Human Reader for textbooks/ journal articles?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She should be able to change the vocalizer on her computer to be more human like. Or does she want a recording? vs having to manipulate the technology? especially for a text book if you have a human reader, reading jargon and math that is specific to the content area correctly is very important.

She’s fine with technology and is very adept with her screen readers, Siri, Grammarly etc. She routinely uses screen readers sped up to double speed for non-technical topics. But it doesn’t work for science and math. And she enjoys science, especially lab work and experimental design.

DD finds it much easier to access the technical content when it is read aloud by someone who is knowledgeable in the content area. Once she hears it once, she can replicate the phrasing etc.

I reached out to her math tutor who has been telling me that her services aren’t needed. One of her comments is that she thinks she is wasting time by reading the math packet aloud to DD. Her reason is that DD can reread it to her when she refers back to it. But before she reads it the first time DD gets overwhelmed with parsing the instructions into clear steps (DD also has dyscalculia).

I asked DD about this and she used her screen reader to read the instructions to me and it was quite challenging to understand (and I used to teach math to college students). We change the voices/ speed etc and it really was about the phrasing or lack of phrasing making comprehension of a technical topic harder. Although we did enjoy the British male voice more

This has been a really helpful discussion. I hadn’t really thought through how the challenges will evolve across more challenging coursework for DD. I had sort of relaxed about monitoring these things since her grades have been good and she’s felt successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She should be able to change the vocalizer on her computer to be more human like. Or does she want a recording? vs having to manipulate the technology? especially for a text book if you have a human reader, reading jargon and math that is specific to the content area correctly is very important.

She’s fine with technology and is very adept with her screen readers, Siri, Grammarly etc. She routinely uses screen readers sped up to double speed for non-technical topics. But it doesn’t work for science and math. And she enjoys science, especially lab work and experimental design.

DD finds it much easier to access the technical content when it is read aloud by someone who is knowledgeable in the content area. Once she hears it once, she can replicate the phrasing etc.

I reached out to her math tutor who has been telling me that her services aren’t needed. One of her comments is that she thinks she is wasting time by reading the math packet aloud to DD. Her reason is that DD can reread it to her when she refers back to it. But before she reads it the first time DD gets overwhelmed with parsing the instructions into clear steps (DD also has dyscalculia).

I asked DD about this and she used her screen reader to read the instructions to me and it was quite challenging to understand (and I used to teach math to college students). We change the voices/ speed etc and it really was about the phrasing or lack of phrasing making comprehension of a technical topic harder. Although we did enjoy the British male voice more

This has been a really helpful discussion. I hadn’t really thought through how the challenges will evolve across more challenging coursework for DD. I had sort of relaxed about monitoring these things since her grades have been good and she’s felt successful.

I'm going to come back here tomorrow, but i just re-read your original post that you used to do recording for the blind! I'm in a related industry and I will ask around a little tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning Ally has audio books for free some (many?) of which have human voices.

Bookshare also has a text to speech function. I haven't checked it in a long time - it had mostly electronic voices but those are getting better and it may have more human sounding ones. It's free and kids with dyslexia qualify. Someone at your school can qualify you or you can qualify your dd by submitting some
paperwork to the Bookshare website. Bookshare has probably the largest collection of textbooks and scientific stuff - not sure about journals. I think some apps (not clear if they are bookshare affiliated) have better voices - Natural Reader, Voice Dream, & others I think? The apps offer free voices and "premium" voices.

Speechify is an app or toolbar add on - the voice is great, but it is expensive (140/yr) and the reviews seemed to indicate that when it worked, the voice was good but that the app was very glitchy. Also seems to limit how much you get per month.

There is also Kurzweil 3000. Most schools and universities offer this to their dyslexic students because it includes workspace for writing. Not sure of voice quality.

Finally, the AI world is exploding and there are many new AI tools for recording lectures and converting to transcript as well as reading text aloud. I just tried murf.ai and the voice was great but it appears to be a business product.

Does your DD have an IEP or 504. Every school system must provide reading assistance tools to anyone diagnosed as dyslexic - at a minimum a dyslexic kid can qualify for a 504, which doesn't require "adverse impact". Dyslexia, even if decoding has been remediated - is still so cognitively exhausting for dyslexic kids that they qualify for accommodations. If rate, fluency or comprehension are impacted, there's even more of a reason. You can be a straight-A dyslexic kid in all advanced classes and still qualify for accomms on a 504.

If you are in MCPS, please ask for your school to contact HIAT (High Incidence Assistive Learning Tech or Team?) which is supposed to have the expertise to select and provide appropriate supportive technology.

