Introduction

Welcome to the Resources section of the e-Inclusion blog, the home of AccessApps and MyStudyBar. As well as screen cast tutorials to support MyStudyBar I’ve also provided a comprehensive range of exciting and innovative resources to enhance e-inclusion. As well as video tutorials of the latest version of TextHelp’s Read & Write Gold and ClaroRead Version 5 Plus, there are some useful tutorials to customise Internet Explorer to suit different learning needs.

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If you’re thinking of making the computer voice, ‘Heather’, available to students in your college, please read this important announcement.

The JISC Regional Support Centre Scotland North & East believes it is the right of all FE students in Scotland who need it to be able to read and listen to learning materials and resources using a high quality computer voice.

Scottish ‘Heather’ is increasingly acknowledged as the synthetic voice of choice which, when installed on a college network or a personal computer or laptop, will work with most ‘text-to-speech’ programs. This means that learners are able to access Word documents, PDFs, web pages and other vital resources, allowing them to realise their potential and to reach their learning goals and aspirations.

A quality computer voice is the perfect complement to the highly popular open source software packages that RSC Scotland North & East already makes freely available in the form of AccessApps, MyStudyBar and others (see http://www.eduapps.org/ for the full collection).

Heather is an important tool for empowering and enhancing the learning experience, particularly for those students with literacy difficulties such as dyslexia.

The RSC is delighted to announce that Heather will shortly be available to ALL Scottish Colleges and ALL FE students to download and use the voice for free.

Please let me know if you wish to be informed at the earliest moment that Heather is available.

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MyStudyBar

MyStudyBar is a tool which helps overcome problems that students commonly experience with studying, reading and writing. The tool consists of a set of portable open source and freeware applications, assembled into one convenient package. Easy to install, simple to use, handy and effective, MyStudyBar provides comprehensive learning support at the desktop, where it is needed. And if this is not already attractive enough, a further eye-catching feature of MyStudyBar is that it is completely FREE to download and free to use.

MyStudyBar has been produced by the same team at RSC Scotland North & East which created the award-winning AccessApps software suite. Although MyStudyBar is designed to support learners with literacy-related difficulties such as dyslexia, the toolbar can offer potential benefits to all learners.

Features of MyStudyBar

MyStudyBar puts a whole range of individual and essential tools at your fingertips. Together, these have been designed to support the complete study cycle from research, planning and structuring to getting across a written or spoken message. MyStudyBar has 6 sections; each has a drop down menu offering personal choice, flexibility and independent learning, particularly for those learners who require additional strategies to support their learning. With over 15 apps to choose from, MyStudyBar is the perfect study aid.

Examples include: Xmind for planning and organization; T-Bar for customising font and colour backgrounds; Lingoes for when you need a talking dictionary; LetMeType for help with text input, and Balabolka for converting text to audio. And if all that’s not enough, there’s even a speech-to-text app which allows you to talk to your computer.

You can use MyStudyBar straight from a USB stick (if, for example, you are using a machine that is not your own) or you can install it directly to the desktop. (Technical staff in colleges or universities also have the choice of installing it on the network for everyone to use).

Download MyStudyBar

To find out more and download your personal copy of MyStudyBar select this link

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MyStudyBar tutorials

Introduction to MyStudyBar

Planning

XMind and mind mapping tutorial

Reading

T-Bar and screen masking tutorial

ssOverlay screen masking

Orato text reader

Orato text reader (without reading pane)

Writing

Lingoes and dictionary tutorial

LetMeType and word prediction tutorial

Balabolka Part 1: overview

Balabolka Part 2: setting text-to-speech and saving text to MP3

Balbolka Part 3: importing a dictionary to support spelling

Vision

NVDA screen reading tutorial

Windows Speech Recognition

Windows Speech Recognition overview

MyStudyBar – overview of all features

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Review of MyStudyBar

I’d like to thank  Gerry Kennedy for writing an excellent comprehensive review of MyStudyBar. Gerry runs an ICT Consultancy in Australia and has provided valuable feedback and advice for AccessApps and MyStudyBar.

Download Gerry’s MyStudyBar review in Word format.

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TextHelp Read & Write Gold 9 Video Tutorials

TextHelp Read & Write Gold is a popular literacy support program which offers many useful features.The following video tutorials highlight some of the useful tools to support learners with litearcy and dyslexia related difficulties.

Introduction to Read & Write’s Toolbar

Read & Write Gold’s Toolbar can be customised to meet individual need. Find out how in this tutorial.

Watch the Toolbar video tutorial

The Word Wizard

Struggling to find the word you want but can’t think what it is? Word Wizard will help you find words and other related words with ease.

