Readplease

This may be seven years old, and it may be cut and paste, but I think that this is still one friendliest pieces of text-to-speech other there. Its beauty is a simple download, easy to access interface, large symbols, and control of the key elements, namely speech, font size, it has several voices, and word highlighting. You can adjust the pause between paragraphs (to consolidate your thoughts) and adjust colours (e.g. for highlighting). You could even have it start on startup, and read your own text. How about "I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you." In case you do not recognise it, it was spoken by the computer Hal in Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey.

ReadPlease 2003

Ivona Mini Reader

I rather liked this little reader. It is free, and has a good voice.

Ivona MiniReader

Natural Reader Text-to-speech

Inspired by the comment left by Lis yesterday, the next TTS to consider at is NaturalReader. This is free software which comes in two versions: cut and paste or a Floating Bar (see bottom left of the image above).

It is downloadable free, and uses free microsoft voice. If you want higher functionality, such as saving files as audio, you need to pay for it.

Natural Reader

Text to speech voice

I am currently writing an article about text-to-speech, and therefore a number of the entries will be about that work. Today, I give you the list of all the voices I know of that can be used for text-to-speech. If you know of others, please let me know. As far as I know, these can all be used with other software such as Balabolka.

List of Voices

Balabolka text-to-speech software

When it comes to Text-to-Speech software, there is so much out there that it is hard to find a recommendation. But today I have one. And what is more, it has everything I could ever imagine needing, which is a far cry from much of the others which appear to have been not full through through. It is also multilingual, so you can line it up with any voice you wish and have the menus in the right language.

Balabolka

Online text to speech

Here is a review of the current top ten online text to speech systems.

Top 10 Text to speech

Riot - Radical Image Optimization Tool

This is a wonderful little tool that gets better with every update. Pictures can be very useful, as part of coursework, or illustrating a point in a presentation, or a website. But it is always good to have it at the right size, to speed up loading, and for when you email it. The latest version now has Brightness and Contrast control.

RIOT Download

Skype Screenshare

People keep asking me where they can find Screenshare in Skype. It is difficult to explain without ..... screensharing! So here is a little video I have prepared.

Skype Screenshare

Claro Capture

While recently looking for a "research" tool for capturing text from the internet, I came across Claro Capture. Well worth having a look at. It is reasonably cheap (around €20) and there is a free trial.

Rather than list all the feature (most of which are best seen visually on their webpage) just click on the link for details.

Claro Capture

Presentations reaching a new level!

It is not often I am impressed by a presentation. But just look at this one!

Prezi example

I have noted Prezi (http://www.prezi.com/) on this website before as possibly being dyslexia friendly. But this it the best sample I have seen so far.

Online assessment - in Bosnian

Free online screening / assessment is now available online at this website.

Bosnian Profiler

Adystrain - supporting those supporting dyslexia adults

"ADysTrain is a project for trainers in the field of adult training and for high-level personnel in leadership position as well as high and mid-level management. We want you to look again at those you work with. We want to help you understand how to get the best from those who may have reading and writing difficulties, and may need a different approach to learning than others."
Adystrain

How to study guides

An excellent site on how to study, with many wonderful tips.

How to study

SpLD web site

This website is a guide for educators, employers and parents to help children and young people in the preparation for their transfer from one educational establishment to another or on to employment. Developed by the Dyscovery Centre.

SpLD Transition

Blog to ponder

I was recently pointed towards this blog. You may find it of interest.

Dyslexic Storyteller Blog

13. Online study skills for higher education - iSheds

It seems that the iSheds study skills guide for students is now available online in English. Languages to follow include Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Hungarian and Romanian.

You will find it on the iSheds website (www.isheds.info) under study skills.

11. Back - Ultra backup

I could not resist what could be called the ultimate backup - 256 GIG of memory. I don't remember to back up often enough, but this could help. Normally I have to pick and choose what to transfer to storage. But that required thinking, which these days I have little time to do. So I would love one of these. But at a slightly lower price!

256 Gig

09. Text to speech on the move

It seems that Captura has moved onwards and upwards. Check out their web site for the latest on this software that can be on your mobile phone which allows you to take a photo of text and have it read back to you. There is even a 30 day trial.

CapturaTalk

08. Web site of the week

This is a great web site for dyslexia research. Not sure who runs it, but good job!

