Learning Support

Use Text to Speech Software
Read & Write Gold is a piece of software that should be available on all college computers (do let us know if you can’t get it to load on a computer you have used). You can take a look at the Read & Write Gold page on our website for more information on what it can do to support your study skills in college.

For students who struggle with reading, Read & Write Gold can be very useful because:
it can read texts out loud to you, so if you have a long (or even short!) handout or worksheet from a subject which is a document in Word, PowerPoint or Excel, or even if its a webpage or email, just open Read & Write Gold, click where you want it to start reading and press play. For more information or training on setting up the reader’s voice, take a look at the online tutorials, or ask in the Study Centre for an appointment for a training session.
it can also read pdf documents, and it has some success with scanned in pages as well - again, ask in the Study Centre for more information on this, or check out the online tutorials.
it can proofread your work for you - if you’re not sure whether you have phrased something quite right, or you just need to hear it read in someone else’s voice (we often miss errors when we read through work in our head or by ourselves), Read & Write Gold can help.
It is possible to buy Read & Write Gold for use at home or on the iPad. However, if it is a bit pricey for you, but you would like something to use at home, you can find free Text to Speech software online - do a search for ‘free Text to Speech online’ and try them out, e.g. NaturalReader or ReadSpeaker, which just need you to copy and paste text into them.

There are also instructions on how to use the software at the links below:

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• Full Training Guide PDF document
• Beginners Guide PDF document