If they aren't providing free natural voice reading - ask them why NOT? It is out there and school systems should be buying licenses for this technology.

You might want to surf around various university disability websites - they all have to offer dyslexia accommodations like text to speech - you can see what they are using.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot National Library for the Blind! Also free if you are dyslexic (and for other kinds of disabilities)

Thank you for taking the time to write out all of these suggestions!

We are a military family stationed overseas in a an international school in a country without disability laws. So while in the U.S., DD had an IEP and then a 504. She had access to Learning Ally at her school. And her decoding: comprehension were going really well. And she had stopped using a lot of the tools she regularly accessed before.

Now she is taking advanced classes and we need to revisit the tech supports for the initial read of articles if possible. She can wade through with the built in speech tools.

But she broke down and told me a few days ago that it is just exhausting and so much easier when I read them to her for the first time. It really took us back to when she started OG tutoring in kindergarten and she was just exhausted from the mental effort.

I know this is the natural progression and she needs to work through how to make this work for college and grad school. I was just hoping someone had found an AI-powered solution already.

It looks like there is a lot on ongoing research on leveraging syntax to improve AI-generated text to voice prosody. But the only tools I see commercially available are for businesses.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I am PP. If she accessed and benefitted from Learning Ally before, she should be able to get it again w/ or w/o an IEP or 504. If you still have the account info, you might even just be able to sign in and pay the $135 fee yourself. (I did this when my DC stopped using LA in early HS but picked it up again in college.)

Although one way of qualifying for these services is to have an IEP or 504 (even if old), one can also qualify by providing a diagnostic letter from a health professional even without a 504 or IEP.

Bookshare is free to US students, but the US non-student fee is $80/yr, and Bookshare has international pricing via international partners.

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled is free, has an "Overseas Service" and serves, "US citizens who cannot use regular print because of blindness or a visual or physical disability living outside of the United States of America. Eligible non-US citizens who are dependents of active-duty military or diplomatic personnel may also apply for service. (Print disabled includes dyslexia.)

Frankly, although Bookshare or Learning Ally didn't have as explicit statements about overseas eligibility as NLS, I'd be shocked if a dependent of US Military stationed overseas was denied eligibility merely because they did not go to a US school. Your DD did not give up her rights just because she moved overseas or doesn't go to a DOD school - she is still a "US student".

All of that said, these institutions may not be the best solution if your DD is getting random article clips from a teacher that have to be read within a few days. So, if you can't be available to read, I would consider another solution - a "tutor" who is willing to simply read material to her, either live so she can ask questions or asynchronously. You can find a zillion tutors at all prices online at Wyzant - you can pick someone who charges a much lower fee ($20/hr.) since you just need them to read (not teach) . Or look in your overseas community for a student in HS or uni who speaks English well. In my experience living overseas, I have often been able to find bright local students who speak English fluently and, for a modest fee, would jump at the chance to tutor or babysit an American English speaker.

I hope you and your DD are able to find solutions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning Ally has audio books for free some (many?) of which have human voices.

Bookshare also has a text to speech function. I haven't checked it in a long time - it had mostly electronic voices but those are getting better and it may have more human sounding ones. It's free and kids with dyslexia qualify. Someone at your school can qualify you or you can qualify your dd by submitting some
paperwork to the Bookshare website. Bookshare has probably the largest collection of textbooks and scientific stuff - not sure about journals. I think some apps (not clear if they are bookshare affiliated) have better voices - Natural Reader, Voice Dream, & others I think? The apps offer free voices and "premium" voices.

Speechify is an app or toolbar add on - the voice is great, but it is expensive (140/yr) and the reviews seemed to indicate that when it worked, the voice was good but that the app was very glitchy. Also seems to limit how much you get per month.

There is also Kurzweil 3000. Most schools and universities offer this to their dyslexic students because it includes workspace for writing. Not sure of voice quality.

Finally, the AI world is exploding and there are many new AI tools for recording lectures and converting to transcript as well as reading text aloud. I just tried murf.ai and the voice was great but it appears to be a business product.

Does your DD have an IEP or 504. Every school system must provide reading assistance tools to anyone diagnosed as dyslexic - at a minimum a dyslexic kid can qualify for a 504, which doesn't require "adverse impact". Dyslexia, even if decoding has been remediated - is still so cognitively exhausting for dyslexic kids that they qualify for accommodations. If rate, fluency or comprehension are impacted, there's even more of a reason. You can be a straight-A dyslexic kid in all advanced classes and still qualify for accomms on a 504.

