Read&Write App for MS Win, MAC OS, iOS, Google Chrome, Android devices and two other browsers

Review of Read&Write App V7.1 for Mac OS

Texthelp Read&Write has certainly come a long way since Texthelp Read and WriteVersion 2, where I was working for East West Computers in training a young Primary school girl in Year 4 at Wangaratta Primary School, a regional Victorian country town. It had the MS Microsoft‘Merlin” animated character with a very clear but robotic voice running on a very early model of a PC. It had some elementary features such a spell checker, a dictionary and text-to-speech. She thoroughly enjoyed the ‘talking computer’ as she struggled with spelling and particularly reading. She was rapt! This student could read anything on her computer that was text-based. It was a revelation to her, the teacher’s aide and her enthusiastic and supportive teacher. I remember her vividly skipping out to the recess break and immediately debriefing her friends about her new, clever computer!  

Texthelp, in Northern Ireland, now boast having six different tools to accommodate users’ preferred platforms including Mac OS, MS Windows, for Google Chrome, for Edge and for Firefox Browsers, iPads and iPhones as well as for Android-based tablets and Smartphone devices. They have an Asia-Pacific Team that covers a vast area, particularly all states and territories in Australia as well as New Zealand and parts of Asia. Europe and the Americas are well serviced. Texthelp now boasts having 18 Million users worldwide of their Read&Write program, and is now deemed as a mainstream tool as well as being one of the leading Inclusive Technology literacy support tools. It conforms to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in design, function and accessibility.

What Does the Read&Write App Offer

The MAC OS App, once downloaded and installed (and free for all registered teachers), is a floating toolbar and resizable, with many significant and enabling features. The modern graphic based icons represent various tools to help people of all ages and abilities handle and have success with text. It is fully customisable and uses colour graphics and sound to assist people with their class work, specific topics, assignments, tests and exams, workplace and training manuals and literature, study, research and comprehension of materials online or from printed media (using the OCR built into the App). Most importantly, it is also available for MS Windows, iOS, Android and on Chromebooks in various formats and functionality.

Time Marches On  

Things have changed since 1994. Twenty-five years (25) years later, and Read&Write is a veritable toolbox of powerful features that help, guide and assist people of all ages and abilities (as well as differences) who:

·      Struggle with writing

·      Struggle with spelling and particularly phonics

·      Struggle with reading

·      Find text hard to comprehend passages of text

·      Have a print disability

·      Suffer from Dyslexia

·      Suffer from Dyspraxia

·      Suffer from Dysgraphia

·      Experience the effects of Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and Meares Irlen Syndrome

·      Have an acquired brain injury (ABI)

·      Have ADD or ADHD

·      Have had a stroke and are recovering to continue education, training or re-enter the workplace

·      Have a learning disability or difficulty

·      Have a physical disability and need to have printed media scanned into text

·      Have a vision impairment and require text-to-speech (not as severe an impairment to require Screen Reading software such as Jaws or NVDA) Note: MAC OS has VoiceOver built in for text and Braille speech output from the screen.

·      Experience English as a Second Language (ESL)

·      Have been through school or college but want to compete in the workplace and be able to read and write

·      Have some hearing loss and would enjoy the Picture Dictionary and OCR features

·      Have some vision loss so would use the text-to-speech options, especially Read the Web functionality

Some New Features Included in Read&Write App

The toolbar can be aligned horizontally or vertically, or resized to a square or rectangle to assist users with eye gaze technologies or trackball and joystick users or people who have poor vision. A few of the new features and enhancements include:

·      The intuitive toolbar customisation feature

·      An all-new PDF Reader that allows users to access the many supports available on the Read&Write toolbar with PDFs

·      Web Reading and Highlighting in Chrome and Firefox browsers

·      Google Docs Support within Chrome

·      New Fact Folder feature

·      Fact Mapper is now supported in Chrome

·      Enhanced Daisy Reader (catering to blind and vision impaired users)

·      Updated and more accurate, faster loading Prediction and Spell Checking

The Floating Resizable Toolbar and Features

Working from left to right, the floating coloured toolbar comprises the following tools:

Check It   

The first feature is Check It. This tool will check for spelling errors. An option is for the App to speak suggestions while the mouse is “hovering” over the incorrectly spelt word. This is ideal for people who find clicking irksome or difficult, for some trackball or joystick users and for those who do not wish to click every time (particularly users who suffer from over-use syndrome or who may have carpal tunnel syndrome). This feature checks for spelling and confusable word errors.

