[Athen] back to the question of features of K-3000 compared to R&W

[Gaeir Dietrich]

If you are really looking to compare these two programs, I would suggest
expanding your choices a bit and looking at ClaroRead.

 

ClaroRead is a simple LD reading tool with one extremely unique powerful
feature, when you use it to run OCR, it allows you to delete zones that you
do not wish to OCR. Kurzweil and R/W automatically do everything on the
page. Most students, however, prefer not to have all the captions,
footnotes, etc. read. Claro gives you the choice of including them or not.

 

And of the three, Claro is the least expensive.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
HTCTU Director
408-996-6047

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Robert Beach
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 7:27 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] back to the question of features of K-3000 compared to
R&W

 

I have to jump in here.

 

1/ independent use by students, as K-3000 can open any article from
electronic libraries, HTML, Word, etc, without needing staff support,
compared to R&W which is designed to work in Word and also has some reading
functions in PDFs

 

<R>

R&W can also read articles from online databases as well as articles from
other online sources.  The reading features in PDF is not limited or
reduced.

 

2/ K-3000 has extensive study features, esp in the Windows platform, to
extract text to study notes, insert dictionary definitions, add your own
definitions and examples, etc., to analyze the text with less typing, and a
solid structure to support writing, with brainstorming, drafts, outlines,
etc., where again, you can extract text for quotes, etc.

 

<R>

R&W also provides these features.

 

3/ the Acapella speech in K-3000, while not as good as the previous
Voiceware products, allows students to read volumes of text. At Cdn
universities, students are reading 50 pages of dense text/course/week, and
need highly intelligible speech. Many of our Universities are going with a
Web license of K-3000, whereas the colleges, which grant certificates and
diplomas and have a much smaller volume of reading, are going with R&W,
because it is cheaper and the speech quality doesn't matter.

 

<R>

Since you can add just about any voice you want to R&W, I don't see were
K3000 has an advantage here.  The same voices you are using in K3000 can be
added to R&W as well.

 

4/ outcome measures indicate that students with ADD, LDs and mental health
issues find the reading with highlighting, and reading for meaning, looking
for important sections to extract for study notes, improves student's
abilities to both get through their readings in a timely manner, comprehend
the readings, and learn the material.

 

<R>

Again, R&W provides reading with highlighting, ability to highlight sections
of text for extraction, etc.

 

 

Robert Lee Beach

Assistive Technology Specialist

Kansas City Kansas Community College

7250 State Avenue

Kansas City, KS  66112

913-288-7671

rbeach at kckcc.edu

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Linda Petty
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 8:36 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] back to the question of features of K-3000 compared to R&W

 

Regarding the original question:

\ Subject: [Athen] Kurzweil 3000 vs. Read&Write

 

Hello everyone,

 

Our program is considering a transition from Kurzweil 3000 to Read&Write.

While I understand there are many advantages and disadvantages, I was

wondering if you can give me a comparison if you have experience with both

programs.

 

Thank you,

 

[CSUF logo]

 

Marc T. Trinh, M.S., Coordinator

 

 

I'd say that the major advantages of K-3000 are:

1/ independent use by students, as K-3000 can open any article from
electronic libraries, HTML, Word, etc, without needing staff support,
compared to R&W which is designed to work in Word and also has some reading
functions in PDFs

2/ K-3000 has extensive study features, esp in the Windows platform, to
extract text to study notes, insert dictionary definitions, add your own
definitions and examples, etc., to analyze the text with less typing, and a
solid structure to support writing, with brainstorming, drafts, outlines,
etc., where again, you can extract text for quotes, etc.

3/ the Acapella speech in K-3000, while not as good as the previous
Voiceware products, allows students to read volumes of text. At Cdn
universities, students are reading 50 pages of dense text/course/week, and
need highly intelligible speech. Many of our Universities are going with a
Web license of K-3000, whereas the colleges, which grant certificates and
diplomas and have a much smaller volume of reading, are going with R&W,
because it is cheaper and the speech quality doesn't matter.

4/ outcome measures indicate that students with ADD, LDs and mental health
issues find the reading with highlighting, and reading for meaning, looking
for important sections to extract for study notes, improves student's
abilities to both get through their readings in a timely manner, comprehend
the readings, and learn the material.

 

So our University has chosen to do a web license of Kurzweil 3000, and it
has greatly accelerated the use of the product- no more waiting for funding,
just register the student, train them, and they are using it immediately for
articles, and as soon as we provide the textbook in PDF, for textbooks.

 

(We use Kurzweil 1000 for students who use screen readers.)

 

Linda Petty, O.T. Reg. (Ont.)
Assistive Technology Consultant
AccessAbility Services

a division of Student Affairs


UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SCARBOROUGH
Science Wing, Room SW302G

1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario  M1C 1A4
Direct Line: 416-208-5144

Tel/TTY (appointments): 416-287-7560

Fax: 416-287-7334
 <http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ability> www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ability


Tomorrow is created here.

This electronic message and all contents contain information that may be
privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. The
information is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not an
addressee, any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of the contents of this
message is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in
error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy the original
message and all copies.

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20160318/9e75064a/attachment.html>