Watch the Word Wizard video tutorial.

Word Prediction

Word prediction can help learners with mobility difficulties and/or literacy difficulties to input text with increased speed and accuracy.

Watch the Word Prediction video tutorial

Dictionary

Learn how to use the Dictionary feature in TextHelp Read and Write Gold.

Watch the Dictionary video tutorial

Homophones

Homophones are words that can look and sound similar but have different meanings, for example, wear and were.  Learn how to use the Homophone checker in Read & Write Gold

Watch the Homophones video tutorial

Scanning

Learn how to use Optical Character Recogntion (OCR) scanning in Read & Write Gold.

Watch the Scanning video tutorial

Screen Masking

Screen masking can help learners with visual stress or scotopic light sensitivity by changing font and background colours.

Watch the Screen Masking vido tutorial

Screenshot Reader

Flash files have traditionally been difficult to read. The Screenshot reader overcomes this by reading text in a Flash format.

Watch the Screenshot video tutorial

Study Skills

Did you know you can customise the Read & Write toolbar for different areas of study? Find out more by watching the Study Skills tutorial.

Watch the Study Skills video tutorial

The Fact Folder

The Fact Finder can help accumulate facts, web pages, images in one location.

Watch the Fact Folder video tutorial

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ClaroRead Version 5 Plus Video Tutorials

ClaroRead is a highly effective multi-sensory software solution for supporting individuals who struggle with reading and writing.

The following videos highlight the useful tools to support learners with literacy difficulties.

Introduction to ClaroRead

An introduction to ClaroRead’s toolbar and its features.

Watch the Introduction to ClaroRead video tutorial

Customising ClaroRead’s Toolbar

An overview of the range of features on the ClaroRead toolbar. ClaroRead provides and easily readable floating toolbar which can lock onto any Windows software application.

Watch the customising ClaroRead’s Toolbar video tutorial

Moving and docking the ClaroRead Toolbar

Find out how to move and dock the ClaroRead toolbar.

Watch the moving and docking the ClaroRead Toolbar video tutorial

Selecting a Voice in ClaroRead

ClaroRead comes with some excellent text-to-speech voices. Find out how to customise the various voices.

Watch the selecting a voice in ClaroRead video tutorial

Reading Text from a Web Page

This video explains how to read text from a web page with ClaroRead. ClaroRead allows most web pages to be spoken back easily, especially when using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome.

Watch the reading text from a web page video tutorial

Reading Text in Other Applications

Find out how ClaroRead can read text in other applications. ClaroRead will speak back text that you select with your mouse.

Watch the reading text in other applications video tutorial

Word Trail in ClaroRead

The word trail feature makes words colour progressively as they are spoken by ClaroRead. This mode allows effective word by word highlighting, with minimal visual disruption. Any colour can be chosen to highlight text.

Watch the Word Trail vidoe tutorial

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Customising Internet Explorer for you and your learners

We have provided a range of resources to enable you to customise Internet Explorer so that it is accessible and easy-to-use.

Visual preferences

Internet Explorer allows you to customise the settings to meet a range of visual preferences, for example font style, colour and background colour. The link below will open a step-by-step tutorial which will guide you through this process. Select this link to open the visual preferences tutorial

Attaching Stylesheets

If you prefer to read NewsFeed with a larger font or high contrast you can choose from a range of stylesheets which can be easily incorporated or attached to your browser.

There are a number of stylesheets to choose from (see links below), for example, high contrast, large fonts etc.

Select this link to open the stylesheet tutorial

If you are unable to open the tutorial please follow these steps:

1. Right click on your preferred stylesheet below and select ‘Save As’

2. Save the file to your desktop or to a location of your choice

3. Select the ‘Tool’ menu on Internet Explorer

4. Select ‘Options’ from the drop down menu

5. When the dialogue box opens select the ‘Accessibility’ button

6. Select ‘User style sheet’

7. Tick the box ‘Format documents using my style sheet’

8. Browse to where you saved the stylesheet

9. Select ‘Okay’ and ‘Apply on the ‘Internet Options’ box

Your chosen stylesheet will now appear. To change or remove the stylesheet repeat the process.

High contrast with a black background and white font

High contrast with a white background and large black font

Black background with large yellow font

Yellow background with a large black font

Dark blue background with a white font

Light blue background with a large black font

Black background with a large green font

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MyStudyBar Disclaimer

The software applications that comprise MyStudyBar are distributed by the JISC Regional Support Centre Scotland North & East “as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall the JISC Regional Support Centres be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of these applications, even if advised of the possibility of such damage