If you are in MCPS, please ask for your school to contact HIAT (High Incidence Assistive Learning Tech or Team?) which is supposed to have the expertise to select and provide appropriate supportive technology.

If they aren't providing free natural voice reading - ask them why NOT? It is out there and school systems should be buying licenses for this technology.

You might want to surf around various university disability websites - they all have to offer dyslexia accommodations like text to speech - you can see what they are using.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot National Library for the Blind! Also free if you are dyslexic (and for other kinds of disabilities)

Thank you for taking the time to write out all of these suggestions!

We are a military family stationed overseas in a an international school in a country without disability laws. So while in the U.S., DD had an IEP and then a 504. She had access to Learning Ally at her school. And her decoding: comprehension were going really well. And she had stopped using a lot of the tools she regularly accessed before.

Now she is taking advanced classes and we need to revisit the tech supports for the initial read of articles if possible. She can wade through with the built in speech tools.

But she broke down and told me a few days ago that it is just exhausting and so much easier when I read them to her for the first time. It really took us back to when she started OG tutoring in kindergarten and she was just exhausted from the mental effort.

I know this is the natural progression and she needs to work through how to make this work for college and grad school. I was just hoping someone had found an AI-powered solution already.

It looks like there is a lot on ongoing research on leveraging syntax to improve AI-generated text to voice prosody. But the only tools I see commercially available are for businesses.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I am PP. If she accessed and benefitted from Learning Ally before, she should be able to get it again w/ or w/o an IEP or 504. If you still have the account info, you might even just be able to sign in and pay the $135 fee yourself. (I did this when my DC stopped using LA in early HS but picked it up again in college.)

Although one way of qualifying for these services is to have an IEP or 504 (even if old), one can also qualify by providing a diagnostic letter from a health professional even without a 504 or IEP.

Bookshare is free to US students, but the US non-student fee is $80/yr, and Bookshare has international pricing via international partners.

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled is free, has an "Overseas Service" and serves, "US citizens who cannot use regular print because of blindness or a visual or physical disability living outside of the United States of America. Eligible non-US citizens who are dependents of active-duty military or diplomatic personnel may also apply for service. (Print disabled includes dyslexia.)

Frankly, although Bookshare or Learning Ally didn't have as explicit statements about overseas eligibility as NLS, I'd be shocked if a dependent of US Military stationed overseas was denied eligibility merely because they did not go to a US school. Your DD did not give up her rights just because she moved overseas or doesn't go to a DOD school - she is still a "US student".

All of that said, these institutions may not be the best solution if your DD is getting random article clips from a teacher that have to be read within a few days. So, if you can't be available to read, I would consider another solution - a "tutor" who is willing to simply read material to her, either live so she can ask questions or asynchronously. You can find a zillion tutors at all prices online at Wyzant - you can pick someone who charges a much lower fee ($20/hr.) since you just need them to read (not teach) . Or look in your overseas community for a student in HS or uni who speaks English well. In my experience living overseas, I have often been able to find bright local students who speak English fluently and, for a modest fee, would jump at the chance to tutor or babysit an American English speaker.

I hope you and your DD are able to find solutions!

Thank you for the additional help! I’ve reached out to Learning Ally- she has had 2 accounts (1 personal and 1 school). So we are sorting that out now.

You are correct that these are the journal articles often shared with a 2-day turnaround. But DD mentioned what we are doing with her teacher and she is going to try to provide a reference list further in advance. We can talk to future teachers about this too. Most of them don’t make major changes to the research articles in their courses each year.

DD was wondering if recording articles could be something the honor society tutors take on as a service project. She tutors for history honor society and has apparently been making up short improv plays to make the content more memorable/ accessible for students whose English makes that content challenging. Recordings available to all students would be a nice outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning Ally has audio books for free some (many?) of which have human voices.

Bookshare also has a text to speech function. I haven't checked it in a long time - it had mostly electronic voices but those are getting better and it may have more human sounding ones. It's free and kids with dyslexia qualify. Someone at your school can qualify you or you can qualify your dd by submitting some
paperwork to the Bookshare website. Bookshare has probably the largest collection of textbooks and scientific stuff - not sure about journals. I think some apps (not clear if they are bookshare affiliated) have better voices - Natural Reader, Voice Dream, & others I think? The apps offer free voices and "premium" voices.

Speechify is an app or toolbar add on - the voice is great, but it is expensive (140/yr) and the reviews seemed to indicate that when it worked, the voice was good but that the app was very glitchy. Also seems to limit how much you get per month.

There is also Kurzweil 3000. Most schools and universities offer this to their dyslexic students because it includes workspace for writing. Not sure of voice quality.