Word Prediction

Word Prediction works on the frequency of use, the most likely spelling and use of phonetic rules to predict what the user wishes to type or spell. Read&Write has had this feature for many years and it has been enhanced to operate faster and more accurately. The App analyses the context of the new word in a sentence and tracks a user’s vocabulary and will prompt with up to eight words (all with a dictionary meaning and full text-to-speech support). 

Dictionary

The user is able to instantly clarify and define words as he or she enters them from a Bluetooth, USB, head pointer onscreen-keyboard, virtual, mini or enlarged external keyboard. User dictionaries can be added, as can individual words, with correct spelling and its meaning. Users can also opt to use the Web dictionary as well.

Picture Dictionary

This feature is ideal for children or users of any age (especially ESL students or adults with English as their second language), as the App will present pictures of words that users type into a pop-up window. Illustrations of commonly used words appear and they can be copied, cut or pasted into documents or web pages (ideal for educational blogs, interactive whiteboard software,  or Facebook etc). Note: I would like to see Texthelp enlarge the text that is entered into this dialogue box though. It really doesn’t accommodate vision-impaired users very well.

Verb Checker

The user types in a verb, and the App provides the correct tense and usage. If it is going to be used in the past, it parses the verb in the past or past perfect. It reminds me of my Latin classes at my Secondary School at Marcellin College in Year 11! The present and present perfect are provided as well as future and future perfect. E.g. to write - I write, you will write, she will write. By selecting the tense, the user can go back and forwards and learn English verbs and more importantly, HOW they are used! It’s fantastic.

Text-to-Speech

Text-to-speech, with coloured foreground and background highlighting, can be used at any time. Turning on the Read the Web feature means that users can just click anywhere on a web page and it will start speaking the text aloud. Mouse users who “hover” rather than left click, as well as trackball and joystick users and people using eye gaze technology, can access the web quickly and effectively. Karen’s and Lee’s Australian voices are available in addition to many other English UK and USA voices. Other languages are also available for free download, selection and use. This enables ESL and LOTE (Languages Other than English) to access web pages or documents in preferred languages. Text can be spoken as letters are typed, or by sentence or paragraph. 

Note: Installing additional free voices for MAC OS can be performed at any time. To access and clear instructions in how to install them, use this link.

Pause

The Speech will be paused. To continue, the text being read aloud will resume. Pause is a very handy feature. Students and teacher aides or SSO’s (school support officers) can stop the speech and discuss the contents of a document, note or scanned image and then continue after their dialogue. People in the workplace can pause the speech due to telephone calls or important emails being delivered and requiring attention.

Stop

The yellow square icon causes the current voice to stop speaking the text. Any text can be spoken aloud but sometimes a student or user may need to interrupt the speech, as the passage selected was too long or continuous speech is ticked in the Speech preferences.

Screenshot Reader

A very powerful and useful feature, Screenshot Reader will allow a user to select a section of the screen or display, in any app, program or web page, and highlight text. The OCR engine in Read&Write (Abbyy Fine Reader) will then covert it into accessible text and read it aloud from a new pop up window. This caters to users who cannot read the instructions from a game or website where the ’text’ s really a ‘picture’ of text. Or it may be used to capture text from a photograph. 

