Kurzweil 3000 and textHELP

Kurzweil 3000 and textHELP! (a.k.a. Read and Write) are two wonderful technologies for students with learning disabilities. I like to think of them as digital readers. One can scan pages from a book or download .txt files into Kurzweil 3000 and then the they can have it read to them. The reading voices have improved tremendously over the years and sound pretty good. Kurzweil 3000 also has study tools that allow the students to highlight (change colors) text, record notes and even make footnotes. It also can be use for writing as it will read as one is typing, ensuring that the student is typing what they think they are typing. It can also be customized for each user.

textHELP! Is one of my favorite programs because it opens on top of other applications and can read whatever can be copied. For example, if I wanted to have this blog read to me, I'd open textHELP! select a paragraph and press the speaker button. It is such a great tool. It can be customized for each person. Customizations include voice, speed, volume, pitch and more. It too is a writing tool that reads words as they are typed. One great feature is the word prediction tool. This tool is so helpful for younger students. As students are typing they can type, "th" and the prediction tool will list words such as, "that, than, the, their, them, they, etc." and the students can then find the word they want and either type it in or press the associated key.

Both of these programs are outstanding tools that I'd recommend to anyone.

These two programs are great and really help with reading and writing!