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Home » Student Life » Student Support » Student Wellness » Student Access and Accommodations » Assistive Technologies
Assistive technology can make completing work easier and accessible.
Try these templates and graphic organizers for assistance with studying, time management, and project management. PDF resources taken from LDadvisory.com.
This database and accompanying table are designed to help you keep track of the publication information you need to complete a list of references for research papers and to store notes on the articles you read in an organized way.
“Kurzweil 3000TM is the comprehensive reading, writing and learning software solution for any struggling reader, including individuals with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder or those who are English Language Learners” (Kurzweil Educational Systems website).
Students registered with the Student Access and Accommodations Office who have submitted documentation of a learning disability, dyslexia, etc. may find this software program useful. Kurzweil can be a great option for students who need extra help with reading, word processing, and material comprehension. Our office will work to provide students with as much information and assistance as possible for continued use of Kurzweil on and off campus.
To begin, discuss your eligibility with a disability services advisor. If you are already registered with us, our office will create your Kurzweil user account, which can be personalized and saved. Installation will be done either through a downloadable link or access to a Kurzweil CD.
Yes, Kurzweil software runs on both the Windows and Mac operating systems. Once downloaded and installed, Kurzweil can be found on the desktop in Windows or in the Applications folder on Mac. Enter your username and password when prompted. For frequently asked questions about the software see the link below and the other available documents on this webpage. If you are interested in a brief one-on-one consultation and demo, please contact a disability services advisor.
For PC: Kurzweil can read files with the following extensions:
The following file types are known to be incompatible:
All other file types should be considered incompatible.
For Mac: Kurzweil is compatible with the following file formats:
The following file extensions are known to be incompatible:
All other file types should be considered incompatible.
Kurzweil can read web pages using Firefox on Windows computers. The KESIReader extension needs to be installed to Firefox to use this tool. While the extension is not currently installed on the AzTech stations, it is a very quick process which the user can perform themselves. The Read the Web function on Macs is still non-functional.
For Windows:
Open up the desktop Kurzweil software. Select the ‘Web’ icon located on the Main Toolbar. You will be automatically prompted to install KESIReader. Select ‘Yes’ and quit out of Firefox if you have it open. Firefox will open automatically along with a Software Installation window. Click ‘Install Now’ and restart Firefox. When you next open Firefox you will see a Kurzweil toolbar near the top of the browser.
The first time you try to read a web page, you may encounter a Windows Security Alert saying that Windows Firewall has blocked some features of Kuzweil. Select ‘Allow access’ to continue. You should now be able to use the application.
The Read the Web toolbar functions much like the desktop Kurzweil. However, it occasionally has difficulty reading some web pages, such as articles on The New York Times’ website. If you encounter one of these pages, your best bet is to open the webpage directly in Kurzweil using the KESI Virtual Printer.
The KESI Virtual Printer can be used to “print” documents and webpages directly to Kurzweil, automatically opening them as Kurzweil files.
To use KESI, open the print menu as normal. Under “Printer Selection” choose “KESI Virtual Printer.” Before printing, choose color instead of black & white. In our experience, this results in a much higher quality document. After printing, your document will appear in Kurzweil. If Kurzweil isn’t open, it will launch automatically to display your document.
The KESI Virtual Printer offers an alternative to Kurzweil’s Read the Web feature. Occasionally Kurzweil encounters webpages it cannot read; in these cases, the Virtual Printer is a better option.
Note: This feature is available only on the Windows operating system.
For Mac: To translate into another language, highlight the text in question, open the Online menu, and select “Translate.” Selected the desired language from the drop-down menu, and press the “Translate” button to view your text in this language.
Unfortunately, Kurzweil for Mac is unable to read in languages other than English.
For Windows: To read a document already in another language, scan/open the document in Kurzweil as normal. Under the Read menu, you can select between various reading languages with the “Language” option. Each language comes with a variety of new reading voices. Those voices with the prefix “VW” or the suffix “-tel” seem to be the best.
Kurzweil can read the following languages:
From our testing, we have found that Kurzweil’s ability to read Spanish and French is startlingly accurate, with highly intelligible voices. We cannot speak to Finnish.
To translate into another language, highlight the text in question and press the “Translate” button in the Main Toolbar. Selected the desired languages from the drop-down menus, select “Translate,” and then “Read.”
