Read and Write Gold Demo
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All right Lindsey, so thanks for coming today, and welcome to Read and Write Gold.
Is this something that you've ever heard of before?
No I haven't.
So Read and Write Gold is a software people can get that can help with reading and writing needs.
If someone has a visual impairment, has dyslexia, maybe English is their second language, or a combination of things, or they're just a very auditory learner, this is a helpful software to utilize
Here is the Read and Write toolbar
You can access this by clicking on the "R&W" icon on the main computer toolbar
This is kind of a collapsed version of this, it doesn't show all the icons you might need
You can access everything else by clicking "more" and it shows you all the different options that there are
Some of which we'll be going through today
So the purpose of this is to give you a brief idea of what Read and Write Gold is, to go through the features of it, and have you try out a few features.
If there are any questions you have, this will give you an informed choice of if you find it to be useful, or if you know someone who would benefit from this
A great way to get a little bit more experience with this is through a program called PA Tech Owl
It's actually located at Temple inside their student center
It's a program that receives funding that lets Pennsylvania residents receive short-term loans
of different assistive technologies. So that's a further resource I can direct you to, if you have an interest in it.
But this is more of a brief introduction to see if you might be interested in taking that next step
So, let's say we're in a Microsoft Word document
For example, your boss decided to email you a document, and you would like it read to you
I'll show you how you can do that, and you can also try it out yourself
to see how it works for you, OK?
So we're going to go through this document here
If I want something read to me, I'm going to be clicking the play button
and then in a few minutes, we can show you different options for going back, and for going forward
things like that
This is a sample text to show how Read and Write Gold works
. In addition to reading text on your Internet browser, it can read text on Microsoft Word.
Alright, so you saw that, do you have any questions for me before we move forward?
How would I go back if I missed something and I wanted to hear it again?
Yeah, that's a great question
You click on this dropdown arrow here - actually, I apologize, it's actually already up
This is the back arrow to rewind, and this is the fast foward arrow.
So let's try rewinding on this
Here is a test document for us to see how Read and Write Gold works
So you saw me press the stop sign to stop it
So let's say that - sometimes you need to click a few times out of it
in order to have all the options available again
So I pressed the unpause button, you can also go forward too
You want to go forward here
Let's try this again. Sometimes it takes a little bit of trial and error
Especially if you have an older computer, or a computer with a lot of memory taken up
I've been finding some glitches as one of the cons of this device
In addition to reading text on your Internet browser, it can read text on Microsoft Word.
There's the rewind button, there's the play, and there's the pause
Do you have any other questions for me about this?
Not yet...oh, what if I wanted to change the color of the highlighting, if I didn't want yellow?
Sure, so what you do for that is you go down to the dropdown arrow here
This is where you can play with some of the settings
if you find that yellow's hard for you to see, if it gives you a headache, or if there's some reason it's not working for you
you also have the option of blue, green, or purple
so that's the basic idea of how it can be used in Microsoft Word for reading documents
Now I also wanted to show it how you can use it if you're on an Internet browser
if you want an article read aloud to you
here we have an article on Philadelphia
and we will have it read to you
now, with Google Chrome, there is supposed to be an extension that allows it to play for you automatically
however, with my computer, having an outdated version of Google Chrome, that hasn't been working for me
so I just wanted to preface it for you with this, that there's more functionality available.
but the way that I've been getting it to read in Google Chrome - sometimes you just have to be a little flexible if you have an older computer
is by doing this feature here. So as you can see there's these little dotted lines with an arrow
So what you do is you select the text you want read aloud to you
and you highlight it
and then you click
alright, so as you can see it's taking a little while to initialize here
in a minute, a red box should pop up
oh wait, I see it
Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city
It looks like it cropped a little bit of
of what you had from the menu?
Yeah, so that is one con I have been noticing. I did that on purpose actually
to show that to you, if you leave the Read and Write Toolbar hovering over the text you want read
it either cuts out the text that you have, or it might read some of the prompts on the bar
Read the web, pop-up dictionary
That's just one thing to be mindful of, at least with older computers like this one
make sure the bar is out of the way so that doesn't happen
As you can also see, we were able to pause the text
By pressing this button down here
So I'll show you how to resume again
Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous
Now, if I wanted to pause instead of completely stopping or restarting, would I go back up to that menu again?