MP3 text conversion

Some users may prefer to have some text (for research, study or leisure needs) captured and converted into an MP3 or WAV file format. They can listen to the selected paragraph, page or pages of text as a sound file that can be saved on a USB stick, Smartphone, tablet or MP3 player of their choice. The text can be read aloud and heard through headphones or Bluetooth earpieces for private listening on a bus, train or at home or in a quiet space such as in a classroom or library. It is recommended not to save too large a selection of the text as navigating through a long MP3 file can be difficult (unless you have access on a computer to software such as Audacity – a free sound editing program for either Mac OS or MS Windows).

Scan (using OCR)

Abbyy Fine Reader OCR (Optical Scanning Reader) software is embedded in the Read&Write App. It is very accurate. It is used to scan the screen (Screenshot Reader) and from a connected OCR capable flatbed or handheld scanner. Many users have printer/scanners connected via USB. Any text from a page, leaflet, flyer, menu, poster, book, journal, newspaper, novel, user manual or textbook can be scanned and converted as one or multiple pages into MS Word, PDF or HTML (Hypertext Mark-Up Language) document. With one click! Users can set a countdown before the scanning commences. The App will automatically launch the desired application upon scanning as well. The OCR software can preserve the format so that the scan is identical to the printed media. One or multiple pages can be scanned.

Fact Folder

Users can select and highlight some text to be studied, or used in an essay or paper. They then click on the blue Fact Folder and a dialogue box immediately appears under the Toolbar with the Title, the Author and the Source ('e.g.' an Internet URL). Users of all abilities can append the source with additional information as well as a description. The source content appears below these sections. The Fact Folder can also capture and store images (taken from the Internet, a Word or Open Office or Google Doc or PDF – copyright laws being adhered to if appropriate or required). Users can Review their facts and cut copy and paste sections into their preferred writing or Office tool (One Note, MSPowerPoint, Pages, Libre Office etc) and create a new document or append an existing one. This is a marvellous study aid and caters to anyone studying, researching, collecting information on a topic ('e.g.' heredity or the Vikings) and gather facts from a variety of sources then reorganise edit and store them in a Google Doc or an App or Word Processor. Everything can be voiced too, at any time.

Translator

Selected text from any one of 54 languages can be translated to any other of those languages e.g. English to French or German to Italian. The user simply selects text from a document. PDF or web page and chooses the language used (i.e. From) to the required language (i.e. To). Then the user needs only to click on the Translate button. It’s that simple and that powerful. 

Screen Masking

This is an ideal tool for users requiring a coloured contrast so that they can locate and track text from any source onscreen, using a white (or other preferred colour) onscreen ‘ruler’ as it were. Once the mouse (or trackball or joystick or trackpad) is used to move the masking up and down the screen. This accommodates users with Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome or Meares Irlen Syndrome. The colour and size of the mask can be altered in Preferences.

PDF Reader

PDF Reader will open any PDF file (Portable Document Format). PDF Reader opens PDF files on the user’s computer, CD, DVD, USB pen or thumb drive or external hard disk and provides options to zoom in, rotate the document, print it, quickly scroll through it and display thumbnails of the pages. Most importantly, users can listen to any text in the document simply by clicking on a sentence. It will read back the text with the user’s preferred voice, the desired rate of speech and colour highlight. It provides quick and easy access to any PDF. Many high schools, Universities, TAFE and training colleges distribute lecture and tutorial notes in PDF format. Now students or employees can read and listen to eBooks, user manuals, class handouts, catalogues, magazines or documents downloaded from the web. PDFs can also be opened and viewed in the free Preview App on the Mac or users can use Acrobat Reader or any PDF tool they may have on their iPad, MS Windows device or Chromebook.

Highlight Yellow

Users are able to highlight text (for study, research, exam preparation, note taking etc) in yellow. The user can then collect or add more sections from any source on their computer (e.g. from Wikipedia, a history-based website, course documents, policy document) and keep adding until they have completed the task. All of the text would be ‘common’.

Highlight Green

Users are able to highlight text (for study, research, exam preparation, note taking etc) in green. The user can then collect or add more sections from any source on their computer (e.g. in an MS Word document, newspaper article or exam study notes) and keep adding until they have completed the task. Pink and blue highlights are available too.

