
• NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is an open-source screen reader for Windows developed by NV Access. You can download NVDA onto your computer. Learn how to use NVDA.

Mac

• Mac iOS provides VoiceOver for screen reading. Learn how to use VoiceOver

Captions

• If you have a phone with Android, you can turn on Live Captions for Android. 
• Both Google Meet and Google Slides have the option to turn on automatically generated captions.
• Zoom has live transcriptions.

Voice-to-text

Windows

• If you have a Windows computer, you can use Speech Recognition. It is free to Microsoft users, but it doesn’t offer the best accuracy.

Mac

• If you have a Mac computer, you can use Voice Control. It’s main function is to allow you to control your computer with your voice, but it can type as well.

Other

• Microsoft dictation lets you use speech-to-text to create content in Office with a microphone and internet connection. This feature is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.
• Google Docs Voice Typing is available in Docs and Slides.
• If you have an Android mobile device, the Google Gboard is a reliable text-to-speech app.

Other

There are also native accessibility tools available in both Windows and Apple products.