Finally, the AI world is exploding and there are many new AI tools for recording lectures and converting to transcript as well as reading text aloud. I just tried murf.ai and the voice was great but it appears to be a business product.

Does your DD have an IEP or 504. Every school system must provide reading assistance tools to anyone diagnosed as dyslexic - at a minimum a dyslexic kid can qualify for a 504, which doesn't require "adverse impact". Dyslexia, even if decoding has been remediated - is still so cognitively exhausting for dyslexic kids that they qualify for accommodations. If rate, fluency or comprehension are impacted, there's even more of a reason. You can be a straight-A dyslexic kid in all advanced classes and still qualify for accomms on a 504.

If you are in MCPS, please ask for your school to contact HIAT (High Incidence Assistive Learning Tech or Team?) which is supposed to have the expertise to select and provide appropriate supportive technology.

If they aren't providing free natural voice reading - ask them why NOT? It is out there and school systems should be buying licenses for this technology.

You might want to surf around various university disability websites - they all have to offer dyslexia accommodations like text to speech - you can see what they are using.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot National Library for the Blind! Also free if you are dyslexic (and for other kinds of disabilities)

Thank you for taking the time to write out all of these suggestions!

We are a military family stationed overseas in a an international school in a country without disability laws. So while in the U.S., DD had an IEP and then a 504. She had access to Learning Ally at her school. And her decoding: comprehension were going really well. And she had stopped using a lot of the tools she regularly accessed before.

Now she is taking advanced classes and we need to revisit the tech supports for the initial read of articles if possible. She can wade through with the built in speech tools.

But she broke down and told me a few days ago that it is just exhausting and so much easier when I read them to her for the first time. It really took us back to when she started OG tutoring in kindergarten and she was just exhausted from the mental effort.

I know this is the natural progression and she needs to work through how to make this work for college and grad school. I was just hoping someone had found an AI-powered solution already.

It looks like there is a lot on ongoing research on leveraging syntax to improve AI-generated text to voice prosody. But the only tools I see commercially available are for businesses.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I am PP. If she accessed and benefitted from Learning Ally before, she should be able to get it again w/ or w/o an IEP or 504. If you still have the account info, you might even just be able to sign in and pay the $135 fee yourself. (I did this when my DC stopped using LA in early HS but picked it up again in college.)

Although one way of qualifying for these services is to have an IEP or 504 (even if old), one can also qualify by providing a diagnostic letter from a health professional even without a 504 or IEP.

Bookshare is free to US students, but the US non-student fee is $80/yr, and Bookshare has international pricing via international partners.

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled is free, has an "Overseas Service" and serves, "US citizens who cannot use regular print because of blindness or a visual or physical disability living outside of the United States of America. Eligible non-US citizens who are dependents of active-duty military or diplomatic personnel may also apply for service. (Print disabled includes dyslexia.)

Frankly, although Bookshare or Learning Ally didn't have as explicit statements about overseas eligibility as NLS, I'd be shocked if a dependent of US Military stationed overseas was denied eligibility merely because they did not go to a US school. Your DD did not give up her rights just because she moved overseas or doesn't go to a DOD school - she is still a "US student".

All of that said, these institutions may not be the best solution if your DD is getting random article clips from a teacher that have to be read within a few days. So, if you can't be available to read, I would consider another solution - a "tutor" who is willing to simply read material to her, either live so she can ask questions or asynchronously. You can find a zillion tutors at all prices online at Wyzant - you can pick someone who charges a much lower fee ($20/hr.) since you just need them to read (not teach) . Or look in your overseas community for a student in HS or uni who speaks English well. In my experience living overseas, I have often been able to find bright local students who speak English fluently and, for a modest fee, would jump at the chance to tutor or babysit an American English speaker.

I hope you and your DD are able to find solutions!

Thank you for the additional help! I’ve reached out to Learning Ally- she has had 2 accounts (1 personal and 1 school). So we are sorting that out now.

You are correct that these are the journal articles often shared with a 2-day turnaround. But DD mentioned what we are doing with her teacher and she is going to try to provide a reference list further in advance. We can talk to future teachers about this too. Most of them don’t make major changes to the research articles in their courses each year.

DD was wondering if recording articles could be something the honor society tutors take on as a service project. She tutors for history honor society and has apparently been making up short improv plays to make the content more memorable/ accessible for students whose English makes that content challenging. Recordings available to all students would be a nice outcome.