Erase Highlights

Essentially this tool erases all of the highlighted text in yellow, green, blue or pink. The document reverts to the original copy. It works beautifully on the web (e.g. in an encyclopaedia, user manual, policy statement, Facebook or email account etc). The user can start again and gather different data or facts using the highlighters.

Collect Highlights

This not only ‘gathers’ or collects the highlighted text in yellow, green, blue or pink, but also creates a new dialogue box where the user can elect to have lines between each coloured section. It is an ideal too, for users who have ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) or EFD (Executive Functioning Disorder). Essentially, it is an intrinsically valuable tool for any student, teacher aide or assistant, educator, trainer, facilitator, trainee or parent who wishes to gain quick access to any text with common characteristics.

Vocabulary Lists

Users are able to create any number of Vocabulary Lists and add one or more words (with or without images, including the popular Widgit Symbols frequently used in Special schools and classrooms to a new or existing list. Lists can be topics being studied in various subjects or curricula or words from a novel or book being studied. 

Preferences

This is the tool to ‘set up’ or customise the App for the user. Features include Appearance; Customise Toolbar; Dictionary; Web Search; Prediction; Screen Masking; Screenshot Reader; Similar Word Checker; Speech; Spelling; Check It and General plus more. These features are all customisable and will provide educators, Speech and Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, workers and trainers the ability to work with their students or clients and create a toolbar with one or more of the available tools to accommodate skills and negate deficits or difficulties. It conforms to best practice and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles (i.e. the Why, What and How of Learning).

Daisy Reader

Daisy Reader accommodates and caters to people who are vision impaired or blind. It is an auditory format that makes documents more accessible with powerful navigation tools and functions. DAISY books have the benefits of regular audiobooks, but they are superior due to the embedded navigation levels (currently six in the DAISY 3 standard), the content (i.e. other objects such as images, graphics) and displaying synchronised text to speech. DAISY books can enable users who are blind to navigate an encyclopaedia. An encyclopaedia as a regular audio book would be useless because it lacks search and navigation features and requires a linear ‘listen’. They are also very popular with students who have dyslexia or for people with a print handicap. Free Daisy Books can be download from many sites, including https://www.daisy.org/education. 

Web Search

A person enters in a string of text (e.g. ships of the ocean) into a new dialogue box and the default browser on the user’s computer launches.  A new tab appears with the content displayed in front of them. On the Mac, I frequently use SIRI to create new text using voice dictation. It is also so simple to search for a topic using a standard, virtual, mini or enlarged keyboard or by simply talking into my desktop or Bluetooth microphone!

Talking Calculator

The Mac has a calculator that has a speech option. This icon launches the well-known and loved MAC OS Talking Calculator. It also has a number of handy conversion algorithms that convert currency, length, area, power, speed, pressure, temperature, time, volume, the energy of work and weights and masses. Often dismissed, it is a very handy app, especially as it can voice calculations. It is an excellent STEM tool.

Forward

The speech will move Forward by one sentence at a time by clicking on the right facing green coloured double arrow icon. It provides for quick navigation, as the user might want to ‘move through’ text quickly and skip certain sections. It is ideal when navigating and listening to web pages. It is also a great tool, for people using eye gaze systems such as tobii products or when using ‘hover’ on a user’s mouse or trackball device.

Rewind

The speech will Rewind to the previous sentence by clicking on the left facing green coloured double arrow icon. It provides for quick navigation as the user might want to move backward ‘through text’ quickly in order to re-read a sentence for study purposes or as revision so as to remember the contents. The user, if interrupted by a phone call or SMS or by a teacher aide or assistant (SSO) who is assisting him or her with their document or web search, might use Rewind to listen to the previous sentence again.

