[Athen] [EXT]Re: Texthelp no longer support Post secondary

[Robert Beach]

George,

See my last post for clarification on the tool R&W uses. I think it would be better than just allowing the highlight, copy, and paste technique used by other systems. For one thing, the use would have to keep going between documents as they are working. Simply highlight and continue reading.


Robert Lee Beach
Assistive Technology Specialist - Student Accessibility & Support Services

Kansas City Kansas Community College
7250 State Ave. - Suite # 3384 - Kansas City, KS 66112
O 913-288-7671 | F 913-288-7678
rbeach at kckcc.edu<mailto:rbeach at kckcc.edu>



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of kerscher at montana.com
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 5:35 PM
To: 'Access Technology Higher Education Network' <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: [EXT]Re: [Athen] Texthelp no longer support Post secondary

CAUTION: This email originated outside KCKCC. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Please forward all suspicious emails to support at kckcc.edu<mailto:support at kckcc.edu>.
Hello All,

I can pass on a request to the Thorium developer, and Thorium is free for Windows, Mac, and linux. It has TTS and highlighting as it reads. Also supports reading of Math, when it is MathML.

Using a screen reader you can copy and paste right now, but I think you want something a non-screen reader person can use.

If I understand you, you want to Highlight text and have the TTS read out what is being selected. Then you want to copy this to the clipboard and paste it into a Word document or any application that can accept text from the clipboard.

Is this correct?

Normally, the Read Aloud function sends it to the TTS engine and highlights as it sends the text. It seems you want to have an additional function to say for example, hold down a key while the Read Aloud is going and that would select this text for the clipboard.

I am just trying to describe what is wanted to the Thorium developers. So other user interface designs are welcome.


Best
George


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Liza Eldred
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2022 3:31 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Texthelp no longer support Post secondary

Hi,
The one thing that students really like about Read & Write is the ability to highlight and extract.

>From my experience, I have not found a free or inexpensive tool that both has text-to-speech and the highlight and collect feature (for both Windows and Mac).

Does anyone know of a program other than RW that can do this? If so, please let me know. It would be much appreciated!
Thanks and stay well.
Liza

Liza Eldred
Assistive Technologist II
MacEwan University
780-497-5826


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> on behalf of Dan Comden <danc at uw.edu<mailto:danc at uw.edu>>
Date: Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 2:42 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] Texthelp no longer support Post secondary
EXTERNAL:  Use caution.<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmyportal.macewan.ca%2Fhelp.html%23external-email&data=04%7C01%7Crbeach%40kckcc.edu%7Cdc1dc5d35c33488b64e408da02ef0883%7C23c46d06c5e342e3b848763ebb02e6ad%7C0%7C0%7C637825522932395885%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=ZznIW9%2BNQPGK56Jkh%2BXES7fkrHT9H59wC0QpUuByBiw%3D&reserved=0>

I agree with Michael on this. TextHelp makes some decent products but in my experience they repeatedly demonstrate either ignorance or apathy about the needs of higher education.

This is demonstrated by their license plans for their products, in particular EquatIO which could be a powerful tool for alt text shops at many schools, but can't be utilized at many places due to the company's inflexible license options. It is less expensive to pay for hundreds of student worker hours to convert a couple of math courses every year than to purchase a license for EquatIO for even a moderately sized campus.

We gave up on TextHelp R&W Gold years ago after experiencing excessive difficulty rolling out and maintaining that software in our labs. On top of that, the overwhelming majority of students in my experience want a simple TTS tool and ignore all the additional features wrapped into the reading product. So ... we stopped purchasing it. There was zero negative feedback from students.

It shines in a supported environment like K-12. Not so much in higher ed.

A student's need to read effectively doesn't change once they complete college. In my interactions with students over decades, they show no inclination to purchase expensive TTS tools on their own after they graduate. I think we serve students more effectively by showing them how to use free and inexpensive reading software that fit their needs both in school and after they complete their educational programs. Let TextHelp concentrate on K-12 and we can ignore their products until they come up with a better solution for higher education.