PP again. Honor society project is a brilliant idea! Why? Because it actually weaves together multiple needs and communities. She needs adequate audio recordings as a "disabled" student. I put disabled in quotes because that is the (old-fashioned) term embedded in the law; however, "neurodivergence" is the preferred term. Your DD has dyslexia, but she has discovered that other students have similar needs to be able to access the curriculum but for different reasons (educated in non-native language). Her recordings may help her manage her print processing issues, but for foreign language speakers in her school they can serve as a kind of "language lab" - where English as a foreign language students (or others with disabilities that impact reading comprehension like ADHD) can go and listen to the readings and improve their fluency, speed and pronunciation. And if she really wants to extend the project and she's in some kind of packaged advanced curriculum like AP or IB, she can work with her teacher to create a full set of accessible materials including outside readings with audio recordings that can be offered by all AP teachers. My sense is that College Board, the creator of AP exams makes testing accommodations available but leaves instructional accommodations to each school and teacher, which is not done well and the opposite of the best practice of "universal access" in education. TBH, my own DC has a language disorder and ADHD which causes struggles in reading comprehension and he declined to take AP USH because there was too much reading, but he loves to listen to recorded audio lectures on 1.5 speed).

She has also discovered that other ways of teaching - orally through presentation may be more effective for people with language issues (for whatever reason) and that this is preferable over the way higher level learning is transmitted - primarily thru reading, which is inaccessible to many. How many bright kids are left out of learning because they can't really make good use of printed instructional materials? What kind of human capital is being wasted because of our stigmas about how to and who can learn?

Also interesting connections to how foreign language is taught - the same OG instruction your DD received to learn to read would probably be very helpful to her peers' English reading ability. However, foreign language often does not include this kind of instruction. I've seen it in French language instructional materials in former colonies (West Africa), but never in the US.

Honestly, I can think of other things about how disability law impacts the tech device industry and has generated all the text to speech and other acessibility features, etc.

So many ways to run with this. Would make a great honors project, and a great topic for some part of a college essay. Demonstrates tremendous resilience and understanding of diverse populations needs and abilities and ability to advocate for self and others and see communalities and build community.

She should go for it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning Ally has audio books for free some (many?) of which have human voices.

Bookshare also has a text to speech function. I haven't checked it in a long time - it had mostly electronic voices but those are getting better and it may have more human sounding ones. It's free and kids with dyslexia qualify. Someone at your school can qualify you or you can qualify your dd by submitting some
paperwork to the Bookshare website. Bookshare has probably the largest collection of textbooks and scientific stuff - not sure about journals. I think some apps (not clear if they are bookshare affiliated) have better voices - Natural Reader, Voice Dream, & others I think? The apps offer free voices and "premium" voices.

Speechify is an app or toolbar add on - the voice is great, but it is expensive (140/yr) and the reviews seemed to indicate that when it worked, the voice was good but that the app was very glitchy. Also seems to limit how much you get per month.

There is also Kurzweil 3000. Most schools and universities offer this to their dyslexic students because it includes workspace for writing. Not sure of voice quality.

Finally, the AI world is exploding and there are many new AI tools for recording lectures and converting to transcript as well as reading text aloud. I just tried murf.ai and the voice was great but it appears to be a business product.

Does your DD have an IEP or 504. Every school system must provide reading assistance tools to anyone diagnosed as dyslexic - at a minimum a dyslexic kid can qualify for a 504, which doesn't require "adverse impact". Dyslexia, even if decoding has been remediated - is still so cognitively exhausting for dyslexic kids that they qualify for accommodations. If rate, fluency or comprehension are impacted, there's even more of a reason. You can be a straight-A dyslexic kid in all advanced classes and still qualify for accomms on a 504.

If you are in MCPS, please ask for your school to contact HIAT (High Incidence Assistive Learning Tech or Team?) which is supposed to have the expertise to select and provide appropriate supportive technology.

If they aren't providing free natural voice reading - ask them why NOT? It is out there and school systems should be buying licenses for this technology.

You might want to surf around various university disability websites - they all have to offer dyslexia accommodations like text to speech - you can see what they are using.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot National Library for the Blind! Also free if you are dyslexic (and for other kinds of disabilities)

Thank you for taking the time to write out all of these suggestions!

We are a military family stationed overseas in a an international school in a country without disability laws. So while in the U.S., DD had an IEP and then a 504. She had access to Learning Ally at her school. And her decoding: comprehension were going really well. And she had stopped using a lot of the tools she regularly accessed before.

Now she is taking advanced classes and we need to revisit the tech supports for the initial read of articles if possible. She can wade through with the built in speech tools.

But she broke down and told me a few days ago that it is just exhausting and so much easier when I read them to her for the first time. It really took us back to when she started OG tutoring in kindergarten and she was just exhausted from the mental effort.