Check Spelling

The user highlights a word, sentence, paragraph or entire document. The App will then open a new dialogue box, Spelling Helper, with the dubious word marked in red within a sentence. Suggestions are listed on the left-hand side with the most likely optioned positioned on top, as a Selected Word. The definition for each word in the list is provided for each selected word. Everything in this dialogue box can be read aloud if required. The user may elect to Change the word in the document to the selected word, Change All Occurrences of that misspelling throughout the entire document, Add the Selected Word (as it might be slang, colloquial speech, a new Proper Noun, a local commonly used word, a character’s name from a book or novel, an unusual spelling of a name, or idiomatic speech). Or it can be ignored – possibly a made-up word used just for fun. LOL.

Similar Word Checker

The Similar Word Checker (or homophone support) will check words that sound the same but have different meanings (e.g. there, their and they’re; or the words ‘revue’ and ‘review’). Frequently users include these words in a document but they are being used in the wrong context. They are not incorrectly spelled and so the spell check does not ‘pick them up’ and correct them. Indeed, it is a unique very useful and handy tool.

Features

When the user clicks on the Grey Cog preferences icon, a list of Features appears in a panel on the left-hand side of a new dialogue box. To the right are the features that can be customised and changed, at any time. This is where the user or someone assisting or teaching them can change how the App operates. These settings or preferences can be changed to accommodate a user’s needs, including vision, visual acuity, reading ability, typing and spelling abilities, the user’s use of homophones and dictionary knowledge and vocabulary proficiency. The ‘Who’, ‘What’ and ‘How’ of learning is therefore at the user’s fingertips (UDL)!

Appearance

Spelling errors can be coloured as can foreground and background highlighting colours when text is being read aloud. Similar words can also be coloured. The font size can be set from small to larger to the smallest size with a sliding visual scale. The program default can be set back to a factory setting.

Customise Toolbar

This is where the user can alter the Toolbar’s performance and appearance as well as functionality.  Small or large icons can be displayed with or without text descriptions. The toolbar colour background options include nine (9) options. The Toolbar can be launched on computer start-up and docking is enabled. Each feature can be turned off or on at any time. Each feature has a tick box to check or uncheck. This means that a user may need only editing and research tools turned on and active.  They are only confronted with a limited set of features that may be useful in language classes, for example. In maths, they might choose a different set of features. Once again, the App can be set to a default factory setting.

Dictionary

A user can access the inbuilt dictionary, turn on the Web dictionary, add new words with the user’s own definition (e.g. parents might add some words discovered in a homework task and describe the words in a meaningful way for their child). An advanced dictionary can be selected as well for people with appropriate vocabulary skills and understanding. Once again, everything can be read aloud.

Web Search

A default browser can be selected from choices including Google, Bing (from Microsoft) or the now ubiquitous and popular Wikipedia.

Prediction  

When users use Word Prediction, the App can learn as a user types, can add a space after the word is predicted and added to the text and include spelling suggestions. Different word banks can be activated with the ability to add new word banks (e.g. when studying a novel or textbook or examining and researching a different culture or religion). 

Screen Masking

This is very comprehensive and caters to people with Meares Irlen Syndrome or to people who work long hours at a computer screen and experience fatigue. The screen can be tinted as a whole or part thereof. The opacity and colour can be selected as well as being made more transparent or opaque. Users can opt to use the mouse spotlight when tinting the whole screen with a specific selectable colour. This spotlight (acting as a virtual ‘onscreen ruler’ can be thick or thin). 

Author’s Note: I would like to see a vertical Mouse Spotlight in the next version of this App for when people are working in columns (e.g. in spreadsheets and tables).

Screenshot Reader

A user can elect to use block highlighting or outline highlighting. The dialogue box can be automatically closed after reading too. The outline weight can be set from 1 to 5. The area of the screen that was ‘shot’ can be displayed on screen in a rectangular box (and the text read back to the person) or sent straight to MS Word. Screenshot Reader enables users to capture any text displayed on the screen in any App or from a PDF or website game, shopping site or social media page. Text from photos can be captured too!

Similar Word Checker  

Users or helpers can type in a confusable word such as ‘too’ and the App will list all of the similar sounding words (i.e. to, too and two). The App will include similar words in the list as well as ignore words (for example, words that have little meaning or relevance to the user due to their age, cognition or word knowledge and usage). It can be restored to a default at any time if so desired.