For PC: If scanning in color, select “Use Color” under the Scan menu. Place your first page in the scanner. Under the Scan menu, click Scan Repeatedly . The scan will begin immediately. After the first page is finished scanning, a window will appear counting down from 15 seconds – during this time, place your next page in the scanner. When the countdown reaches zero, this page will be scanned and added to the current Kurzweil document. Continue until your last page is finished scanning, then press “End Scanning” on the countdown window.
For Mac: Place your first page in the scanner. Under the Scan menu, select either “Scan in Black & White” or “Scan in Color,” and then “Scan New Document” to begin. This page will appear on-screen. Place the next page in the scanner, and click “Scan Next Page” at the top of the scan window. When finished, click “Scan Done.”
For Mac: The Header/Footer editor is a useful tool for dealing with unwanted headers and footers that are being read aloud. Under Scan, select Zones and then choose Edit Zones . Selection boxes will appear around the text in your document. You then have the ability to move, delete, or otherwise change these zones. Whatever text is in the zone will be read, in the order in which the zones are numbered. Go back to Scan, Zones , and Edit Zones to save your changes and return to normal viewing.
For PC: Under the Scan menu, select H/F Editor (or press Ctrl+F8). Use the mouse to right-click and select Mark Header/Footer . Click where you want to start and drag the box across the page over any footnotes, etc. that you would like to avoid. To finish, click outside the box. To apply the setting to all pages or adjust the location of the box, right-click inside the box and choose that option.
Kurzweil can ignore actual footnotes when blocked off by the Header/Footer editor, but unfortunately cannot avoid reading the numbers in the text that refer to footnotes.
For Mac: Under the Reading menu, use the “Reading Voice” option to choose between several different voices. An alternative option is found in the Kurzweil Reader pop-up. Clicking the arrow next to “Details” will reveal several reading options, including reading voice.
Users of the Mac version should note that the voices are generally less clear than Windows voices — of those available, we find Alex to be the best.
For Windows: To change reading voice, click the farthest left menu of the yellow (reading) toolbar, and select another name. and click on another name. We recommend VW Julie or VW Paul.
For Mac: Under the Reading menu, the reading speed can be changed using the two options “Read Faster” (Command + ]) and “Read Slower” (Command + [).
To choose a more exact reading speed, select “Set Reading Speed” under the Reading Menu and input the Words per Minute at which you wish Kurzweil to read.
An alternative option is found in the Kurzweil Reader pop-up. Clicking the arrow next to “Details” will reveal several reading options, including reading speed and voice.
For Windows: In the yellow toolbar, the farthest left red triangles (under the “Read” button) control the speed. The number next to them shows the Words per Minute at which Kurzweil is currently reading.
Click the triangle pointing up to increase the speed and the triangle pointing down to decrease the speed. You may also enter a number in the words per minute box next to the triangles. You may also press F11 to increase the speed by five words per minute or F12 to decrease the speed by five words per minute.
Kurzweil (both the Mac and PC versions) will automatically straighten slightly misaligned documents. However, it cannot do so for documents rotated more than approximately 15 degrees. If Kurzweil fails to automatically rotate your document, your best option is to simply rescan it. However, if you can’t rescan your document, try opening it in Adobe Photoshop and manually rotating the image until the text is horizontal.
For Mac:
For PC:
Kurzweil for Mac can be used as a simple word processor. To create a document, simply click “New” under the File menu. Doing so will create a blank document on which you can type. Typical word processing options (text size, font, alignment, and spacing) can be found under the Format menu.
At any point, press Command+R to instruct Kurzweil to read your document aloud.
For Windows: Similarly, a blank document can be created in Windows by opening the File menu and selecting “New” -> “Draft” -> “Blank,” or by pressing Control+N.
Kurzweil on Windows, however, has several other word processing options not available on Mac.
Outline: Under File , select “New” -> “Outline” -> “Blank.” This provides a blank document formatted to function as an outline. Use the “Outline Palette” to move between various degrees of indentation.
Brainstorm: Under File , select “New -> “Brainstorm” -> “Blank.” Use the “Brainstorm Palette” to construct a Bubble-and-Arrow diagram.
For Mac: Changing the zoom on one page of a multiple page changes the zoom on all other pages as well. Zoom options can be found in the View menu.
For Windows: On Windows, changing the zoom while viewing a particular page leaves the zoom on all other pages unchanged. To avoid having to repeatedly change the zoom on each individual page, you can do the following:
1. From the Tools menu choose “Options.”
2. Choose the “Image” section of the Options window, and in “Default Fit:” choose My Zoom.
3. Choose the “General” section of the Options window. Set the “My Zoom” field to your preferred value. “My Zoom” defaults to 100%.