I know this is the natural progression and she needs to work through how to make this work for college and grad school. I was just hoping someone had found an AI-powered solution already.

It looks like there is a lot on ongoing research on leveraging syntax to improve AI-generated text to voice prosody. But the only tools I see commercially available are for businesses.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I am PP. If she accessed and benefitted from Learning Ally before, she should be able to get it again w/ or w/o an IEP or 504. If you still have the account info, you might even just be able to sign in and pay the $135 fee yourself. (I did this when my DC stopped using LA in early HS but picked it up again in college.)

Although one way of qualifying for these services is to have an IEP or 504 (even if old), one can also qualify by providing a diagnostic letter from a health professional even without a 504 or IEP.

Bookshare is free to US students, but the US non-student fee is $80/yr, and Bookshare has international pricing via international partners.

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled is free, has an "Overseas Service" and serves, "US citizens who cannot use regular print because of blindness or a visual or physical disability living outside of the United States of America. Eligible non-US citizens who are dependents of active-duty military or diplomatic personnel may also apply for service. (Print disabled includes dyslexia.)

Frankly, although Bookshare or Learning Ally didn't have as explicit statements about overseas eligibility as NLS, I'd be shocked if a dependent of US Military stationed overseas was denied eligibility merely because they did not go to a US school. Your DD did not give up her rights just because she moved overseas or doesn't go to a DOD school - she is still a "US student".

All of that said, these institutions may not be the best solution if your DD is getting random article clips from a teacher that have to be read within a few days. So, if you can't be available to read, I would consider another solution - a "tutor" who is willing to simply read material to her, either live so she can ask questions or asynchronously. You can find a zillion tutors at all prices online at Wyzant - you can pick someone who charges a much lower fee ($20/hr.) since you just need them to read (not teach) . Or look in your overseas community for a student in HS or uni who speaks English well. In my experience living overseas, I have often been able to find bright local students who speak English fluently and, for a modest fee, would jump at the chance to tutor or babysit an American English speaker.

I hope you and your DD are able to find solutions!

Thank you for the additional help! I’ve reached out to Learning Ally- she has had 2 accounts (1 personal and 1 school). So we are sorting that out now.

You are correct that these are the journal articles often shared with a 2-day turnaround. But DD mentioned what we are doing with her teacher and she is going to try to provide a reference list further in advance. We can talk to future teachers about this too. Most of them don’t make major changes to the research articles in their courses each year.

DD was wondering if recording articles could be something the honor society tutors take on as a service project. She tutors for history honor society and has apparently been making up short improv plays to make the content more memorable/ accessible for students whose English makes that content challenging. Recordings available to all students would be a nice outcome.

PP again. Honor society project is a brilliant idea! Why? Because it actually weaves together multiple needs and communities. She needs adequate audio recordings as a "disabled" student. I put disabled in quotes because that is the (old-fashioned) term embedded in the law; however, "neurodivergence" is the preferred term. Your DD has dyslexia, but she has discovered that other students have similar needs to be able to access the curriculum but for different reasons (educated in non-native language). Her recordings may help her manage her print processing issues, but for foreign language speakers in her school they can serve as a kind of "language lab" - where English as a foreign language students (or others with disabilities that impact reading comprehension like ADHD) can go and listen to the readings and improve their fluency, speed and pronunciation. And if she really wants to extend the project and she's in some kind of packaged advanced curriculum like AP or IB, she can work with her teacher to create a full set of accessible materials including outside readings with audio recordings that can be offered by all AP teachers. My sense is that College Board, the creator of AP exams makes testing accommodations available but leaves instructional accommodations to each school and teacher, which is not done well and the opposite of the best practice of "universal access" in education. TBH, my own DC has a language disorder and ADHD which causes struggles in reading comprehension and he declined to take AP USH because there was too much reading, but he loves to listen to recorded audio lectures on 1.5 speed).

She has also discovered that other ways of teaching - orally through presentation may be more effective for people with language issues (for whatever reason) and that this is preferable over the way higher level learning is transmitted - primarily thru reading, which is inaccessible to many. How many bright kids are left out of learning because they can't really make good use of printed instructional materials? What kind of human capital is being wasted because of our stigmas about how to and who can learn?

Also interesting connections to how foreign language is taught - the same OG instruction your DD received to learn to read would probably be very helpful to her peers' English reading ability. However, foreign language often does not include this kind of instruction. I've seen it in French language instructional materials in former colonies (West Africa), but never in the US.

