Read&Write

Overview

Read&Write is an accessibility software program. Its functions fall into one of three categories; grammar/corrective, accessibility, and research. The grammar piece includes verb and grammar checking, spell checking, vocabulary assistance, dictionary (with thesaurus and synonym checker), picture dictionary and translation options. Accessibility functions include highlighting text to read, screen masking, speech input, PDF read aloud and web page read aloud options, screenshot reading capabilities and options to highlight text within a page. Research tools include a fact finder, fact mapper, voice notes, pronunciation tools, and word wizard tools.

This software is installed on 808 and 809 computers (accessibility testing computers) and on computers throughout the testing center. This software is mostly limited to testing computers for the time being.

Launching Read&Write for the First Time

When Read&Write launches for the first time, the setup wizard appears. For most students, the default settings are adequate. All of these settings can be adjusted later.
This is the Read&Write setup wizard's first page.


This is the second page of the wizard. Users can choose a different theme.


This picture shows that the user picked the Professional theme with large icons and text.


The next setup wizard page contains the different types of toolbars available for users. Users can select a toolbar that best fits their needs.


The next setup wizard page allows the user to select between basic word definitions, advanced word definitions, or searching the web for definitions.


The next setup wizard page allows the user to select the type of speech that the computer will read to them.


The final setup wizard page asks for the user's preferred fact finder page, such as Google.

Basic Usage

Sizing Read&Write

Once Read&Write has been setup, it's default interface is a window bar. Note that the shown theme is the professional look with large icons and text.


Alternatively, the user can drag the interface to the top of the screen, which fills the top of the screen with the Read&Write Interface.

Using Read&Write to Read Text

One of the most most common usages of the Read&Write software is to convert written text to speech. To do so, simply highlight the written text. Then, click the play button. Read&Write will read out the words, as well as light up which word is being read.

Using the Dictionary Function

The user can highlight a word and then click the Dictionary button. This will bring up a window with the word's definition, such as the above example, which found the definition of the word speech.

Spell Check

The spell check feature of Read&Write is quite comprehensive. In addition to giving all of the potential replacements of a word, users can select whether the misspelled word needs to be a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. In the below example, the user misspelled the word false as fasle. The user highlighted the text fasle and then clicked the spell check button of Read&Write, which is boxed out in red. After the button is clicked, the Spelling Helper window appears. The user then selects the word they want to change it to and then clicks the Change button.

Additional Help Documents

If the user needs help using the Read&Write software, the drop down menu contains the help link, as shown in the picture above. Once the users clicks the help link, then the Read&Write's help website is displayed. At the time of this writing, the help page is this link:

Help Page