As a dyslexic high school student my iPad, with a number of assistive apps, has become a very valuable tool. With my iPad I can read and fill out a PDF using text-to-speech, read a book with Voice Dream Reader, or map out my ideas with Inspiration Maps.
The iPad mini is a perfect size for my needs allowing me to read
sitting up, or reclining comfortably while listening to a book. Before I
got the iPad I would either be tied to a computer to read using
text-to-speech, or reading on the tiny screen of my iPhone. Here's a list of my favorite iPad apps and how I use them to help me both in and out of the classroom.
Voice Dream Reader is a text-to-speech
reading app that allows users to read a wide variety of files through
the app. The app includes the ability to buy very high quality
text-to-speech voices for use with the app. Voice Dream Reader allows
you to highlight important parts of a passage as you read along.. One
of my favorite features is the ability to download and read Bookshare books from within the app. Currently Voice Dream Reader does not support Bookshare
books with images, but hopefully will add that feature in the near
future. In all Voice Dream Reader is a must have for anyone who prefers
reading with text-to-speech.
Read2Go is another app for reading Bookshare
books. Bookshare provides accessible digital books to members. Using
Read2Go users to keep their books at their finger tips all the time. The
app has a choice of two text-to-speech voices. While Read2Go does not have as many features as Voice Dream Reader the support it has for books with images is a plus.
The free Learning Ally Audio app
allows Learning Ally members to download and listen to their audio
books on the go. The app has useful features such as bookmarking and
playback is easy to control and customize. Learning Ally is starting to
add digital text to some of their books so users can follow along with
the text while listening to the human narrated audio book.
PDF Expert 5
is a new addition to my iPad home screen. The app includes polished
annotation, editing, and management with easy to use built in text-to-speech.
Using the app I am able to read a PDF worksheet with text-to-speech and
complete the worksheet with the annotation features. PDF Expert can
also connect to your Google Drive or Dropbox for easy upload and
download.
Inspiration Maps
is a mind mapping app perfect for pre-writing and getting your ideas
out onto paper. Inspiration Maps makes it easy to make great looking
webs and outlines on the go. I like using Inspiration Maps to get my
ideas flowing when I have to write about a difficult topic. Inspiration
Maps also has a more kid friendly version called Kidspiration Maps.
Prizmo is one of my all time favorite apps. With Prizmo you can take a
picture of text in a document and Prizmo will recognize the text using
optical character recognition (OCR) then the app can read the text back
to you using text-to-speech. Prizmo also is a great scanner allowing you
to snap a picture of a document and save or share it as a PDF.
Kurzweil 3000-firefly - Free
Kurzweil 3000-firefly is a app that allows you to view and read
Kurzweil documents that you store online. The app is free for users that
have a Kurzweil 3000-firefly licence. Users can save a Kurzweil document to firefly from
their computers and then view and read the document using
text-to-speech. The service is helpful for people that use Kurzweil
frequently and want to read documents while on the go. Firefly can also make sharing Kurzweil documents to multiple people much easier.
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