Honestly, I can think of other things about how disability law impacts the tech device industry and has generated all the text to speech and other acessibility features, etc.

So many ways to run with this. Would make a great honors project, and a great topic for some part of a college essay. Demonstrates tremendous resilience and understanding of diverse populations needs and abilities and ability to advocate for self and others and see communalities and build community.

She should go for it!

Thanks for such an encouraging post! DD read it and was amazed at your thoughtfulness. She does have a senior catalyst project she is planning which will include simulations of ADHD and dyslexia among 2E middle and high school kids. This is definitely on her list too now.

But I have to share that she was reading this after her theater production closed. And now it may be something the thespian honor society takes over. Their prosody is the best in the school and they have kids from all disciplines. And they are passionate about inclusion. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

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Anonymous wrote:Learning Ally has audio books for free some (many?) of which have human voices.

Bookshare also has a text to speech function. I haven't checked it in a long time - it had mostly electronic voices but those are getting better and it may have more human sounding ones. It's free and kids with dyslexia qualify. Someone at your school can qualify you or you can qualify your dd by submitting some
paperwork to the Bookshare website. Bookshare has probably the largest collection of textbooks and scientific stuff - not sure about journals. I think some apps (not clear if they are bookshare affiliated) have better voices - Natural Reader, Voice Dream, & others I think? The apps offer free voices and "premium" voices.

Speechify is an app or toolbar add on - the voice is great, but it is expensive (140/yr) and the reviews seemed to indicate that when it worked, the voice was good but that the app was very glitchy. Also seems to limit how much you get per month.

There is also Kurzweil 3000. Most schools and universities offer this to their dyslexic students because it includes workspace for writing. Not sure of voice quality.

Finally, the AI world is exploding and there are many new AI tools for recording lectures and converting to transcript as well as reading text aloud. I just tried murf.ai and the voice was great but it appears to be a business product.

Does your DD have an IEP or 504. Every school system must provide reading assistance tools to anyone diagnosed as dyslexic - at a minimum a dyslexic kid can qualify for a 504, which doesn't require "adverse impact". Dyslexia, even if decoding has been remediated - is still so cognitively exhausting for dyslexic kids that they qualify for accommodations. If rate, fluency or comprehension are impacted, there's even more of a reason. You can be a straight-A dyslexic kid in all advanced classes and still qualify for accomms on a 504.

If you are in MCPS, please ask for your school to contact HIAT (High Incidence Assistive Learning Tech or Team?) which is supposed to have the expertise to select and provide appropriate supportive technology.

If they aren't providing free natural voice reading - ask them why NOT? It is out there and school systems should be buying licenses for this technology.

You might want to surf around various university disability websites - they all have to offer dyslexia accommodations like text to speech - you can see what they are using.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot National Library for the Blind! Also free if you are dyslexic (and for other kinds of disabilities)

Thank you for taking the time to write out all of these suggestions!

We are a military family stationed overseas in a an international school in a country without disability laws. So while in the U.S., DD had an IEP and then a 504. She had access to Learning Ally at her school. And her decoding: comprehension were going really well. And she had stopped using a lot of the tools she regularly accessed before.

Now she is taking advanced classes and we need to revisit the tech supports for the initial read of articles if possible. She can wade through with the built in speech tools.

But she broke down and told me a few days ago that it is just exhausting and so much easier when I read them to her for the first time. It really took us back to when she started OG tutoring in kindergarten and she was just exhausted from the mental effort.

I know this is the natural progression and she needs to work through how to make this work for college and grad school. I was just hoping someone had found an AI-powered solution already.

It looks like there is a lot on ongoing research on leveraging syntax to improve AI-generated text to voice prosody. But the only tools I see commercially available are for businesses.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I am PP. If she accessed and benefitted from Learning Ally before, she should be able to get it again w/ or w/o an IEP or 504. If you still have the account info, you might even just be able to sign in and pay the $135 fee yourself. (I did this when my DC stopped using LA in early HS but picked it up again in college.)

Although one way of qualifying for these services is to have an IEP or 504 (even if old), one can also qualify by providing a diagnostic letter from a health professional even without a 504 or IEP.

Bookshare is free to US students, but the US non-student fee is $80/yr, and Bookshare has international pricing via international partners.

National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled is free, has an "Overseas Service" and serves, "US citizens who cannot use regular print because of blindness or a visual or physical disability living outside of the United States of America. Eligible non-US citizens who are dependents of active-duty military or diplomatic personnel may also apply for service. (Print disabled includes dyslexia.)

Frankly, although Bookshare or Learning Ally didn't have as explicit statements about overseas eligibility as NLS, I'd be shocked if a dependent of US Military stationed overseas was denied eligibility merely because they did not go to a US school. Your DD did not give up her rights just because she moved overseas or doesn't go to a DOD school - she is still a "US student".

All of that said, these institutions may not be the best solution if your DD is getting random article clips from a teacher that have to be read within a few days. So, if you can't be available to read, I would consider another solution - a "tutor" who is willing to simply read material to her, either live so she can ask questions or asynchronously. You can find a zillion tutors at all prices online at Wyzant - you can pick someone who charges a much lower fee ($20/hr.) since you just need them to read (not teach) . Or look in your overseas community for a student in HS or uni who speaks English well. In my experience living overseas, I have often been able to find bright local students who speak English fluently and, for a modest fee, would jump at the chance to tutor or babysit an American English speaker.

I hope you and your DD are able to find solutions!

Thank you for the additional help! I’ve reached out to Learning Ally- she has had 2 accounts (1 personal and 1 school). So we are sorting that out now.

You are correct that these are the journal articles often shared with a 2-day turnaround. But DD mentioned what we are doing with her teacher and she is going to try to provide a reference list further in advance. We can talk to future teachers about this too. Most of them don’t make major changes to the research articles in their courses each year.

DD was wondering if recording articles could be something the honor society tutors take on as a service project. She tutors for history honor society and has apparently been making up short improv plays to make the content more memorable/ accessible for students whose English makes that content challenging. Recordings available to all students would be a nice outcome.

PP again. Honor society project is a brilliant idea! Why? Because it actually weaves together multiple needs and communities. She needs adequate audio recordings as a "disabled" student. I put disabled in quotes because that is the (old-fashioned) term embedded in the law; however, "neurodivergence" is the preferred term. Your DD has dyslexia, but she has discovered that other students have similar needs to be able to access the curriculum but for different reasons (educated in non-native language). Her recordings may help her manage her print processing issues, but for foreign language speakers in her school they can serve as a kind of "language lab" - where English as a foreign language students (or others with disabilities that impact reading comprehension like ADHD) can go and listen to the readings and improve their fluency, speed and pronunciation. And if she really wants to extend the project and she's in some kind of packaged advanced curriculum like AP or IB, she can work with her teacher to create a full set of accessible materials including outside readings with audio recordings that can be offered by all AP teachers. My sense is that College Board, the creator of AP exams makes testing accommodations available but leaves instructional accommodations to each school and teacher, which is not done well and the opposite of the best practice of "universal access" in education. TBH, my own DC has a language disorder and ADHD which causes struggles in reading comprehension and he declined to take AP USH because there was too much reading, but he loves to listen to recorded audio lectures on 1.5 speed).

She has also discovered that other ways of teaching - orally through presentation may be more effective for people with language issues (for whatever reason) and that this is preferable over the way higher level learning is transmitted - primarily thru reading, which is inaccessible to many. How many bright kids are left out of learning because they can't really make good use of printed instructional materials? What kind of human capital is being wasted because of our stigmas about how to and who can learn?

Also interesting connections to how foreign language is taught - the same OG instruction your DD received to learn to read would probably be very helpful to her peers' English reading ability. However, foreign language often does not include this kind of instruction. I've seen it in French language instructional materials in former colonies (West Africa), but never in the US.

Honestly, I can think of other things about how disability law impacts the tech device industry and has generated all the text to speech and other acessibility features, etc.

So many ways to run with this. Would make a great honors project, and a great topic for some part of a college essay. Demonstrates tremendous resilience and understanding of diverse populations needs and abilities and ability to advocate for self and others and see communalities and build community.

She should go for it!

Thanks for such an encouraging post! DD read it and was amazed at your thoughtfulness. She does have a senior catalyst project she is planning which will include simulations of ADHD and dyslexia among 2E middle and high school kids. This is definitely on her list too now.

But I have to share that she was reading this after her theater production closed. And now it may be something the thespian honor society takes over. Their prosody is the best in the school and they have kids from all disciplines. And they are passionate about inclusion. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

Wow, theater is perfect for fiction and for encouraging interest in anything.

Simulations can be great! In the NAMI Family to Family course (when it was given in person), there used to be an exercise where a family members tried to concentrate on a task while other group participants were assigned to stand behind the family member and whisper paranoid thoughts or depressed self-talk to them while they were trying to complete the task. It was a real eye-opener to family members about the way people with depression or schizophrenia can appear OK on the outside but have real difficulty with every day tasks. People definitely left with more empathy and with less of an inclination to attribute task incompletion to laziness, lack of intelligence or insubordination.

Good luck to her!