4. Click Apply, then OK.
All pages of a multiple page document should now be zoomed consistently.
For Mac: To the left of your Kurzweil document should appear the Tools palette. If you don’t see this, select “Show Tools” under the Window menu.
In this palette are a variety of different highlighting options. To switch highlight colors, simply click a different highlighter tool. To erase highlights, user the Eraser tool, found on the top right of the palette.
If you prefer to use your keyboard to your mouse, there are a number of shortcuts that can be used instead of accessing the menu and many of the toolbars:
For Mac:
Command + (R) Start reading
Command + (.) Stop reading
Command + (]) Read faster
Command + ([) Read slower
Command + (+) Zoom in
Command + (-) Zoom out
Command + (Right Arrow) Next page
Command + (Left Arrow) Previous page
Control + Command + (S) Selector
Control + Command + (E) Eraser
Command + (T) Show Fonts
For Windows:
F1: Help
F2: Back One Sentence
F3: Start Reading
F4: Forward One Sentence
F11: Increase Reading Speed
F12: Decrease Reading Speed
Control + W: Change Spoken Word
Control + D: Definition of Selected Word
Control + Q: Synonyms of Selected Word
Control + Y: Syllables of Selected Word
Shift + F5: Add Note
Shift + F6: Close Note
Shift + F7: Add Voice Note
For additional shortcuts, click here.
Unfortunately, no. Mathematical files are also incompatible with Kurzweil.
For PC: To scan in color, select “Use Color” under the Scan menu before scanning your document.
For Mac: Select “Scan in Color” under the Scan menu.
On PC: Yes! Increasing brightness may increase document readability. To increase brightness, go to Tools > Options > Scanning . If you increase the brightness too much, however, you will begin to lose detail. Also try checking the “despeckling” option under the same menu.
On Mac: Kurzweil for Mac does not have customizable scanning options.
Firefly is an online extension of Kurzweil and is LTU’s primary desktop text-to-speech software. Kurzweil users are automatically granted online storage space – documents uploaded to this space can then be read with Firefly. Unlike Kurzweil, Firefly is a web-based application, and thus can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection.
If you are a registered Kurzweil user, you can simply log in to Firefly using your same Kurzweil credentials. If you are not already a Kurzweil user, visit the Kurzweil page to learn how to create an account.
Kurzweil has recently released a free Firefly app for iPad. This app functions exactly like online Firefly – you will be able to access your files from your iPad anywhere you have an internet connection.
Firefly can only read .kes and .txt files. If the document you wish to upload is in some other format, first open the file in Kurzweil and save it as a .kes file.
Next, log in to Firefly. On your home screen, choose either your Private or Public folder. Documents uploaded to the Public folder will be visible to all Carleton Firefly users, while documents uploaded to your Private folder will be visible only to you.
Finally, click the orange “Upload A File” button. Select the .kes file, and click “Open” to begin the upload.
Yes! If you put a file in your private or public folder in Firefly, that file will also be available through desktop Kurzweil. In addition, you can access files placed in other folders in the Universal Library through Kurzweil.
PC: To access files saved in Firefly folders through Kurzweil, select File , “Open From Library.” A pop-up window will appear showing all accessible Firefly folders. Use this to navigate to the file you wish to open in Kurzweil.
Mac: In the Mac version of Kurzweil, select the File menu, then “Open From Universal Library.” A pop-up window will appear showing all accessible Firefly folders. Use this to navigate to the file you wish to open in Kurzweil.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
The reading voice can be changed under the “Options” menu in the toolbar. We personally recommend Paul.
Note: Violeta is intended to be used only when reading documents in Spanish.
Firefly can be used in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
There is no tool within Firefly to block headers, footers, and other extraneous text from being read. However, previous changes made to the .kes file in Kurzweil will carry over to Firefly. When first creating the .kes file in Kurzweil, reading zones can be edited as described here . Zones which are deleted in this way will not be read aloud in Firefly.
In order to translate text, highlight the passage you want translated. Click the “Translation” button in the top right-hand corner of your screen and choose the desired language from the drop-down menu. Firefly can translate to and from:
While the text translations seem accurate, only Spanish can be read proficiently by Firefly. If translating text into languages other than Spanish, we recommend using the desktop PC version of Kurzweil, which can both translate and read foreign languages much more fluently.
Phone: 248.204.4100
Email: stuaccess@ltu.edu
Location:
Office of the Dean of Students, Suite C405
A. Alfred Taubman Student Services Center, 4th floor
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