HI all,

It may be called a "text reader," but for computers, is often called a 
"screen reader." They all have their good points and not so great points, 
but the premise of having things read to assist with learning is one that 
is commonly used with kids in special education programs. There are a 
number of reading programs that highlight the words as the program reads 
the text as well.

Some vendors text readers include:
Don Johnston, Inc. http://www.donjohnston.com/
Intellitools: http://www.intellitools.com

These are, of course, primarily designed for school-aged children, but look 
closely for the tools that may be able to do what you want for adults. 
Write:Outloud and  Read: OutLoud are likely the programs that make the most 
sense and are very versatile - they operate within or like a word 
processor. I know a lot of people who use them who have learning 
disabilities. They are also electronically based.

I do know there are text readers that can read printed text, but I can't, 
for the life of me, remember the name of the one I have seen or find one 
quickly while writing this. They do exist - look in tools for people who 
are blind and visually impaired.

There are many different screen readers for computers while surving the web 
and doing email.  Some of the more common are
JAWS: 
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp  (expensive)

One that I downloaded to use for a demonstration was free and very easy to 
use is:
http://www.screenreader.net/

As for the understandability of the more formal language often used in 
pamphlets and books, I would imagine it depends on the target audience. I 
believe there are many people who are very comfortable with formal 
language, but cannot read as well as those who will need the less formal 
approach. But being able to hear information - even if the language still 
needs to be decoded - is better than not being able to access the 
information at all!

If you have access to a search engine that can scour education journals, I 
would recommend a lit search for use of text readers, text-to-speech, and 
so on in journals for special education. This is a huge area for the folks 
in assistive technology and augmentative communication. I'm sure there are 
articles that can lay the groundwork or be generalized for further studies 
with people who do not have "disabiltiies."

Last, for the social justice piece, I submit two pieces that I like a great 
deal:

1. The Literacy Bill of Rights: Yoder, D.E., Erickson, K.A. and 
Koppenhaver, D.A., Center for Literacy and DisabilityStudies, P.O. BOX 
3888, DUMC, Durham, NC 
27710  http://dsasdonline.org/admin/files/AT-Literacy.pdf

and

2. The Communication Bill of RIghts: 
http://www.asha.org/NJC/bill_of_rights.htm from the National Joint 
Committee for the Communication needs of people with severe disabilities.


Take care,
Joan
-----------------------------
Joan E Guthrie Medlen, R.D., L.D.
Clinical Advisor, Health Literacy & Communications
Special Olympics Healthy Athletes
joan at DownSyndromeNutrition.com

At 03:59 AM 4/6/2008, you wrote:

>Hello Len,

>

>This is Glenn Young's idea, not mine, although I think it has merit

>and should be tested. As I understand it, the idea is to help adults who

>need it to get access to information by providing text readers, not

>by changing the text. A text reader -- as I am using the the term --

>is a piece of software that reads printed or digital text out loud.

>In many versions of this kind of software the rate can easily be

>controlled by the user; in some there are tools that allow the user

>just to hear a difficult word here and there, or a word at a time, or

>a sentence at a time or a paragraph at a time.

>

>David J. Rosen

>djrosen at comcast.net.