Assisted Technology

Apps

Prizmo (i-phones/i-pads but not androids)
You can take a photograph of text and the app will read it to you.

Siri (i-phones/i-pads but not androids)
Siri lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, make phone calls and more.

Dictaphone / Digital recorders
Useful if you need to record meetings/lectures or record things that you need to remember.

Free
Most mobile phones have voice recording facilities.

To Buy
Amazon has a wide range of dictaphones.

Echo Pen
Useful if you need to take notes while listening to lectures/meetings.
An echo pen allows you to record something and make hand written notes. Later on, when you wish to hear that part of the talk again, you tap on the relevant note and it will repeat that part of the lecture.

To Buy
http://www.livescribe.com/uk/

Speech to text software
Useful if you can articulate what you want to say, but struggle to write/type it down.

Free software
Word 7 and later editions of Word have speech recognition software.

To Buy
Dragon Naturally Speaking.
http://www.nuance.co.uk/dragon/index.htm

Text to Speech
Useful if you find reading blocks of text difficult or time consuming.

Free software
Balabolka http:// balabolka.en.softonic.com/

To Buy
Ivona (more natural voices to use with Balabolka) http://www.ivona.com/en/voices/.

Read Write or Read Write Gold
http://www.texthelp.com/UK.

Editing software:
Useful if you can spot mistakes in text when they are read out loud, but struggle to read out loud or spot them in print. It can also read you the meanings of words so you can check that you have not confused two words.

To Buy
Read Write Gold
http://www.texthelp.com/UK.

Mind Mapping
Useful for planning/structuring longer pieces of writing.

To Buy
Inspiration
http://www.inspiration.com/

Other Free Resources
Ability Net – Offer free online webinars: http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/advice-info/webinars

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