Speech

Text-to-Speech is built into a Mac. It is also available in MS Windows V10. The user can edit the voice settings on their Mac OS device and have continuous reading turned off or on. Speech can be deployed as the user types by word, sentence and/or paragraph. Read the Web makes accessing the Internet so much easier. The person merely has to pause over some text and it will be voiced aloud immediately. A pronunciation editor is available for users to phonetically ‘sound out’ words that the voice mispronounces. People in New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and Australia could all potentially pronounce the same word quite differently. Even in regions in the same country, this can occur! A button can be clicked to hear the selected pronunciation. Words can be added or deleted.

Spelling

A List of Custom Settings displays newly added words to the App. The program can ignore words containing digits (e.g. some music groups or website or product names). It will order the suggestions based on content and a maximum number of suggestions can be selected (e.g. 4 or 8).  A fantastic diagnostic tool is where a Spelling Log can be displayed in a new dialogue box. It will display the error made, the correction chosen by the user, the count (how many occurrences) and when it was last logged (date and time). This list is dynamic. It can be cleared or Exported. This is a powerful way to demonstrate to a teacher or trainer the number and frequency of spelling errors made and the corrections chosen. It clearly shows competency and a rich history of spelling attempts and corrections. Speech and Language Pathologists love this feature, as do many educators. I consider it an invaluable function of this fine literacy and research support tool.

Check It  

Users are able to select an option where the Read&Write App will speak suggestions by just hovering over them (ideal for eye gaze users and trackball, or joystick users). A list of custom spellings is displayed in the dialogue box.  If a user finds an error that the App doesn’t check, then the person can click on “Let Us Know About It”. This allows Texthelp as a company to update their dictionaries and improve the efficacy and accuracy of their software. This is a great feedback option and one that just makes sense!

General

This is locked. Note: Only people with Administrator rights to the computer can lock or unlock this General Feature item. Updates can be set so that users can set the App to check for updates daily, hourly, daily, weekly or monthly. When the user clicks on the ‘Go To Texthelp Essentials’ button, it links to the user’s default browser and the user or administrator can enter the Serial Number or ProductCode. This provides the user, School Administrator, IT Tech support person or parent to start their licence or to renew it. 

Note:A potential trap for some users! I positioned the floating toolbar as a vertical toolbar with my screen displaying 2560 x 1440 pixels on a 27” screen monitor. Once I selected an option in Settings (the grey Cog Wheel) I could not respond and agree or cancel the feature I had selected as the display extended below my physical screen display area. I was befuddled. My solution was to locate the Apple menu, click on Force Quit and then re-start the App. All was well. I think it’s more prudent to resize the toolbar as a smaller block of icons (two, three or four columns) and so this will not happen to a non-Apple user or a student whom cannot problem solve their way out of it. A solution: for Texthelp to place an option for Vertical or Horizontal display in the program’s task bar icon where the toolbar can be ‘flipped’ at any time with ease.

For Educators  

The Read&Write App is free for all registered teachers to download and use themselves. This is a wonderful initiative as educators can learn the software in their own space and time, then accommodate students or trainees that require assistive technology for their studies. The various features empower students of all abilities and provide appropriate supports and tools to demonstrate their skills, abilities, reasoning, and understanding of classroom content and become confident and successful in any subject or class.

Students with dyslexia have tools such as text to speech; text to sound file (e.g. MP3 or WAV format to listen to on their more portable devices such as Smartphones or iPods); screen masking (a tool that will speak or read aloud ANY text on ANY site or program, even if it is embedded in a photo or graphic of text in an online game); word prediction (with accurate ‘guessing’ of the word being attempted); and web tools for study, research or for leisure options (e.g. reading the instructions for a magic trick on a themed web site).

