Literacy development software/app

Microsoft Office 365

Tools in Microsoft Office 365 can help you write and edit documents more easily and efficiently.

The tools include:

• Dictate is available in Word, OneNote, PowerPoint and Outlook.  It enables you to quickly get your thoughts out, and includes dictating in other languages
• Editor assists in refining your writing.  It includes a grammar checker and spell-checker, and suggestions read aloud
• Text suggestions as you type, just like on a smart phone
• Immersive Reader. In addition to reading text aloud, you can use Immersive Reader to change the way text is displayed, text spacing and page colour. These settings are applied to new text as you type.

For details, watch the interactive video Empower students with inclusive writing tools.

Students and staff at BHI can use Microsoft Office 365 for free. Setup Office 365 

Read&Write contains 20 reading and writing tools to support students with learning difficulties. 

It also helps students who have English is an additional language, or those with mild vision loss.  

Read&Write includes 

• text-to-speech (screen reader)
• spell-check
• dictionary
• picture dictionary
• predictive text
• verb checker.

For help, watch demonstrations of Read&Writetools.  

Once installed, the Read&Write toolbar is embedded on-screen so that features are easily accessible.  The toolbar includes video guides on all the features.  You can change the toolbar to suit your needs.

• Read&Write is installed on all BHI student computers.
• BHI staff can download and install it from the Software Centre onto their BHI owned computer.
• For personal use, a 1-user license is $300 per annum, however, BHI have some licenses available for students for free. To take advantage of this, make a request to Disability Liaison Service (DLS).

Note:  If you need software for reading and navigating web pages such as StudentWeb, you would be better to use one of the other options in the Screen-Reader (text-to-speech) section.