When we think of the word dyslexia we often think of difficulties, differences or disability. This is true as dyslexia does cause a difference in the brain that means that we have difficulties with specific tasks. A high proportion of people who are dyslexic will have problems with reading, writing, spelling and memory. Now when we use a computer these difficulties can be supported.
Let’s concentrate on reading, spelling and memory. As a severely dyslexic adult I find all these areas very difficult and especially reading and spelling. So when I use a computer how do I get around these difficulties? I use ClaroRead Assistive Software for reading and spelling.
ClaroRead comes under the heading as a TTS or text-to-speech engine. There are many of these products out there including Text Help, Sprint Plus and many more, I will concentrate my blog on ClaroRead.
So I’ve used the ClaroRead product for about 10 years and probably in the last seven years is one of the first things that I turn on my computer, it runs there in the background for whenever I need it.
So what is ClaroRead, what does it do and how does it help me?
ClaroRead is what it says, it reads text to me, this can be from a webpage, a word document, email or any mainstream application, I’m able to use the software to read back either what I have written or what someone else has written to me. The software does a lot more than that, it allows you to scan other documents like a PDF, an actual worksheet or document you had in the post it will then convert it into accessible file and allow you to read it using the software. I currently use ClaroRead which has these additional features built in to scan and use OCR technology to convert documents or magazines into accessible files enabling me to read. Another great feature that it has is spellchecking and it will read out different words and when you hover your mouse over the word it will also read out the definition to you. The product has a great amount of usage. When I think about the product from an educational point of view it can help any individual to be a confident pupil as its main advantage is that when they are typing you can set the software to read out every word so as you type it allows you to listen the word and check the spelling of the word allowing the student to digest the content so it’s easier for proofreading or for taking content from the Internet. The benefit of the Claro Suite from an educational point of view is that it definitely is a brilliant way of working and pupils will get the same standard of help as using a human reader/scribe you can also apply to the exam board under the JCQ requirements to use this computer reader. Please do note though you have to get permission to use this and you can only use Claro SE as the software cannot have a spellcheck built into it.
I am an avid user of ClaroRead and have been for many years and love this product it works brillian tly for me in the workplace, in educational situations and a course in my personal life. Using the product can change people’s lives because it gives them the ability to read back and work as an independent person.
I recently did a webinar which was supported by Claro Software on using the product why not have a look.