Access to Text using ICTfor students with reading

difficultiesICT and Inclusion March 2004

Scale of the challenge

• A significant number of secondary students have difficulty in reading textbooks

• Considerable staff resources are used scribing and reading in schools

• 8,235 students applied to use special arrangements in exams in 2002

• 5,614 students had specific learning difficulties, entering 28,082 exams

SEED Guidance on Preparing Accessibility Strategies

“This guidance advises on:• the legal position and coverage of this

planning duty;• the three strands which accessibility

strategies must cover;• the main processes local authorities and non-

local authority schools should consider in preparing accessibility strategies.”

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/publications

The Three Duties (p15)

• Access to the curriculum

• Access to the physical environment of schools

• Improving communication with pupils with disabilities

Access to the curriculum

40. “Pupils with disabilities should as far as possible have access to a full and broad curriculum, similar to that followed by their non-disabled peers. At the same time, many of these pupils may need additional support and/or different approaches to teaching to enable them to learn and to benefit from the curriculum. Clearly many adjustments to allow pupils to access a full curriculum will still need to be provided on the basis of individual pupils’ needs and therefore will continue to be made available through the SEN Framework or in response to the new Disability Discrimination Act duties.”

ICT and access to the curriculum

48. “In reviewing existing contracts and, if necessary, negotiating new ones, a commissioning body should ensure that:

• specialised items of hardware and software, such as an alternative keyboard, mouse or switches can be added easily;

• software needed by pupils with disabilities, such as speech output or screen magnification, can be installed;

• the full range of accessibility options within the operating system can be utilised, for example, to slow down mouse speed or keyboard repeat rate, or to enlarge screen fonts or reduce screen clutter;

• equipment can be placed in accessible locations, for example, so that wheelchair users can reach the keyboard and see the screen;

• access privileges are flexible enough to enable staff to make necessary changes to afford access (for example, to adjust control panels or save individual settings for specific programs).”

Improving communication and the delivery of school information

62. “The third duty requires responsible bodies to improve communication with pupils with disabilities. Responsible bodies should take steps to improve how these pupils can give their views on any issue about which they have an interest, gather in those views and consider them. Consideration should be given to whether class work or homework could be given in alternative forms and, also, consider how any homework, or other work pupils do in alternative forms, can best be marked/commented on by school staff. Pupils’ communication with teaching and auxiliary staff as part of their learning should also be considered under the “access to the curriculum” duty.”

Improving communication and the delivery of school information

64. “In particular, this communication duty covers the delivery of information normally provided to pupils in writing. This ‘school information’ includes any information given to pupils by the school, such as: handouts and worksheets, textbooks, timetables, handbooks, test and examination papers, posters around the school, information about school events. Responsible bodies should ensure that any information that is important to enable pupils to learn or to be able to participate in school activities can be provided in an alternative form if the pupil may have difficulty reading information provided in standard written form.”

Improving communication and the delivery of school information

65. “Information may need to be provided in alternative forms, such as:

• providing information orally (for example, to ensure that a pupil has understood information provided on posters or in their timetable), in Braille, in large print, in audio formats, through ICT, through sign language (either on video or by using appropriately qualified teachers or auxiliary staff) or through a recognised symbol system (such as Makaton). The responsible body should ensure that this information is provided within a reasonable time so that it does not place pupils with disabilities at a disadvantage in relation to other pupils. Therefore, demands would have to be anticipated in advance and school staff would need make sure that any materials to be provided in alternative forms, such as Braille, large print, audio tape, video signing and electronic files were provided for translation well in advance of the time when they will be needed.”

Barriers to Reading

• •

Barriers to Reading

The Text• Size of print• Volume & quantity• Contrast & colour eg yellow

overlay on books• Quality of books /

appropriateness language/vocabulary/context

• Interest and motivation

The Reader• Visual impairment &

perceptual problems• Physical access turning the

page?• Doesn’t like the reader• Poor attention and

concentration• Poor word recognition• Poor phonic awareness• Comprehension• World knowledge• Effort > no fun > frustration• Low self esteem &

confidence

Making resources accessible

1. Use electronic texts, or scan paper resources into computer

2. Read electronic files using text-to-speech3. Write/record work using specialist software:

• Spellcheckers• Word prediction• Word banks• Speech recognition• Study tools

4. Make resources and access software available throughout school network (c.f. Accessibility Strategy)

Sources of electronic resources

• Colleagues! – worksheets etc• Commercial CD’s• Web, eBook & electronic book sites

– Project Gutenberg http://gutenberg.net– Bookshare.org http://www.bookshare.org/– Stories from the Web

http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/sfwhomepage.htm – MAPE

http://www.mape.org.uk/activities/bigbooks/index.htm – BBC, BECTa, NGfL, LTS ….– See the CALL web site for more…

• Scanning paper texts into the computer

Text to speech tools are needed for…

• Reading documents and worksheets – e.g. in Word, PDF, Textease, AppleWorks

etc formats

• Reading texts scanned into the computer

• Reading from the web

So which program is best?

Some text-to-speech programs

• Talking word processors (TextEase, Write:Outloud, Clicker, etc)+ Integrated speech, writing tools, cheap- Less common file format, no direct scan into them

• Specialist scan/read (Kurzweil, Read And Write Gold)+ Integrate scanning, speech and tools in one program- Expensive

• Text or Screen Readers for reading Microsoft Word, or Adobe PDF, or web pages (Kurzweil, Read And Write, Penfriend, ReadPlease, WordTalk)+ Read anything, need another program to scan into the word

processor- Extra program, may add an extra reading “window”

Paperback scanned with FineReader OCR and copied to Textease (and then edited)

Click on the text, then click on the Lips to read it.Text is highlighted as it is read.Colours and fonts are altered.

Text Readers for reading from Word, web etc

• Text Readers are designed for reading text• Do not confuse with Screen Readers (e.g.

Jaws) designed for visually impaired pupils• Open and read files in different formats• Highlight text within a document and read it• Some text readers highlight the text in the

document itself• In others you must highlight and copy the text

and it appears in a separate window

Some Text Readers

CAST eReader Reads documents, highlighted text, web pages and Daisy files.

£147

PDFAloud Reads PDF documents. Free, or £59

Max’s Sandbox

Simplifies toolbar and adds speech to Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

£4.75 per user online

Penfriend Word predictor with basic text reader. £60

ReadPlease Free basic text reader. Free

TextHelp Read and Write 7

Good speech output; also has word prediction, spellchecker.

£140

ScreenReader 4

Simple text reader – select text and click to have it read out.

Free demo

£30

WordTalk Adds speech output and talking spellchecker to Word

Free

Word worksheet read with Penfriend

Select the text, then copy to the clipboard to have it read out in the Penfriend window

Word file read with Read and Write 6 (MacBeth, downloaded from Project Gutenberg

site)

Click on the text and then click the Read button.Text is highlighted in the document

Word file read with WordTalk(Scanned with FineReader)

Choose to read the whole document, or a paragraph, sentence or word.Then click on the text to have it read out.

SQA Exams in PDF: Pilot Trial

• A project to pilot electronic exams in a small number of schools, from October 2003 to March 2004

• Funded by SQA• CALL creates PDF’s of selected 2003 papers, with form

fields for core subjects; speech enabled using PDFAloud• CALL creates training materials• Six schools use the PDF’s for revision & preparation• Staff & students complete questionnaire to:

– compare ICT with other techniques (scribe, reader etc)– measure/compare effect on marks/scores in 2003 diet– record staff time/training; student training; administration issues.

PDFAloud speech tools

Form fields for answers

Sentence being read and each word

highlighted

Exam from SQA in PDF, adapted with

form fields for answers, and ‘speech

enabled’ with PDFAloud

Scanning paper materials

• Kurzweil 3000+ Excellent fidelity; very easy to use; speech, spellchecker, word

prediction and study tools; network version- Cost: £725 colour scan, £500 mono scan, £175 read only; saves

files in Kurzweil format

• TextHelp Gold/Wordsmith+ Scans into Word or Explorer; easy to use, speech, spellchecker,

word prediction and study tools; network version- Cost £320/£265; Poorer fidelity than Kurzweil

• Standard OCR (Textbridge, FineReader, OmniPage)+ Low cost (£50-£100); scans into Word/Internet Explorer; network

versions- Poorer fidelity; requires other programs for speech etc

Standard OCR Programs

- Textbridge, FineReader, OmniPage– Low cost; £40 to £90 – Scan direct into Word/Internet Explorer– Scan and copy into Talking Word Processors (e.g.

