“One major issue I have had since the start of my schooling life is, when my hands quickly cramp up and I cannot write or hold a pen without extreme discomfort. This has meant that whilst note taking and exams as examples, I find it difficult to write. I have slowed down the mouse speed. With my shakes I end up double-clicking everything. Also, I can only use an optical mouse and I can’t use a touchpad…”
Jim – Information Technology in Organisations
“Text to speech is really useful when you are writing and proofreading – it makes me stop when I leave out words and when I create words that don’t exist., I was given TextHelp Read and Write Gold and I use the scanning for my manuscripts. Add the picture to Word and make comments in the margins.”
Becky – Medieval Renaissance Culture.
“I use an Electronic Dictionary for foreign languages such as Russian. It is a Franklin handheld dictionary and it is easier to use than a paper based dictionary also less scary than my Latin dictionary!”
Becky – Medieval Renaissance Culture.
“I use Gtalk or Google talk as a way to chat with friends and collaborate – sharing files with those who also have Google accounts. It is possible to see entire conversations and to ‘sync’ them with a Google account on your PC. I am also on a Google Group about hearing discussions.
Rajaram
“I would like to see a strip highlighter for text with and without TTS. It would highlight a line but the user needs to have the choice of how many lines can be highlighted. I don’t use any strategies like this at the moment but I have worked with individuals who are VI [visually impaired] and use similar strategies for reading.”
ClaroRead and TextHelp Read and Write can be used with the text to speech turned off and just use the settings for highlighted words, phrases and sentences.
However, if you do not need text to speech then there is the option to use an overlay such as the Claro screen ruler separate from ClaroRead or the free FX software T-bar, which is also available in Arabic.
Anirban – Computer Science
“I use Inspiration for mapping out topics then add keywords and explanations, perhaps with the different verb endings – Then I have a paper based colour coding system when I am revising that highlights those endings.”
Becky – Medieval Renaissance Culture.