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

[Trinh, Marc]

Thank you to everyone who responded to my inquiry on the ATHEN and HTCTU Alt Media listservs.  Many of you responded to me privately as well... I very much appreciate your input!



Marc Trinh

CSU, Fullerton


From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2016 12:54 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] back to the question of features of K-3000 compared R&W

I believe someone else might have pointed this out, but it is good to keep in mind that of the products under discussion, only Kurzweil has a version (the K1000) that works for individuals who are blind.

All of the other software we are considering is really LD focused, and the full-range of features are not available to someone who cannot use a mouse-nor are the other programs set up to be used without vision. Even when keyboard shortcuts are present, the whole interface is set up visually, and many of the choices are inherently visual. K1000, on the other, is really designed to be used without vision (self-voicing menus, for instance).

One of the nice things about the Kurzweil products is that both K3000 and K1000 can use the same KESI files. You can create files on either program and use them with either program.

If you go with a competing product, it would be good to spend a few minutes considering how you will accommodate any users who are blind who wish to use scanning and reading software.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
HTCTU Director
408-996-6047
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

From: Nast, Joseph M [mailto:Joseph.M.Nast at lonestar.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2016 2:23 PM
To: 'gdietrich at htctu.net'; 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: RE: [Athen] back to the question of features of K-3000 compared to R&W


FYI here's a link to a comparison chart; it's a little dated, but it gives you a nice "bird's eye view" feature comparison of Kurzweil, R&WG, ClaroRead and WYNN:



http://www.spectronics.com.au/downloads/faqs/Literacy-Support-Software-Comparison-Chart.pdf



Fortunately, we have the luxury of employing both systems at Lone Star College, but it'd be a hard call if I had to choose one or the other. If pressed, I would probably go with R&WG, simply because:



- I can use the Managed version in our assessment center instead of providing a human reader, and

- the fact that new users find it easier to pick up quickly.



However, I'd definitely miss Kurzweil's more extensive writing help features. Not to mention KZ's ability to scan, efficiently OCR, and create audio for entire textbooks (R&WG can only handle a dozen or so pages at a time ).



Let me know if you have any questions. Hope it helps!


From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 8:02 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] back to the question of features of K-3000 compared to R&W

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<mailto: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<mailto: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
www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ability<http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/ability>

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