All students and staff at Chalmers can download software via the software portal. There are numerous support programmes for those with reading and writing difficulties.
TorTalk is a simple speech-to-text programme which can read out most types of text when you highlight the text.
The programme consists of a simple menu bar with buttons allowing you to change the reading speed, language, and to skip text in parentheses, amongst other things. You can either highlight the text which you want to have read out or use the OCR function which reads out text which cannot be highlighted, such as text in PDFs and eBooks.
You can find more information about TorTalk for Mac and PCs on the TorTalk website, together with films explaining how you can read with TorTalk.
EasyReader allows you to search for, download, open and read books from online libraries such as Legimus and Project Gutenberg.
You can even import and open Word documents or PDFs from your own computer. The programme can read out the imported documents and books with its inbuilt speech synthesis function.
Other functions:
Change reading speed
Make bookmarks in the text
Follow along in the book if it contains text
Change text and background colour
Navigate between pages and chapters
ClaroRead is reading and writing software which reads out words as they are typed, letter for letter, by word or sentence.
The programme checks for homophones – words which sound the same but have different spellings and meanings – as you type, and you can get explanations of the words which you highlight. You can save your text as an audio file which you can have read out by Media Player which you have on your computer. If you want to read the text in a locked PDF, you can scan the text and convert it to Word and have it read out.
ClaroRead also includes the Screenruler, ClaroIdeas, ClaroView and ClaroCapture programmes.
Saida is a programme which helps you with spelling.
Functions in Saida:
Suggest words as you write
Can handle spelling errors
Alerts for easily confused words
Gives greater possibilities for personal settings
Manual for Saida (in Swedish)
SpellRight is a spellchecker specially adapted for native Swedish speakers writing in English.
You must start a word processing programme first for the software to work.
SpellRight functions:
Correct major spelling errors such as djörni (journey) and enf (enough)
Correct easily confused words such as there, their and they´re
Correct grammatical errors such as “he is interested of” (interested in)
Correct conjoined words such as ”diningtable” or separated words like “boy friend”
Punctuation and spacing
Choose between British and American English
Add your own words to the glossary
StavaRex is a programme which corrects spelling and grammatical errors in Swedish text.
You must start a word processing programme first for the software to work.
StavaRex functions:
Read out words and sentences
Add your own words to the glossary
Alerts for separated words
Your computer and browser already have built-in tools and aids which can support you with your reading and writing difficulties.
Go to Settings > Accessibility or use the shortcut Windows key + U. You will be able to get the text on the screen read out, change settings for colour and contrast and get subtitles to audio and video in real time, amongst other things.
Open System Settings > Accessibility (the icon with a person in a circle) to customize your computer to suit your needs. There you can get real-time subtitles for audio and video, enable screen readers, adjust colors and contrast, and much more.