-*- Dan

On Wed, Mar 9, 2022 at 9:26 AM Michael Canale <canale at umbc.edu<mailto:canale at umbc.edu>> wrote:
They recently decided without notification that they will only support K-12 educators with support and free demo licenses. I explained that I have used the software to demonstrate their product and encourage students and parents to consider using it. Now with this new policy, I am unable to demo their product without purchasing my own license. If I worked for a K-12 they would continue to provide me a free account. Why would I purchase a license to generate business for them?

In addition, they changed their minimum number of licenses that prohibit most small to medium size Universities to utilize all they pay for. Whereas K-12 has an entire district. It's all about money and has nothing to do with supporting students it's a real shame.



On Wed, Mar 9, 2022 at 12:01 PM Romack, Justin <justinr at disability.tamu.edu<mailto:justinr at disability.tamu.edu>> wrote:
Howdy!

Glad to get your message and hear your perspective!

Because I feel out of the loop... What Texthelp policy are you referring to and how do they demonstrate they don't care about postsecondary institutions?

We're up for renewal and the quote has drastically increased in price. I have several options to explore in responding, but I wanted more context on how others have approached changes with Texthelp (and also clarifying if what you're referring to is related to the concern I have).

Hoping you're well,
J




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Justin Romack  | Assistive Technology Coordinator
Disability Resources | Texas A&M University
1224 TAMU | College Station, TX 77843-1224

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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Michael Canale
Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 10:01 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] athen-list Digest, Vol 194, Issue 7

For at least 5 years I have had a free account with Read Write in order to show students and parents how to use AT for their studies.  Texthelp decided we in post-secondary are not important enough to support. I call all colleagues to call ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart
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For at least 5 years I have had a free account with Read Write in order to show students and parents how to use AT for their studies.

Texthelp decided we in post-secondary are not important enough to support. I call all colleagues to call upon Texthelp of this change in policy is ridiculous. I decided to no longer support or endorse Texthelp products. Instead, I will endorse Natural Reader.

I know many of you use them, however, we should not support a company that doesn't support us.


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Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.  - J. Garcia, R Hunter




--
Michael Canale
Assistant Director, SDS
Coordinator Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services,
Sensory Impairment, and ASD

[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=11o9m2BMLp7AfTfXgiaWAVxdtMUz_EEES&revid=0Bw1zQ57rlXp1WXZoYjNZNkwxeFlRbHc2QkorU0J1eXdYa0RnPQ]
Office of Student Disability Services
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
225 Math/Psychology Building

Desk: 410-455-6358
Mobile: 410-688-5088 (Text, FaceTime)
VP: 443-410-4773
Email:  canale at umbc.edu<mailto:canale at umbc.edu>
Web: sds.umbc.edu<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsss.umbc.edu%2F&data=04%7C01%7Crbeach%40kckcc.edu%7Cdc1dc5d35c33488b64e408da02ef0883%7C23c46d06c5e342e3b848763ebb02e6ad%7C0%7C0%7C637825522932395885%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=W6xhE6RIKDJHlZy4mU32cD55KGUzAm9SNxWG0V24T0Q%3D&reserved=0>

Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.  - J. Garcia, R Hunter


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-*- Dan Comden                       danc at uw.edu<mailto:danc at washington.edu>
    Access Technology Center   www.uw.edu/itconnect/accessibility/atl/<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uw.edu%2Fitconnect%2Faccessibility%2Fatl%2F&data=04%7C01%7Crbeach%40kckcc.edu%7Cdc1dc5d35c33488b64e408da02ef0883%7C23c46d06c5e342e3b848763ebb02e6ad%7C0%7C0%7C637825522932395885%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=mYae8%2F5stuJQg26vonLmi2rcymRGhy0WtcSmHCCCfRE%3D&reserved=0>
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