Read&Write from TextHelp helps all individuals succeed regardless of ability or learning style. Users can access the reading, writing, studying, and research tools they need at school, home, or work. Having text read aloud with dual color highlighting, along with additional support tools, helps every learner gain confidence and work independently at their own pace.
Syracuse University maintains a site license for Read&Write for PC, Mac, and iPad, as well as a Chrome browser extension.
The discrete, customizable toolbar works with commonly-used file types and applications including: Microsoft ® Word, Google Docs™, PDFs, Mozilla Firefox®, Internet Explorer®, Safari, and Chrome™, to make digital content accessible. The software can take scanned electronic documents and camera images into a format that enables interaction with the content.
Read&Write is especially helpful for those challenged with the increased demands of college, including:
Those with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia
Student athletes trying to balance the demands of sports with their course work
First-generation college students
English as a Second Language learners
International students
Adult learners with full-time jobs and families
And all others who have difficulty reading and writing
Go to the Texthelp webpage. (https://www.texthelp.com )
On the Texthelp homepage locate the Products drop-down menu from the banner and select Read&Write.
Select the link to "Try Read&Write."
Choose Google Chrome, Windows, Android, iPad, Mac OS, or Edge.
For desktop applications, the install package will be downloaded to your device where you can install as you would any other program. Browser extension links will bring you to the respective store page.
When prompted to log in, please choose the 'Sign in with Microsoft' option and follow the steps to login with your @syr.edu email. You will be prompted to authenticate.
If upon installation and selecting the extension icon you are not prompted to login, you may need to clear your browser cache, restart your machine, or download the Read&Write desktop application for Windows or Mac OS.
For best results when signing into Read&Write with Microsoft, please go to office.com and sign in using your Syracuse University email. Open a blank online Word file and select the Read&Write extension icon while in that document. This will ensure that Read&Write detects the Microsoft account properly and is able to prompt its own login page.
OrbitNote from TextHelp is a web-based tool from TextHelp that lets you open, read, create, and interact with PDFs and other digital documents in an accessible, collaborative way. Users can access the reading, writing, studying, and research tools they need at school, home, or work. Having document text read aloud with dual color highlighting, along with additional support tools, helps every learner gain confidence and work independently at their own pace. Users can even upload static images with text to OrbitNote and turn them into accessible PDFs that can be read aloud with OrbitNote.
Key features:
Makes images with text and image-only PDFs into accessible and interactable text that can be read aloud, highlighted, etc., via its OCR (“Scan Text”) feature.
Enables text-to-speech so users can listen to the text in their document and follow along, as well as use foreign language translation, dictionaries, and other accessibility tools
Highlight text, leave comments, produce and insert voice notes, and draw or type annotations
Collaborate and share your documents in OrbitNote with others using Google Drive, OneDrive, Google Classroom, and more
Learn about how to use all of OrbitNote’s features by viewing the instructional videos and text-based guide they have available in the OrbitNote dashboard
How to start:
Go to the OrbitNote website / dashboard
Visit orbit.texthelp.com or the OrbitNote dashboard.
Sign in
Sign in using a Google or Microsoft account. Granting OrbitNote certain permissions will be required (for access to Google Drive or OneDrive, etc.).
Open PDFs
You can open PDFs from local files, from Google Drive, from OneDrive. You can drag & drop or select via file picker on the dashboard. If it’s a PDF in Google Drive, you can also use “Open with → OrbitNote.”
Use the tools
Once the PDF is open, you’ll see the OrbitNote toolbar. From there, you can annotate (text, drawing, shapes), highlight, use text-to-speech, use vocabulary tools, leave comments or voice annotations, etc.
Sharing / feedback / collaboration
You can share annotated PDFs via Drive, OneDrive, etc.
TextHelp has a number of free training resources including tutorials and videos in their Training & Resources Center including: