By allowing the use of assistive technology, we can reduce some of the difficulties that students may face when being asked to read and process large amounts of text and when asked to complete written tasks and assessments. In the classroom, this often results in reduced content knowledge and understanding, reduced vocabulary development and poor ability to demonstrate their skills and knowledge at a level consistent with their overall understanding. Best of all, they are free to use!įor students who have literacy difficulties, reading for comprehension and producing extended written passages can be very challenging. Although there are many free and paid apps and software titles available, most devices that students are already using have both dictation and text reader functions built in. Most frequently we are asked about various apps and programs that can be used to allow students to have information read out to them (Text to Speech) and to be able to use their voice to produce written text (Voice to Text).
At DSF we are often asked for advice about what software should be installed on various computers and which apps should be downloaded on mobile devices.