Dyslexia Research

SBD

Sorry but due to Specific Blogging Difficulties (personal) I have been unable to update this past week. I hope to return shortly.

# end

18. Note taking

As the website so clearly puts it, "A.nnotate is an online annotation, collaboration and indexing system for documents and images, supporting PDF and MS Office formats. Instead of emailing different versions of a document back and forth (e.g. with a tutor) you can now all comment on a single read-only copy online. Unlike online word processors, the document is displayed in high quality with fonts and layout just like the printed version. It is easy to use and runs in all common web browsers, with no software or plugins to install." I have no more to add (except I am curious about that "magnifier"!)

Annotate

17. Dyslexia friendly

I decided to look up "dyslexia friendly" on the internet, just to see what appeared, thinking there may be something with respect to ICT. I am delighted to say that I found this - the section on "Using ICT to support dyslexic pupils" in the BDA's Dyslexia Friendly Schools pack.

Dyslexia Friendly ICT

16. Useful websites

Most of us take YouTube for granted. But it can be a little daunting for some. So here is a very brief introduction to how to get started in what is often seen as a sea (see?) of confusion.

Using YouTube

15. Search and research

Intute is a great site for researching subjects, putting a lot of material in one place. Unfortunately, there is a question of sustainability beyond August 2010. But at least until then, it should be a good source of information. In particular, look at the Internet training.

Intute

14. Computer hardware - Monitors

While many are heading for smaller and lighter laptops, do not dismiss the joy of using large screens. The latest from Dell is a a 24 inch high spec screen for $339 (£260/€290)with a massive 1920 x 1080 resolution. We are not talking about size for the sake of it. To me this is equivalent of having the floor space to spread everything out and see it (every document) all at the same time. So I no longer have to remember what is where.

Of course I did see a computer lecturer with three 24 inch screen last week. But that would be greedy, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it?

Dell 24 inch monitor

13. Supporting students

I was desparately looking for a video to recommend which had ideas about study and support. I reviewed far too many which were just inappropriate. Then I suddenly realised that I was going about it the wrong way. Instead of having them watch a video, why not ask the student to make a video on "Study Tips for Friends" or similar. That will require planning and understand what they need to do. So use it as a method to help them understand themselves better. Here is one short example.

Tips for studying

12. Books to download

According to the Guardian, there are now more ebooks to download onto the iPhone (27,000) than there are games (25,400). And with the iPad set to launch next month, are we going to see the start of the accessible book age? A nice thought, but there is still a long way to go from 27,000 books that are mostly free and fiction to the provision of school and university text books that are mainstream. But while luddite authors and publishers talk about protecting their profits in a world where their products can be more easily photocopied that you can copy a music CD, it is easy to see the author of the future writing for an e-publisher, and then you can pay for and download a technical book in the same way as you do with music. And the author gets paid the same way as a musician. And illegal reproduction? If I pay for it, watermark it with my name, and that will limit any urge to pass it on.

Here is another budding ebooks site - Getfreebooks

11. User preferences

Here are ten tips about preferences, from Dyslexia in the Digital Age:
1. Where the e-learning environment can be changed, change it.
2. Provide feedback to designers and content managers about the dyslexia-friendly nature (or not!) of their website.
3. Where modifications cannot be made in the learning environment, see if it can be copied and pasted into another program such as Microsoft Word.
4. Talk to other users of the program.
5. For chat and messaging, try composing in Microsoft Word (with their spellchecker) and then copying into the chat zone.
6. If the site is password protected, make sure it is written down in several obvious places.
7. Make printouts wherever possible. These are often easier to annotate.
8. Use text-to-speech to access content, if necessary copying the text into another environment.
9. If it does not work, do not assume that it is only you that has the problem.
10. Do not assume that everything has to be done by the computer.

10. Comments - Policies

I do get some feedback from readers, but not a huge amount. But today I would like to make a specific request. What do you think should be in legislation with respect to technology and dyslexia that would be fair and easy to implement? This is not an empty questions, but one that will feed a project I am looking to pull together with respected friends and colleagues across Europe.

You can either email me direct, or post a comment here.

Thanks.

09. E-Readers

This website does a short review of a series of e-readers, asking if the iPad is overprices and has a place.

Lifehacker E-reader comparisons