Useful Links and Resources

List of Dyslexia and other LD Relate Resources: https://headstrongnation.org/list-dyslexia-and-other-related-ld-resources

SPELD in South Australia: https://www.speld-sa.org.au/resources.html

LD Online: https://www.ldonline.org

LDA: Learning Difficulties Australia: https://www.ldaustralia.org

Dyslexia Daily: https://www.dyslexiadaily.com

LD Resources Foundation: https://www.ldrfa.org

NDCO resources: https://www.adcet.edu.au/ndco/

ADCET: Australian Disability Clearing House: https://www.adcet.edu.au

Learning Difficulties and Dyslexia (in Victoria Australia): https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/reading/Pages/default.aspx

SERU in South Australia: https://web.seru.sa.edu.au

Jim Sprialis Consulting: https://www.sprialisconsulting.com/about.html

CALL Scotland: MyStudyBar(part of the EduApps series of free literacy support tools)

CALL Scotland – WordTalk – a free plug-in for MS Word - https://www.wordtalk.org.uk/home/

JISC: https://www.jisc.ac.uk

PowerTalk: https://sourceforge.net/projects/powertalk/- It will provide text to speech feedback for PowerPoint slideshows

Access Toolkit for Education (2016): https://www.academia.edu/2509680/Access_toolkit_for_education

CAST – Universal Design for Learning - https://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.XGOQIS1L1dA

Other articles by Gerry Kennedy: https://www.spectronics.com.au/blog/author/gerry/

 Texthelp YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/TexthelpSystemsUS

Licences – Subscription Based

Please note that Read&Write App is SUBSCRIPTION based - meaning that the licence will be only available for use for 12 months from the date of purchase and must be renewed each anniversary of purchase. This is the ONLY real downside of the software. Subscriptions are expensive as parents or schools have to budget each and every year to have the software or App installed and running. It’s a hassle for parents to remember to re-subscribe, it is an extra duty for the Inclusive Technology Coordinator to impress upon the school to re-purchase it every year and a hassle for the IT Department to deploy or redeploy the software on the various devices, especially if it’s a BYOD campus or a multi-campus school, University, TAFE, Technical College, Training School or College, workplace, home or Institution!

Having said that, Read&Write has embedded into the App other programs such as Abbyy Fine Reader (OCR engine) and SAPI 5human quality voices, the colourful Widgit Symbol Library and is continually updating the software and features. An investment of AUD $300 gives the user access to all of the other Read&Write licences on MS Windows, Chromebook and iPad, so there is intrinsic value for money, especially when it enables a person to be independent, confident and included. If it is installed on a user’s Chromebook or MS Windows Notebook or tablet, they have a literacy and study toolset available 24/7. 

Another advantage of the subscription model is that the student's/school's software is always fully up-to-date, meaning that students have access to all new features as soon as they are released. There is no having to wait until the school upgrades and no more issues arising from incompatibility with latest operating system releases.

Pricing

Read&Write App - 1 Year Subscription                  $300.00 AUD  

Fluency Tutor for Google - 1 Year Subscription                  $165.00 AUD

EquatIO - 1 Year Subscription                  $176.00 AUD

Note: There are also licences for schools and Universities with bulk subscription licences and the pricing is online.

App System Requirements on Various Operating Systems and Browsers

Read&Write for MS Windows

?                1 Gigahertz (GHz) or faster x86-bit or x64-bit processor  

?                WindowsXP SP3(or above)

?                512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)

?                2 GB Free Disk Space

?                Speakers, Sound Card, Microphone (for speech input)

?                Internet connection for certain features and installation and licence renewal

Read&Write for Windows USB

?                1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster x86-bit or x64-bit processor  

?                Windows XP SP3 or above

?                512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)

?                USB 2 Port

?                Speakers, Sound Card, Microphone (for speech input)

?                Internet connection for certain features

?                PDFaloud requires Adobe Reader X or XI or Acrobat Version 9, X or XI

Read&Write 7 MAC OS System requirements

Read&Write for Mac 7.1 is fully compatible with MAC OS Mojave 10.14. 

?                Intel Core 2 Duo.

?                1.83 GHz processor.

?                Mac OS 10.7 to 10.14.

