Accessibility

​Most of these programs are freeware.  In some cases, users can utilities for a specified period of time or for a specified number of trials for free. Once you have reached the limit, you will need to register the program and pay for a licensed copy in order to continue use.

NaturalReader- NaturalReader is a text to speech software which may convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpages, PDF files, and eBook into spoken words. NaturalReader can also convert any written text into audio files such as MP3 or WAV. NaturalReader has an OCR function which can convert printed characters into digital text. This allows you to listen to your printed files or edit it in a word-processing program to PDF files, webpages, e-books, e-textbooks, office documents and even printed books.

Read Write Gold-Read Write reads web pages and documents aloud to improve reading comprehension, understand unfamiliar words with text/picture dictionaries, and develop writing skills with word prediction. Subscription required.

SayPad- SayPad is a simple software application that provides users with a simple means of converting user-input or uploaded text to speech, as well as save the results to a WAV file.

ZoomText- ZoomText is a fully integrated magnification and screen reading program that enlarges, enhances and reads aloud everything on the computer screen. Features customizable enhancements to on-screen colors, pointers, and cursors, complete screen reading, easy to use document reading tools, and so much more. Subscription required.

Save as DAISY Add-in for Word- You can convert Word documents into DAISY Digital Talking Book (DTB) format by using the Open XML to DAISY XML Translator (Save as DAISY) add-in for Word. After you install this add-in, you can save Word documents that are in Open XML format as DAISY XML, so they can be converted into the DAISY DTB format.

Live Scribe- A ballpoint pen with an embedded computer and digital audio recorder. When used with Anoto digital paper, it records what it writes for later uploading to a computer, and synchronizes those notes with any audio it has recorded. Purchase required.

Scanmarker- Slide Scanmarker across the printed text you would like to scan and watch it appear instantly on your computer or smartphone. Purchase required.

NOTE: Unless the original document was set up using accessible tagging features, most PDFs cannot be efficiently read by screen readers. Some PDFs are scanned pages of the books, not the actual print documents.  For those situations, PDFs must be scanned with an Optical Character Reader (OCR) text layer in order for read-aloud software to recognize text.

ClaroRead- A standalone accessible PDF reader, which is available as a 15-day free trial. It will read Microsoft Word, Adobe Reader, OpenOffice/LibreOffice and Internet Explorer with speech and highlighting so you can follow the text as it is read out by high-quality human-sounding speech.

Creating Accessible PDFs- Tagged PDF files make it easier for screen readers and other assistive technologies to determine a logical reading order and navigation for the file, as well as allowing for content reflow when using large type displays, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones.