5 free technology tips for dyslexic readers and
writers
How can technology help people with dyslexia
There are four areas that technology can help someone with dyslexia:
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Reading
Writing
Organisation
Maths
Technology that you use every day to help you achieve your literacy tasks is
called assistive technology. Some assistive technologies can be expensive. This
article gives you five tips on how to get started today for no money at all.
There’s also a bonus tip on how you can get the most out of assistive
technology for under £100.
You can find a more comprehensive overview in our Assistive Technology
section.
Tip 1: Make the font bigger for easier reading
The single most useful thing to improve your reading is make the font bigger!
Make it much bigger than you think your need. This is not about being able to
make out the letters. It’s about being comfortable when reading. The default in
Word is 11pt. Your minimum should be 14pt but don’t be afraid to go to 16pt
or even higher. The other side benefit is that you will see less text at once and
increase the line spacing a little. Research has shown that all of this makes
reading easier for people with dyslexia. And it’s completely free. Don’t forget
to tell your teachers, friends and colleagues.
Tip 2: Listen to text with text-to-speech
If you can’t read listen. The voices in which computers can now speak are so
good, you can even listen to a whole book with them. And even the ones you
get for free on your machine (with Windows 8 and 10 and on Mac). All you
then need is a free programme like Natural Reader and you can hear the text.
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If you have a tablet or a smartphone, you can do the same. See the bonus tip
for details.
Tip 3: Use outlines and mind maps to organise your
thoughts
People with dyslexia can often benefit from doing things in smaller chunks.
That’s why outlines make writing so much easier. Did you know you can create
an outline in Microsoft Word as you type? Simply use the built in Heading
Styles to mark headings and then under View, enable the Navigation Pane or
Document Map. Makes dealing with larger documents really easy. If you’d like
to have your outline a bit more visual, create a mind map. You can use the
free XMind to do it.
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Tip 4: Talk to your phone or computer instead of writing
If you struggle with spelling and writing, you should see if talking to your
computer works for you. All of the newer versions of Windows (from 7 to 10)
include free speech recognition. But, if your computer, phone or tablet is
connected to the internet, you can get speech recognition for free from
Google. And it is really good.
Tip 5: Use online tools to help you with basic calculations
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Don’t do sums in your head. Or don’t buy a calculator. Just Google (or Bing) it!
Simply type in something like 5*10 or 13 inches in centimetres and you’ll get
the result. If you struggle with typing, you can just speak your question. This
will work on most smartphones but now also on your desktop with Windows
10 or the Chrome browser. Watch this quick video to see how it works.
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Bonus tip (change your reading for under £100): Buy a
tablet and use it to have books read to you
A simple 7 or 8 inch tablet can now cost under £100 pounds. And they all come
with decent free voices and you can get free apps to read books for you. But
we recommend you spend another £7 and buy the VoiceDream reader which
is very dyslexia friendly (or try a free alternative). Of course, you will make the
most out of the two if your school has a free subscription to Load2Learn. Or
you can get a personal subscription to Bookshare.
So you see, technology to help people with dyslexia has never been so
powerful or so cheap. So why wait!
Don’t forget to check the Dyslexia Action website every other Thursday for
more technology tips from Dominik Lukeš. You can also find more about
technology to help you in our Assistive Technology section.
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You can listen to an interview about these tips from Future Radio.
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