Small portable devices

1. Franklin electronic dictionaries.
2. Reading Pen.
3. Alphasmart Neo.
4. Recorders.
5. Mobile phones.
6. Tablets.
7. Smart Pens.
8. E-books.
9. GPS.
10. USB Memory Sticks.

Apart from full computers there are a number of smaller and cheaper devices which can also help dyslexic people. They are mostly electronic and, these days, they mostly have quite a lot of computer intelligence themselves. You could call them gadgets.
 

1. Franklin electronic dictionaries.

If you want to know how a word is spelt and you are not working at a computer, just key in the word that you are looking for. Franklins will work from even quite strange spelling and offer the correct spelling.

• Many also have dictionaries and thesauruses to help you make sure that you are using the right word.
• Some of the more expensive dictionaries even read words and definitions out loud.
• The Literacy Word Bank contains the entire Oxford primary dictionary and is aimed at the National Curriculum and the National Literacy Strategy.
• Franklin speaking dictionary and Franklin dictionary thesaurus are available from B.D.A. store.

  

2. Reading Pen.

This is perhaps how all dictionaries will be.WizCom’s Reading Pen has also been around for some time. In its latest version it will scan and read a whole line out loud, although it is most useful for people who have problems reading (decoding) individual words.

• Scan a word and listen to it.
• If that is still not enough, look it up in the comprehensive dictionary.
• Listen to it read the dictionary definition.
• Research shows it speeds learning because a student can experience many more words, and hear the phonic pattern, so reinforcing the learning, in the time that it would take to look up one word in a dictionary, or decode it with a teacher one to one.

  

3. Alphasmart Neo.

The Alphasmart Neo is a simple word processor with a full keyboard and a small screen. These are great as low-cost word processors. In some ways they are better than a full laptop:

• They are more robust;
• Less likely to be stolen;
• They have a spell checker, thesaurus, typing tutor and, optionally, word prediction.
• There are options for font size, but not style or color.
• See TTS for NEO Word and PDF files, for details of an optional speech device. Speech can be so valuable for people with reading, spelling or grammar problems.
• They have a battery life of at least 700 hours.

  

4. Recorders.

Digital Voice Recorders are useful for taking notes, noting homework and other things to do, and recording lectures and seminars, particularly if you have problems writing, copying or taking notes whilst listening.

• Digital recorders can transfer text to the computer quickly. You can also dictate text away from your computer and then transcribe it into your speech recognition program later.
  Two Olympus recorder models are available from B.D.A. store.

 

• Audio Notetaker software helps to work with recordings of lectures and seminars and to make notes so that you can easily find elements that you want to refer to.

  

5. Mobile phones.

Many mobile phones today – smart phones – are powerful computers and even more versatile than a desk top PC of 10 years ago. They will usually include an office software suite, calendar, e-mail, Web browser, GPS, camera, video player, recorder and other software. You can still get PDAs – Personal Digital Assistants – which have many of the functions of smart phones, but without the phone.

• Almost any phone has functions to help if you have problems remembering things and organising yourself.
• Smart phones usually incorporate MP3 players, which you can use for listening to text, as well as the more common use of listening to music.
• Phones vary in price, size and clarity of the screen, in memory and speed, and in how easy they are to control.
• Phones can usually record a certain amount of speech. However, it is generally a more expensive way of doing so than a purpose built recorder.
• You need to back up their contents regularly: they are easy to lose.
• You can use them for reading digital books, sometimes with Text to Speech to read out loud.
• Software like CapturaTalk, available from B.D.A. store can take pictures of text and read that out, too.

 

6. Tablets.

Tablets like the Apple iPad are roughly A4 size computers with practically nothing except a touch sensitive screen.

• Some include a keyboard as well. The iPad has a keyboard on screen.
• Some recognise hand writing using a stylus on the screen but are not suitable if you have serious handwriting difficulties.
• They are very handy and may be a good format for reading electronic books, taking notes in subjects where diagrams and equations are common or drawing mind maps.
• They are still fairly expensive, compared with an ordinary laptop.
• Are they robust enough for what you want to use them for?
• They tend to be low powered compared with the equivalent laptop, but also have much better battery life.
• Not all software supports the swivelling screen (portrait or landscape).
• The iPad and its competitors are really very large screen smart phones without the phone.

 

7. Smart Pens.

A smart pen like the Livescribe writes on special paper, records your writing and can record the sound at the same time.

• You can record lectures and your notes will instantly take you to the part of the recording when you made your note.
• If your handwriting is legible, you can download your notes to the computer and turn them into text with a handwriting recognition program.

LiveScribe pens and accessories are available from B.D.A. store.
 

8. E-Books.

By getting your text in electronic form, you control the typeface (font) foreground and background colour perhaps and type size. You can read e‑books on tablet or ordinary computers, mobile phones and some special e‑book readers.

• A large screen is more comfortable if there are images in your book or if you prefer larger type.
• You may also be able to listen to the text — hopefully studio recorded speech, as synthesised speech is rather hard to listen to for a long time.
• There are also audio only devices and e‑books on CD or as audio downloads.
• E-books come in different formats, some of them proprietary to the e-book reader. E-pub is becoming a standard which most e-book readers will read and which can be accessible to people with reading impairments.
• DAISY format is designed to be accessible, but is being developed to merge with e-pub.
• A well structured e-book will let you search and move around to chapter headings.
• Purpose built E-book reader devices, like the Amazon Kindle, use e-ink which you can read in bright sunlight like paper, but so far are only black and white. They are typically lighter than general purpose tablets.

B.D.A. Tech has a review of a Kindle, Word and PDF, More Kindle comments Word and PDF, and a review of a Blackberry Playbook Word and PDF.
 

9. GPS.

Dyslexic people often have difficulty in finding their way about, in map reading and navigating from place to place.

• Most smart phones now have GPS (Global Positioning System) and Satellite Navigation (SatNav) built in.
• Or you can get purpose built SatNav for your car.

  

10. USB Memory Sticks.

It’s nothing particularly to do with dyslexia, but if you need to move files between machines, consider a USB Memory Stick. It’s a little device that plugs into the USB port; no moving parts but it behaves like another disk drive. Software is now increasingly available on Memory Sticks. Clip it to your key ring and take it from one machine to another, where your files and your programs to help with reading and writing will open on most modern computers in seconds.

© BDA New Technologies Committee. January 2013.
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