Free Built-in Assistive Tech to Support Reading & Writing

For many, reading and writing can be quite an intimidating process, regardless of whether you have been diagnosed with a neurodifference or not. Assistive Technology (AT) aims to support users in managing and navigating obstacles and challenges, to help you perform at your best and achieve your full potential.

There are lots of very clever pieces of software available, designed to support a wide variety of conditions and needs. If you’re not already familiar with what is out there, it can be daunting to see how much there is and difficult to know where to begin.

Did you know? Personal Computers (PC) and Mac systems already have some free useful tools built into their software. To help you get started on your journey with assistive tech, we’ve outlined a few of these tools below:

On a PC

Assistance with reading and proofreading documents can be found built into most modern versions of Microsoft Word, and similar support can often be found in the other Microsoft Office products.

• Read Aloud

The ‘Read Aloud’ function can be found under the ‘Home’ tab in Microsoft Word. It will allow you to hear written information spoken out loud. Once clicked, a panel of tools will be visible in the right-hand margin of your document. Click into the text where you would like to begin and then click the play button to hear the text out loud.

• Dictate

The ‘Dictate’ tool can be found under the ‘Home’ tab in Microsoft Word. This voice recognition feature allows for the quick capture of text, helping users with spelling and in many cases, boosting productivity. You can also access this tool when creating emails in Outlook. Ideally, some form of headset would be used to maximise the accuracy of the voice recognition, however it can still be used effectively without.

On a Mac

Mac’s have several built-in accessibility and support tools. If using Office 365, the tools available to you will be quite similar to those listed above. If you do not have this available, then we’d recommend checking out the accessibility tools that can be managed from within the system preferences.

• You can activate the ‘Speech’ tool so that it reads documents or websites when you select certain keys

• You can often assign the ‘Dictation’ tool on a Mac to turn on and off with the ‘Fn’ key. Once turned on, you can speak freely (including punctuation), and it should convert your speech into text accurately

We recommend these built-in tools as a good place to start when looking at assistive technology support for reading and writing. If your needs are not met or you require further support, there are other excellent software options available and we at Lexxic are happy to advise on what might be a good fit for you.

Feel free to send us an email.

Caleb Cuddihy

Senior Neurodiversity Specialist at Lexxic

Learn about neurodiversity and the benefits of e-Learning, take a look at our blog post:

Neurodiversity: The Benefits of e-Learning — Neurodiversity | Dyslexia | Dyspraxia (lexxic.com)