Feature | | Associated Products | |
|---|
Text to speech with highlighting: - Assists students with cognitive difficulties by providing auditory support. Text-to-speech is a useful tool as students can hear what they’ve written and rectify any mistakes that they may have missed.
- Students can hear what is being read aloud and track the words on screen with coloured highlighting, helping them to process the information more efficiently.
- Improves auditory reading speed and productivity as listening to information supports memory.
- Hearing and seeing the words can increase word recognition.
| | Read&Write EquatIO ClaroRead | |
Save to Audio: - Some students are much better at listening to text than reading it. While ClaroRead’s standard text-to-speech can handle large documents, it may be even more useful to save them to audio files – effectively converting them to an audio book
| | ClaroRead | |
Check It: A dyslexic phonetic spell checker that helps to solve complex spelling and grammar mistakes. - When highlighting an error, Read&Write offers an example contextual sentence. Allowing the student to make a decision on what suggestion is appropriate for the error.
- Promotes independent, autonomous working.
- Recognises faculty specific words for medical, pharmaceutical, engineering and legal courses with the Read&Write for Professionals add-on.
- The Check It feature can learn from the student's type of language to make more accurate and pertinent correction suggestions to their area of study.
| | Read&Write | |
Word Prediction: - Supports the construction of contextually correct sentences.
- Expands students' vocabulary through the provision of language. This is particularly beneficial for students with dyslexia who self-limit their vocabulary.
- Students can concentrate on the content of their work rather than struggle with spelling, helping them to produce error-free documents and assignments.
- *Global Autocorrect corrects spellings automatically to cut down on distractions.
- **Recognises the student’s style of writing for future recall.
| | Read&Write ClaroRead Equatio *Global AutoCorrect **Read&Write and Global AutoCorrect only | |
Screen Masking: - Can be altered to specific prescription colours, providing a helpful screen tint.
- Screen overlays can be used with the reading ruler which aids tracking when reading large bodies of text. This supports students with cognitive load difficulties, by narrowing their focus to individual paragraphs.
- Screen rulers help students focus as they read.
- Specifically helps students with Irlen Syndrome, a perceptual processing disorder which affects the brain’s ability to process visual information. This can also be referred to as Meares-Irlen Syndrome, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, or Visual Stress.
- *True Black feature tints the background while leaving the rest unchanged.
| | Read&Write ClaroRead *ClaroRead only | |
Dictionaries: - *Dictionary definitions, which can be read aloud, helping students to quickly look up the meaning of a word.
- Using Global AutoCorrect means spelling mistakes can be automatically fixed before students notice. This cuts down on distractions from red underlines.
- Advanced dictionaries offer grammar assistance and thesaurus support, supporting the student in thinking around the subject.
- For students with Dyslexia, dictionaries support those with short term working memory who may forget the meaning of previously known words.
- The picture dictionary provides the student with a visual representation of a word, to help with memory recall.
- The Read&Write dictionary feature is laid out in a much more user friendly manner compared to a conventional printed dictionary.
| | Read&Write *Read&Write and ClaroRead only Global AutoCorrect ClaroRead | |
Highlighters: - Students can colour code pieces of work for easier processing of information.
- Read&Write enables you to collect your thoughts and take notes with coloured highlighters.
- ClaroCapture allows the user to capture information in multiple colours from Word documents, and integrates with ClaroPDF.
- Writing Helper has a markup tool where the user can have any number of colours to highlight evidence to be placed within a document structure.
| | Read&Write Writing Helper ClaroCapture | |
Scanning support: - A useful research tool allowing students to collect and collate information from the internet and documents. It then automatically creates a bibliography upon collection.
- Students can colour code pieces of work for easier processing of information.
| | Read&Write ClaroRead Writing Helper ClaroCapture | |
Maths to speech: - Both ClaroRead and Read&Write can read maths aloud for students.
- Provides auditory support for students with cognitive difficulties.
- Improves auditory reading speed and productivity as listening to information can aid memory.
- Students can also track information as it is read aloud.
| | Equatio Read&Write ClaroRead | |
Handwriting recognition:- A handwriting tool interprets handwriting that can be hard to read.
- Information is easily understood by the lecturer/examiner, making sure no marks are lost in translation.
| | Equatio | |
Playback function: - Playback speed can be changed which can help those with poor short term memory or dyscalculia. By slowing the voice down, students have a better chance of understanding and recalling information.
| | Equatio ClaroRead Read&Write | |
Visual overview: - A ‘Visual overview’ instead of long lists – reduces the reliance on working memory and reading.
- Students can understand projects at a glance with minimal reading. The ‘Visual overview’ makes it easier to process and retain information.
- Shorter, grouped lists are easier to sort than dealing with one long list.
| | Global Tasks Writing Helper | |
Light/ dark mode: - Students who have reading difficulties can comfortably read the content in a mode suited to them.
- Dark mode reduces eye strain and is particularly helpful for those with Irlen syndrome.
| | Global Tasks ClaroRead Writing Helper | |
Colour coding: - Colour-coding is a commonly used strategy for many dyslexic students. Colour coding tasks moves the processing from cognitive processing (reading) to visual processing.
- Users can instantly see the groups of tasks and having colour-coded them, they will see what their top three tasks are about, without having to read them.
| | Global Tasks Writing Helper | |
Intelligent corrections:- When you make a mistake, the software analyses the sound patterns in the word to understand what you're trying to spell. This intelligent correction happens instantly.
- Add your own corrections. If the software's not quite sure what you meant, it won't just guess. Instead, you can pick the word you meant and it will be autocorrected in the future.
- Improve spelling by working on it in your own time.
| | Global AutoCorrect | |
Speech recognition: - A speech recognition tool such as Nuance’s Dragon may be recommended for students who have severe difficulties with writing. ClaroRead and Read&Write both integrate easily with Dragon software.
- ClaroRead can also “echo back” what Dragon has recognised, to make sure that it has understood dictation correctly.
- For students using Macs or Chromebooks, ClaroRead uses macOS or Google’s own speech recognition. Students can click ClaroRead’s Dictate button, dictate text, and it will be entered into their current application.
| | ClaroRead Read&Write | |
Audio notes- Record speech directly into documents.
- Students with difficulty writing can use this to make their own notes, or to work informally with their study group or tutor.
- Makes collaboration easy.
| | ClaroRead Read&Write Equatio | |
Mind mapping: - This can help with research, planning, outlining, studying and presenting.
- It can help neurodiverse students to organise their thoughts, as well as break down complex problems or handle complicated instructions.
| | ClaroRead | |
Reference management:- Keeping tabs on references and citations can be complicated. It’s easy to miss one, but using these tools will gather the information and produce the bibliography automatically. This removes a lot of potential stress for students.
| | Writing Helper ClaroCapture Read&Write | |
Writing process and structure:- Use technology to organise your written assignments, like essays, reports or dissertations. Follow a linear, structured approach starting with an assignment question and a deadline.
| | Writing Helper | |
