Traditionally, scholars who have difficulties in reading and writing, have to rely on others reading and writing for them. There are many support tools available to make reading and writing less of a challenge. Here are some of our most popular offerings:
VISUAL STRESS TOOLS
Some people experience visual discomfort or disturbance when they read. Common symptoms that may significantly impair reading ability, or make reading very tiring, include:
headaches and eyestrain associated with reading and/or other near work
text appearing blurred or going in and out of focus
text appearing double or alternating between single and double
difficulty keeping place in text
difficulty tracking across lines of text
discomfort with brightness of the page or contrast between text and background
text that appears to shimmer or flicker
Many people with dyslexia also experience symptoms of visual stress and may find it difficult to read text on a white background. Luckily, there are options to help:
READING RULERS
Simply read the text through either of the tinted plastic strips from the choice of colours and track down the page.
The ruled line underlines the text and assists tracking (preventing losing the place when reading or copying) and combines the glare reduction benefit of reading through a coloured overlay.
READING WINDOWS
Made of a plain window of transparent plastic that both underlines the text by the use of an opaque line and highlights it in a coloured tint. Assorted colours in each pack.
COLOUR OVERLAYS
A great alternative to reading rulers, freeing up both hands for writing or typing. Coloured overlays can increase reading speed by 25% or more for people who suffer from visual stress. The overlays have a shiny side and a matt side to provide improved usability over a range of lighting conditions. Reading from the shiny side gives a subjectively crisper appearance to the underlying text, but can reflect overhead lighting. The matt side trades slightly decreased clarity for less reflection.
TINTED EXERCISE BOOKS
Individuals with Visual Stress often find it as difficult to write on white paper as to read from it. Features 15mm ruled lines with a shadowed area for the x-height of the letter and soft lines as guidelines for the ascenders and descenders of a letter.
TEXT-TO-SPEECH SOFTWARE
Traditionally, if an individual was not able to read with comprehension, or read too slow, another person would often read text to that individual, especially for assessment purposes. Technology can empower such individuals to work more independently, by using software designed to read back text in all 11 official languages.
CLARO READ
Claro Read offers many useful tools in addition to reading text in Word and pdf formats or web browsers. It has built-in tools to combat visual stress (as described earlier), mind-mapping tools and you can save text as audio or video files for later use. Claro Read has been extensively tested with the locally developed Qfrency Synthesized voices and works brilliantly.
PENFRIEND
Penfriend XP is a powerful tool for those with dyslexia or physical disabilities, adding word prediction, speech and an on-screen keyboard to almost any other software. Works with your word processor and tries to guess the word you are typing when you have entered the first letter, the second letter and so on. One key press then finishes the word for you. It also learns the words you use frequently and recently, so it improves as you use it. This information is saved for each individual user, together with individual settings. In addition, it is easy for teachers to select preferences, edit the user's lexicons and add topic specific vocabulary.
VOICE-TO-TEXT OR VOICE TYPING
Dragon Naturally Speaking is a speech-to-text software title. You can even control your computer through voice commands alone! If you have both Claro Read and Dragon Naturally Speaking installed on your computer, you can access dictation through the Claro toolbar – this way you don’t have to switch between different programs as you work. Unfortunately, Dragon only facilitates dictation in the following languages: Home version (English, French, Spanish) and Professional (Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish)
For Afrikaans speakers, Google Docs offers a feature called Voice Typing that supports dictation in Afrikaans. Your computer needs to be connected to the internet in order to use Google Docs.
SPELLING AND NUMERACY SUPPORT
Wordshark and Numbershark are both software titles aimed at children aged between 5 and 16. Spelling and sum lists are converted into games, allowing children to learn whilst having fun. The import of custom lists are allowed, so teachers can tailor activities to the needs and themes of the class.
VOICE RECORDERS
MICROSPEAK RECORDER
Easy to use, record voice messages at the touch of a button. Useful for both students and teachers alike – take down homework, reminders, important information etc.
For even more ideas to support individuals with reading and or writing difficulties, refer to our full catalogue. Or call us for a chat, one of our advisors would love to assist you in finding the right solution for you!