Ghostreader software software#
Ghostreader software professional#

One is the Intel Reader, a device that can plug into a laptop for reading on-screen texts and also takes snapshots of, say, a newspaper page to be read aloud. Students with severe reading disabilities may benefit from computer programs that can scan words and “read” them aloud via synthesized voices, some of which sound uncannily human. And be aware that even the most well-designed technology can only accommodate a disability, not erase it.īelow is a sampling of the most popular assistive technologies on the market today.

Ghostreader software professional#

Kamil advises consulting with the professional who has evaluated the student. A text-to-speech processor might actually slow down the latter student because reading text silently is much faster than hearing it read aloud.īefore rushing to spend $100 for a smart pen to $1,500 for the color version of the Kurzweil 3000, Mr. One student may have such bad dyslexia that reading is virtually impossible while another has only a mild case. “There is great variation” in learning disabilities, he says, and the utility of a technology may depend on the severity. Kamil, a consulting professor at the Stanford University School of Education and an expert on adolescent literacy and technology, warns that not every product is going to be useful. The idea is that assistive technologies - like spell-check - should be useful to anyone, not just the disabled.īut Michael L. That’s a textbook example of “universal design for learning,” a set of principles for designing technology that many educators, as well as the United States Department of Education, have embraced. Riccioli’s interest in voice-enabled technology derives from his teaching job at University of Paris-Dauphine, where he uses it himself to write and plan projects for his own students. “All went well with his test on the book,” Mr.

His son listened to the file on his iPod while reading along.

Ghostreader software software#

Riccioli transformed the book into an MP3 file using software called GhostReader, which scans texts and reads them aloud.

Take the case of Michael Riccioli, who noticed that his teenage son was not comprehending a novel assigned in class. In his district, at least 90 public schools are using Dragon Dictate, a voice-recognition program that does the typing for you. “These technologies help level a playing field for individuals who would not be able to demonstrate their capabilities as learners,” says Brant Parker, director of learning and innovation technology for the Calgary Board of Education in Canada.

From pens that can remember to text that can talk, such technologies are now being held up as important tools for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, dysgraphia (trouble writing) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Thirty years later, an ever-growing array of assistive technology is available to help students read, write term papers and take tests.

In the 1980s, with the introduction of word processing programs like WordPerfect, it became apparent that computerized proofreaders could come to the rescue of struggling spellers and bad typists. YOU might say it all started with spell-check.