Technology Tips and Resources
We encourage students to use assistive technology as tools for greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish or had great difficulty accomplishing by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of, interacting with the technologies needed to accomplish such tasks. There are a variety of assistive technologies and tips available to students.
Natural Reader
Natural Reader is a free text-to-speech reader that can be downloaded at www.naturalreaders.com. The variety of ways a student can use Natural Reader include:
- the online version allows you to paste or drag and drop text (pdf, txt, doc(x), epub) into your web browser, with the ability to choose your preferred voice and speed
- the free chrome extension reads webpages and Google Documents
- students who wish to purchase the premium version ($9.99 per month) will have access to MP3 conversion and unlimited premium voices
How to Download Natural Reader: Step by Step Guide
How to Use Natural Reader: Step by Step Guide
Otter.ai
Otter.ai a free application for audio to text transcription. This program turns your voice conversations into smart notes that you can easily search and share. You can use it to take notes at your meetings and interviews, capture your thoughts and ideas while you’re driving in the car, and transcribe your existing recordings and podcasts. You can even snap photos (e.g. of a whiteboard, or a speaker or presentation slide at an event) during a recording and they will be inserted in-line with your transcripts. The free subscription provides 600 minutes per month of free transcription!
Habitica
Habitica is a free habit-building and productivity app that treats your real life like a game. With in-game rewards and punishments to motivate you and a strong social network to inspire you, Habitica can help you achieve your goals to become healthy, hard-working, and happy. A video game to help you improve real life habits. It "gamifies" your life by turning all your tasks (Habits, Dailies, and To Do's) into little monsters you have to conquer. The better you are at this, the more you progress in the game!
Forest
Forest is a popular productivity app that helps people beat their phone addiction and manage their time in an interesting and pleasant way. Users can earn credits by not using their cell phones and plant real trees around the world with the credits. With Forest, users can have a delightful experience to spend less time on their cell phones, focus on what’s more important in their lives, and keep our environment green