Assistive Technology Resources

1. Mac Read Aloud Tool > Instructions
2. iPad: Anything that can be selected can be read aloud if the setting is turned on. Here is a video for iPads: How to make your iPad read out loud to you  
3. For iPhones try Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content-Speak Selection
4. PC Windows using the Chrome Browser and Free Chrome extensions

This document is a resource for using a PC to read aloud, loading the chrome extensions and looking for Books in Audio formats >

Read Aloud Tools for All Students

If a parent or teacher has a JoCo Library card, there are many books in that system in digital and audio formats that are “beamed” right to the student’s device.  There are a number of eBook & eMagazine options for children and teens.

• For younger students the JoCo library also offers Bookflix https://www.jocolibrary.org/elibrary/ebooks/bookflix a nice collection of digital interactive books for children.  You can get a library card online if you don’t have one.

• Epic https://www.getepic.com/ is another nice resource that is free for teachers if they log in as an educator. It has thousands of digital books and educational videos aimed at K-8^th grade, most with read aloud and can be accessed via an Ipad app or from the website. Free 30 day trial for parents.

• Story Online https://www.storylineonline.net/ is a free collection of online books read by celebrities.  Turn on the closed caption feature to also see the words on the screen.

• Vooks https://www.vooks.com/ another online collection of animated books. Free teacher account and 30 day free trial for parents. 

• Read Print http://www.readprint.com/ Thousands of free K-12 online books. Read with a text reading app.

If you are using Google Docs or Google classroom add one of these free extensions to read aloud:  You would only need to add these tools once when you are logged in to your district Google account and they will be available from then on.  They can be loaded from the Chrome Web Store. Here are 3 that are reliable, and students like: 

1. Read Aloud    Link to > Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader
   
   
2. Speechify      https://www.getspeechify.com/
   
   
3. ClaroRead   Link to > ClaroRead Chrome

Use Closed Caption in Google Slides:  Even if you are not using Google Slides to present, if you open Google slides in the background click Present and turn on closed caption it will caption everything that is said.

Here is a how-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj1QXxuast8

Here is a short article on ways to use this: http://ditchthattextbook.com/6-ways-to-make-the-most-of-closed-captions-in-google-slides/