?                4 GB RAM (Recommended 4 GB RAM or greater)

?                4 GB of free disk space

?                Sound Card and internal or external speakers

?                Internet connection for certain features (download, registration, subscription renewal, licence)

?                Optional: 300 MB disk space for TexthelpVoices.

Chrome Extension

Read&Write forGoogle Chrome provides support tools for the web and common file types accessed through Google Drive, including:

?                Google Docs

?                Google Slides

?                PDF

?                ePubs

Read&Write for Android

This is an alternative keyboard for a user’s Android tablet. It offers several friendly tools to help if users are composing emails, creating documents or entering and editing any genre of text.

Users can employ Read&Write for Android for everyday typing, just like they would use their Android tablet’s normal keyboard. Reading and writing text is made quicker, easier and more accurate with these features:

?                Speech with dual colour highlighting

?                Speak as you type

?                Word Prediction as you type

?                Spell Checker

?                Dictionary with integrated Picture Dictionary

Other Products from Texthelp

EquatiIO?    

This is a very useful aid for the teaching and learning of mathematics and caters directly to STEM(Study of English and Mathematics) teachers and students at all levels. EquatIO? lets everyone create mathematical equations, formulas, Desmos graphs on their computer or Chromebook.

 Input has been made easy. Users type, handwrite, or dictate any expression, with no tricky coding or maths languages to master. There is an expansive and growing library of ready-made expressions to save users time. Resources range from simple formulas to complex functions. 

When the user is finished their maths work, they simply add the math to their MS Word or Pages document with a click.

Fluency Tutor

Fluency Tutor caters beautifully to busy teachers. Fluency Tutor helps students of all ages and ability levels to become more avid, engaged and confident readers. It presents teachers with a clear picture of every child’s reading attainment and progress over time.This easy-to-use app allows students to quickly and effortlessly record themselves reading aloud on their laptop, Chromebook or tablet, away from the stress and embarrassment of reading in a classroom environment. 

In Summary

Read&Write App on the Mac is quite a stunning program as it has so many useful, functional, practical and innovative features and tools. Users can change the orientation and colour of the floating toolbar, have large or small icons with without text descriptions, change the appearance of the text with foreground, background and highlight colours, use word prediction, spell checker, dictionary, vocabulary lists, open PDFs and listen to ANY text in a document or cover text to an MP3 format, access PDFs or any screen content (Screenshot Reader), listen to websites just by clicking into a page, scan printed media (ideal for users with a print handicap), use screen masking (Meares Irlen Syndromeusers), collect and highlight common text in up to four colours, check for similar words (i.e. homophones) and so much more! No wonder Read&Writehas 18 million users worldwide. A flexible, comprehensive, powerful literacy study and research toolkit for any user, of any age, fit for any task, the Appis available in different formats on popular computer platforms, tablets and available for three popular web browsers.

The review was written by Gerry Kennedy in February 2019 ? running MAC OS Sierra 10.12.6 with 12Gb RAM using MS Word 2008 and Read&Write App V7.1 (demo copy) for Mac OS  (on a desktop Mac). The author acknowledges Texthelpand its web graphics as holding Copyright to that company and all illustrations and screen dumps are for review purposes only.

NOTE:  For users in Australasia and Asia

A team of expert trainers, being either teachers or an Occupational Therapist will be able to answer any questions or provide schools, Universities, TAFE Colleges, training colleges, parents and individual users of forthcoming Webinars or training events in the user’s state or territory. The team frequently presents material at Expos and Conferences. Follow them on Facebookas well to keep up-to-date. Free 30-day trialsof the Apps are available at www.texthelp.com/trial. A team of six people is ready at any one time to answer telephone and email enquiries – link to https://www.texthelp.com/en-au/sectors/education/. A very informative support page is available at: https://support.texthelp.com/help/readwrite-for-mac.

For more information, pricing, training and support in Australia email the Texthelp team based in Queensland at: [email protected] Phone: Australia + (07) 3394 8468.

Note: MS Windowsfloating toolbar (below) and Widgit Picture Library(above right).