So what we'll do is we'll push the pause here
Now for my computer, this typically doesn't work, because it doesn't have the Google Chrome feature
enabled, but for some people with other computers it can
So as you can see here, you might be curious about some of those features
So I can certainly show you the pop-up dictionary
which is really helpful
so take a word here that you want to look up
how about metropolitan?
So what we can do is you press the dictionary icon
which is third from the left on Read and Write
toolbar, you can either copy and paste
or you can type it in
and, there's no definition
So this is another con that you're seeing here
that it doesn't have the most wide dictionary in terms of the words
I guess I would just have to hit the web dictionary if I wanted more details? Yes
so you want to try that?
it looks like that's opening in an app?
so it tends to open this in Internet Explorer
oh there we go
You would have to ex out of this here, or move it out of the way
in order to view your definition
here's the web dictionary, hooked up to the Internet dictionary
if you ever have questions
So let's say you, or someone you're with, has a difficult time reading and doesn't really want
a whole verbal dictionary
even if you could still have it read that to you
that entry to you if you wanted to, but if someone really had a difficult time understanding language
written or oral, and they want a picture dictionary
that's an option too
so the picture dictionary is going to be found right next to the regular dictionary
so here, how about you enter the word Philadelphia and see what pops up
so this isn't perfect, it's hard to differentiate this from say New York City
New York City, we'll try that
and it shows you the same thing
but it helps me know it's a city
it gives you the gist of what you're looking for
try another word again and let me know what comes up
this one's a bit more helpful, it gives you the American flag
an outline of the country, and an outline of the continents of North and South America
so that is a useful feature for people who are primarily visual learners
alright, so now that I was able to demonstrate to you how to read text on the Internet
would you like to show me what you learned? And I can help you if needed
Yeah, I'll try
I think I use this tool
Think of like wrangling it in, like a lasso
I see that the menu came down
oh, I see that the menu came down. that's one difficult thing, to remember that
to drag that screen out of the way
there we go
Philadelphia is situated on the Fall Line that separates the Atlantic coastal plain from the Piedmont.[66] The rapids on the Schuylkill River
at East Falls were inundated by the completion of the dam at the Fairmount Water Works.[67]
Interesting that it reads the footnote numbers
Yeah, on one hand that's good. So if you have limited visual abilities, you know that there's footnotes
but on the other hand, it can kind of impede the fluency of the listening experience
you know having those footnotes interrupting
and you could also tell here, it's syntax was a little bit awkward
and it wasn't quite as fluid as if it were a human being reading
so now I'm going to show you an additional feature which can be helpful for reading on the web
Alright, this is just going to take a moment here
so screenmasking, this can be helpful for people with dyslexia, people who have a hard time following lines, or people who get migraines
or just for a variety of needs
so this allows you to follow the lines that you're either typing or you're reading
so you can follow along with the voice
this allows you to change the page color which can be useful
so click on tint the whole screen and let's see what happens
Do I have to press this? Nope, so we already have this selected. Just double click, it can take a little while to load
I see now, it will take a minute here
sometimes you have to click a few extra times, I've been finding with this particular computer
and it doesn't seem to be working. As you can see, that feature is a little bit unreliable.
