New Add-On for OneNote Benefits Students with Dyslexia

Microsoft recently made a new add-on available for its OneNote software which aims to help students with dyslexia. The add-on works within Microsoft's note taking software and is currently available to download as a beta. Once installed, a new tab appears which gives users the option to read content using text-to-speech or dictate using speech-to-text. While both of the features have been available before it is nice to have a free option that can be used directly within OneNote: an application that many schools and parents already have installed as part of the Microsoft Office suite.


The text-to-speech reader mode is called "immersive reading mode" and includes some handy features. When activated the reader fills the entire screen with text from your OneNote notebook. While reading text is highlighted as it is read aloud. Users have the option to change the background color and text size in order to create a more comfortable reading experience. The add-on also includes the ability to highlight nouns, verbs, and adjectives in different colors; a feature that could be helpful for younger students. Microsoft even includes the ability for users to break words up into syllables.

It is exciting to see the fruits of Microsoft's enhanced accessibility initiatives. While the new features are not novel they seem easy to learn. Since the "Learning Tools" are free for OneNote users and easy to learn they may prove to be a great starting point for people new to assistive technology. Microsoft seems to be increasing their focus on accessibility. Recently, the company announced a new Chief Accessibility Officer and a reorganization of accessibility teams. Hopefully, with the new reorganization, "Learning Tools" is just the beginning of Microsoft's accessibility improvements.

The "Learning Tools" add-on available as a free download for Windows. Click here to learn more and download the add-on.

New in iOS 8: Hands-Free Siri and Improved Dictation

Apple's voice activated features have received some new features as part of iOS 8. Siri is a virtual voice activated personal assistant that can answer your questions, call your friends, check the weather, and much more.  Now it can  be activated hands free by saying, "Hey, Siri." Previously, users would have to press and hold the home button to activate Siri.

The new feature will allow people with physical disabilities to easily activate Siri. The hands-free activation feature does have one major caveat: the device must be plugged in and charging. Users who need or want to access this feature on- the- go can purchase a battery case to utilize this feature. It is possible that future iOS devices will not require a power source to use the "Hey, Siri" feature.

In addition, when dictating a question to Siri or dictating text into an app the recognized words appear almost instantly after being spoken. To use dictation bring up the keyboard and then press the microphone icon next to the space key. With words appearing as you speak it is easier to identify mistakes which makes the dictation process faster. Dictation can be a useful feature for people who struggle with spelling and people who have difficulty using a keyboard. These features are available for devices running iOS 8.

OS X Mavericks Enhanced Dictation

Apple's newly released and free OS X Mavericks includes a cool new feature called enhanced dictation. Dictation allows users to speak to their computer and have their words converted to text. Dictation can be beneficial to poor spellers and people with dyslexia. The new feature allows users to dictate without an internet connection by downloading the speech recognition engine onto their Mac. In previous versions of OS X users could dictate to their Macs, but an internet connection was required. With the new enhanced dictation words also appear as you speak instead of having to wait for your words to appear. Watch the above video to learn more. Click here to download Mavericks from the Mac App Store.

PaperPort Notes App Adds OCR Functionality

Nuance's PaperPort Notes app for iPad received a major update. The highlight of the update is the ability to take a picture of text to add the text to your notes. The Optical Charactor Recongition (OCR) feature is slower than other competing apps but is accurate. The improved cameras on the newest iPads allow OCR to work well. To learn about the other features of the free PaperPort Notes app click here. Click here to download the app.

Click read more below to view screenshots of PaperPort Notes.

Apple Announces Dictation For the Mac

Apple announced a new feature called dictation that will allow users to talk to their computer and have their words transcribed into text. This feature is similar to dictation on the iPhone 4S and The New iPad. The feature will be built into OS X Mountain Lion. Dication is simular to the Windows and Mac program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Apple says the following about dictation,

 

" Now you can talk anywhere you can type. Dictation converts your words into text. It uses the built-in microphone on your Mac, so there’s no need to set anything up — just start speaking instead of typing. When you say “comma” or “exclamation point,” Dictation punctuates for you. The more you use Dictation, the smarter it gets. It learns voice characteristics. And it recognizes people from your contacts so it enters names accurately. Dictation supports English (U.S., UK, and Australia), French, German, and Japanese."

Dragon Express: Control Your Mac by Voice

Today, Nuance released Dragon Express for the Mac. Dragon Express allows users to preform key functions solely with the sound of their voice. The app is available here on the Mac app store for $49. Dragon Express can send emails, search with spotlight, post Twitter and Facebook updates, search the web and more. Dragon Express is an introductory product designed for people who are new to voice recognition. Dragon Express lacks many key features of the more expensive Dragon Dictate. See the comparison chart below to see the difference between Dragon Express and Dragon Dictate.

Dragon Express uses Nuance's great speech recognition technology to accurately turn your voice into text. Nuance claims that using Dragon is three times faster than typing. To learn about Dragon apps for iOS click here. Stay tuned for more about Dragon Naturally Speaking. Click read more below to view screen shots of Dragon Express and read the press release.

Dragon Go! iPhone app

Nuance the makers of Dragon Dictation just came out with a new app called Dragon Go! The app uses Nuance's top notch voice recognition engine to search hundreds of websites and apps. The app is free on the iTunes app store. With Dragon Go! you can search hundreds of websites with the sound of your voice from within the app. If you say "weather in San Francisco" the app will search weather.com instead of Google. Dragon also has another app called Dragon Dictation that allows you to input text with the sound of your voice. Dragon Go! is a close as you can get to full voice search on the iPhone. With Dragon Go! you will never have to peck at the iPhone keyboard to search. To see a video about Dragon Go! click read more.

Google Voice Search for Chrome: First Impressions.

I tried out Google Voice Search and it works great. It is very accurate and works quickly. This feature is great for when you want to search for a word that you can not spell. To use voice search click on the microphone on the right side of the search bar. The feature is only available for Chrome users.

Microsoft Word's Auto-Summary Feature

In Microsoft Word 2007 there is a feature that allows you to automatically summarize a document. This feature is very good for reading long articles quickly. To access this feature click on the customize quick start menu arrow at the top left of the screen. Then select more commands from the drop down menu. Next search for the Auto-Summary tool in the right hand column. Once you add this option you will be able to access it from the top right of your word documents. When the icon is clicked you will have four summary options. To see this feature in action watch the video above. Hope this tip helps.

Window Speech Recognition, a Great Tool For Struggling Writers

Windows 7 and Windows Vista come with free speech recognition software. The software is able to input text into any text field. The software is also able to open programs, browse the web and format documents all with your voice. Windows speech recognition is also a great tool for people with disabilities that are unable to use the key board or mouse. To find the software simply search for "speech recognition" in the start menu. I found the speech recognition to be very accurate after a couple of training sessions.

Windows speech recognition is very easy to use because it only has one button. The button starts and stops the speech recognition. If your using a computer with Windows 7 or Vista check out this great feature.