TextEase, Clicker, Writing with Symbols, Write:Outloud

– Scan and save in common formats; DOC, HTML, PDF

– Image is less faithful than Kurzweil– Requires other programs for speech etc

Standard Grade English paper scanned into Kurzweil 3000

Click on the Scan button to scan it in.

Click on the Read button to read it.

Simple!

Standard Grade English paper scanned with Textbridge into Word.

Speech output with TextHelp ScreenReader.

Click on the Textbridge button to read it into Word.

Use a Text Reader to read it.

5-14 Test scanned withKurzweil 3000 and Textbridge

Things to think about when scanning

• Don’t scan unless you have to – can you get the text electronically?

• Don’t scan directly into Word – check the text and think about whether you need to alter, edit or adapt the text

Copyright

• The Copyright Licensing Agency has introduced guidelines on Copyright and Visual Impairment to allow books to be made more accessible for people with disabilities.

• Provided that a person with a visual impairment, or other disability, which makes them physically unable to use a book, owns a copy of it, then it is possible to transcribe the book into a more accessible format without seeking special permission.

• This means that, provided a copy of the book is owned, it is possible for a school to produce an enlarged version, or to scan pictures and text into a computer to create a talking book for a pupil.

• Further details are available from the Copyright Licensing Agency web site:

• http://www.cla.co.uk/copyrightvillage/vpguidelines.pdf

Scanning issues

• Background and text colour

• Font, size, colour, letter spacing

• Line spacing

• Quantity of text per page

• Language and vocabulary

• Format – DOC, HTML, PDF, or copy into another program?

Reading the web – Kurzweil 3000 Read Only (£175)

Good speech, good controls, simple.

Doesn’t read ‘pop-up’ windows though, which can be a real problem

Reading the web – TextHelp ScreenReader (Shareware: free/£30)

Simple, cheap and effective.Highlight text, click ‘Speak’, and text is read out either by the daft genie, or in a separate window. Doesn’t highlight on the page.

Web TTS tools

Program Read from page

Highlight in page

Read in window

Highlight in window

Control and operation Cost

Kurzweil 3000 Y Y - - (Highlight) and click. Good stuff. Good voices.

£175

Penfriend - - Y Y Copy to clipboard. OK but reads in an extra window. Basic voices.

£60

Reader ? Free

ReadPlease - - Y Copy, paste, then click. Extra window, clunky. Basic voices.

Free

Read and Write Standard

Y ? Y Y Y Highlight and click. Slow to start reading, highlight not well synchronised. Good voices.

£140

ScreenReader 4 Y - Y Y Highlight and click ‘Speak’. Simple and effective. Doesn’t highlight on page.

Free / £30

Browsealoud Y - - - Point or highlight and click. Only reads ‘speech enabled’ sites. No highlighting at all.

Free to end user

Talking browsers

Program Description Cost

pwWebspeak Browser for VI – displays and reads text only – you don’t see the page itself, so it’s not suitable for sighted users

Free

IBM Home Page Reader Browser for VI – displays and reads the web page with the graphics. OK for sighted users.

$117

Read e Didn’t work! Free

Simply Web 2000 Browser for VI – reads all elements from the page - irritating; also displays the page. Doesn’t highlight text in the page

Free

IBM Home Page Reader

Click on the text and it starts to read it out and highlight it.Good controls for speech.

Simply Web 2000

Click on the text here to read it. You can’t read by clicking on the page itself. Poor controls

Speech options

• Click to read a word

• Word highlighting

• Sentence highlighting

• No highlighting

Max support

Miin support

Summary

• More and more students in mainstream schools have reading difficulties

• Recent legislation and guidance requires schools to adapt materials or provide support

• ICT has the potential to give access to texts and learning resources

• There are a wide range of approaches and tools that can be used

• A thorough investigation of tools is needed before making a choice

• Implementing Access to Text through ICT must be done by the local authority, school and ICT Service– not just Learning Support