unfortunately, but that is available to you if you ever find the need for it
another option that there is a voice note, so let's give that a shot
if someone wanted to leave a voice note, they would enable this little tool bar here
if it lets me scroll to the side
Can I try it? Yeah, give it a shot
Yeah, there you go. So as you can see
it's a little slow processing with my computer
something else I've been finding is it's helpful to have as few programs running as possible
it can be hard, if you're trying to do a research paper and juggle between Word, Internet, and say PowerPoint or Adobe
but keep as few programs open, and as few tabs open on the Internet as possible
because it can be really slow sometimes
so let's try inserting a voicenote right now and see how it works
so as you can see, this did not translate accurately what I said at all
"She got her eye in Ghana, no right amount, Seattle works so you can see A"
So that was nothing like what I said
So it's really important to talk very slowly, enunciate
loudly, be as close to the computer as possible
not be like talking to the side, chewing, or anything like that
Can I try? Yeah, let's give this another shot and see if we can get something a little bit more accurate
I would like to make a voice note
Well, it's closer, it's closer
Yeah, so something to be vigilant about, there's some words that look
a like, or sound a like. Or it might just drop out the last sound of a word
so if you wanted to read it back to you, that's if someone has a hard time reading
that's the best way to make sure it's actually what you intended
"I'd like to make a voice no
There you can see, it said no instead of note
that's the best way to ensure the accuracy of this
Another important thing, just to keep in mind
is to remember to turn this off as soon as you're done
because if you start talking and go, "oh darn it!" it will just record it
so that's how you do a voice note
if you ever don't need this feature, and it's just getting to be distracting
you can ex out here, or you can minimize here
as we wind down here, there is one more feature I want to show you
as mentioned, there are so many different features for this
and I do want to make you understand that if you do want to commit to this program
it can take hours to learn this
I just tell you that so you understand, if you don't get it all right away
that's completely understandable, it can take a few sessions with someone
it can take a few sessions with someone who's an expert on assistive technology to fully learn it
even beyond that point, it can take some follow up too
you may have to email or call somebody if additional questions come up
that you didn't have before
this program is definitely a learning process, it's not something you can really learn in one chuk
it does take a little bit of practice and hands-on learning
so if you do decide to get this loan from Temple's Tech OWL program
or from another assistive technology borrowing program
I just want to make sure you come in with that expectation
So I can show you one more setting, which I think is pretty interesting
one feature of this which is nice
we're not going to go too deep into this one here
but just to show that one of its strengths is accessibility to people who are non-native English speakers
you can translate from English to a number of other languages
so that's just something I kind of wanted to highlight
if you know people who that would be a good fit for
so we're going to try the prediction feature here
so the cool thing about this, this is available under settings
is that there's a word bank available
and this has a number of different word banks
so let's say you're doing a paper on ancient Babylon
for a history class you're taking
there's a lot of atypical words you'd find in a report on Ancient Babylon
some spellcheckers, basic spellcheckers, may not recognize
but you can pre-set this, so it's familar with
all the ancient Mesopotamia, all the names of the various gods.
so that's very handy. It has a number of ancient civilizations
let's scroll down a little bit more, and say you're doing something on
something a little more scientific on hurricanes
this way it can not only recognize words you might be inputting about hurricanes
but it can also spellcheck them for you
so you are able to utilize this program through a blending of voice and typing too
if someone types, and they're unsure they're spelling things correctly on a research paper on hurricanes, they can select that
as a word bank they're interested in
so that's definitely another strength of this program
is that it's not just designed for a generalist audience
although it works great for a number of people
but if you're somebody that's in an academic program or an occupation that centers on something very niche
like Marie Curie or Mahatma Gandhi
it really knows a lot of words pertaining to those things
So that kind of wraps things up for now, that's a really brief look at this program
as you can see, it has a lot of strengths, it has a lot of different features
new features are frequently being added to it
and it's nice that it's accessible on that little toolbar, in the event you ever need it
in the event that somebody doesn't need it anymore
or that it's interfering with one of the things that they're doing
you can simply click sign out
and that gets you out of the program
I know we talked about some of the weaknesses of the program
it's difficult to use on older computers
or on a computer that has full memory
it also is a little bit of a learning curve
so that's to be expected
it's not a reflection on the learner, if it takes a little time to get a hang of it
it just means this program has so many interesting features, it does take a little while to get accustomed to
and we can also just briefly talk about some of the environmental factors
for this program, while it can be helpful for someone with low vision
the way it's set up with the icons can be very challenging if you have no or limited use of vision
so someone with low vision would need to work more closely with a trainer on Read and Write Gold
that's one of the things, it's difficult to get the icons to speak to you
that's definitely a drawback of the program
I think another drawback is it does require a lot of tactile skills
like being able to navigate your mouse
it's not quite as hands-free as a program like, say, Dragon Naturally Speaking
which is an alternate program that's more focused on speech to text
so people with those needs may require a little bit more intensive hands-on training
overall, what were your thoughts on it?
I can see the benefit of it, especially if you can get it to record your voice correctly
being able to type with your voice instead of having to physically type papers
and being able to read back, especially the web, large paragraphs of text
Alright, so I think for follow up, here's something information if you're interested
in the Temple Tech OWL program, their lending program is completely free, if someone wants to buy it they can discuss financial options
health insurance, government funding, or assistance from private foundations
Great, thanks so much. Thanks for coming.