[Athen] Alternatives to Read&Write

[Andrea L. Dietrich]

We've been using Capti, but we're considering moving away from it since we've had some issues with how it reads PDF files and how it formats Word files. We're thinking of looking at Natural Reader. NaturalReader EDU - text to speech for education (naturalreaders.com)<https://www.naturalreaders.com/edu.html> One nice thing is that you can try it out completely free, and see if it meets your specific needs.

--------------------------
Andrea Dietrich
She / Her / Hers
Accommodation Specialist
Student Disability Services

Cornell University
Cornell Health, Level 5
110 Ho Plaza
Ithaca, NY 14853
Email: adietrich at cornell.edu<mailto:adietrich at cornell.edu>
Phone: (607) 254-4545
Fax: (607) 255-1562
Web: sds.cornell.edu

*Please note that confidentiality of non-encrypted e-mail communication cannot be guaranteed. If you are NOT the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and destroy this message. Disclosure of any information contained in this message to someone other than the intended recipient is prohibited.

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Susan Kelmer
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 9:39 AM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Alternatives to Read&Write

We are a Kurzweil campus, and costs are a little less than TextHelp, I think.  Of course we have WAY more seats than we need, which continues to be a bone of contention with me regarding both KZ and R&W.  We don't need a license for every student on campus.  We need licenses for less than 150 students on our campus.  Our campus population is ~36K.  Both of these companies need to listen to us in higher ed - we are not K-12.

Anyway, Kurzweil will handle PDFs and Word files, even TIFF and Jpegs.  It will handle epubs but not well, unfortunately.  I usually turn ePubs into something else.  Kurzweil has a plug-in for Chrome (and other browsers) but it won't read everything. The Kurzweil web-based portal will read most things, but again, ePubs are going to be a problem.  You would likely be cobbling together some Frankenstein mess of apps to cover every need, unfortunately. As "born accessible" as ePubs are touted to be, they really aren't until the TTS software catches up and reads them properly.

I don't dislike Kurzweil, but I wish it read math, and handle ePubs well, and give us better navigation with large PDFs, rather than us having to break them into chapters before sending them to the student.


Susan Kelmer
Alternate Format Production Program Manager
Disability Services
Division of Student Affairs
T 303 735 4836
www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices<http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices>


[cid:image001.png at 01D598AC.79FC1C60]

Due to the nature of electronic communication, the security of this message cannot be guaranteed. If you've received this email in error please notify the sender immediately and delete this message.





From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Jeremy Zhe-Heimerman
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 6:36 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Athen] Alternatives to Read&Write

Hi folks,

Our IT people had difficulty negotiating a new contract for Read&Write with Texthelp this year, mainly because of increased costs, but possibly because of terms and conditions too. I'm now looking at alternatives in case we need something more cost effective.

We used Kurzweil 3000 before we moved to R&W 7 or 8 years ago. Any improvements there? I'm looking at Capti and Speechify as possible alternatives. Has anyone tried them or another alternative?

I'm hoping to find something that can

  *   be deployed to students in all operating systems, including mobile;
  *   read PDFs and epubs, including Bookshare files;
  *   be used in our testing center with PDF and Word files;
  *   earn extra points for integrating nicely with Microsoft 365.

Thanks for any knowledge you may have to share!

Jeremy Zhe-Heimerman (he, him, his)
Assistant Director, Disability Resources
SUNY Cortland
Memorial Library, Room B-204
P.O. Box 2000
Cortland, NY 13045-0900
O: 607-753-2358 | F: 607-753-5495
jeremy.zhe-heimerman at cortland.edu<mailto:jeremy.zhe-heimerman at cortland.edu>
Test Administration Scheduling System<https://webapp.cortland.edu/TASRequestForm/> | Disability Resources Homepage<http://www2.cortland.edu/offices/disability-resources/index.dot>
AccessCortland Student Portal<https://shibboleth-cortland-accommodate.symplicity.com/sso/> | AccessCortland Faculty Portal<https://shibboleth-cortland-accommodate.symplicity.com/sso/faculty>

Follow Us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/accessiblecortland/> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/AccessCortland> | Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/accessiblecortland/>

Confidentiality Note: This email may contain privileged and confidential information that should not be copied or forwarded without consent.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20220210/c7631990/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 8916 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20220210/c7631990/attachment.png>