Laptop keys with brightness settings available as function keys
“Because with my dyslexia, bright colours give me a headache. I dull it [the screen] down so that I can sit at a computer for a lot longer… I get headaches when I drive at night, as well. I like typing on blue but when I print it out it remains normal like black text on white. The dullness prevents me getting headaches and I can concentrate for longer.”
Andrew – nursing
“I would find that when I am reading poilicies which have so much text to read, I go to the summary and then use the find and just go to the specific bit. If you know you need a specific item such as ‘consent’ – then use Ctrl +F [Command +F], add the word to the search box and find it directly.”
Amber – nursing.
This week, I talked with Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, about the time he spends with random people studying how they search for stuff. One statistic blew my mind. 90 percent of people in their studies don’t know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page! I probably use that trick 20 times per day and yet the vast majority of people don’t use it at all. (Alexis Madrigal)
vBookz PDF Voice Reader
“I’ve just tried a different vBookz app [from the one that offers free Audiobooks – 30,000+ classics read aloud with text to speech]! Its called vBookz PDF Voice Reader. It is a free PDF TTS app and will read directly from a PDF, so you see the page as it should be, not just plain text. It uses a moving box, rather than highlighting – the box surrounds the word currently being read. The screen shot shows how the reading speed is controlled and page control.”
The company provide a quick overview of the vBookz PDF Voice Reader app on YouTube.
Neil – Psychology
Balabolka logo
“Free Balabolka will open unprotected ePub files (and pdfs), but not protected ones like library books. Balabolka has options for changing font style, colour, size and background colour. It can use the free MS voices or any voices you have with other programs, and speaks with highlighting. It does not preserve presentation or images.”
The on-screen text can be saved as a WAV, MP3, MP4, OGG or WMA file. The program can read the clipboard content, view the text from CHM, DjVu, DOC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, ODT, PDF and RTF files.
Here is a video with Craig Mill showing the use of Balabolka being used with MyStudyBar
Jean – Dyslexia support
“…the library staff help and give me guidance – don’t sit in silence and suffer! Probably when you find something you just save it, then it takes so long to find it again. I made, on my memory stick, a reader library and I put all my texts in folders in alpahbetical order so I do not have to go through the whole search process again which is more eye strain. I just make up folders with certain headings and then you can go straight there – It is handy that each one has a date so that I can see ones from the previous year.” Microsoft File organization tips: 9 ideas for managing files and folders.
Amber – Nursing
“I like the double screens and I like ATS (Assistive Technology Service room) as it is quiet – the two screens help because you are able to look at two things at the same time rather than flick back and forth having to flip between things. I do not have a good short term memory so to look at things and compare is good otherwise I forget things. I cannot remember what I have just read, so I have the text up on one screen and then make notes on another.”
Sarah – Philosophy and Economics