ConnSENSE Review: TextHELP Gold Version 6

Read & Write Version 6 Gold

TextHELP Systems Ltd.,
Enkalon Business Centre
25 Randalstown Road,
Antrim, N. Ireland BT41 4LJ
+44(0)28 428105

http://www.texthelp.com/

E-mail: info@texthelp.com

System Requirements:
Pentium 350 or above, 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended) 400 MB Disk Space, Sound Card, Good Quality Speakers
Windows 98, 2000, ME, NT & XP
Internet Explorer 5.5 or later (available on installation CD)
Recommended Scanners: (USB is recommended for speed)
Epson 1240u, Epson 1200, Epson 610, H.P. 6200, H.P. 6300, Canoscan 630u

TextHELP can be purchased for single users at $645 or multi-user school license at $2,695.

Reviewed by Debra Hultgren; dhultgren@eosmith.org

Rating: A+

TextHELP Read & Write Version 6 Gold (now available in version 7) is a remarkable software tool that is designed to help computer users who have difficulties with reading and writing. It can be used with any age group including preschool students and adults. The tool when enabled will work using standard windows applications including Microsoft Word and Excel making them accessible to individuals who have significant reading and/or writing disabilities or weaknesses. We have used the program with students with learning disabilities in a high school environment for the past year. Our district bought an unlimited site license and we have the program installed on our network and on individual computers. Because of the amount of RAM and disk space required, we had to make sure the individual computers were newer and had at least 256 MB of RAM. The program has many features that require a fast processor and memory but it is worth it to the students who can only write because of this program's features.

All features are activated by icon on an easy to follow menu that appears on the screen along with the menus of the software program in use. A key feature for individuals with reading difficulties is the text reader which when activated reads text on the screen. Text can be downloaded or scanned into the computer for reading purposes only or students can have the program read what they have written to assist students in spelling and composing. Included as a utility is the "pronunciation tutor", which when activated will take a selected word and show it broken down into syllables. In addition to a display of homophones when needed, users can activate a button to hear the homophones, analyze the text and identify alternatives. For individuals who have difficulty with both the physical mechanics of writing or the spelling and composition aspects of writing, the program includes a word prediction feature in the form of drop down menus. Students can use the function keys or direct selection to add the word to their writing. Combined with the speech feature, a poor reader can hear the words and select on the basis of auditory recognition. Additionally, a dictionary, word wizard, phonetic spell checker and homophone feature all combine to aid students in selecting the correct word. All icon buttons are described in both the manual and on a "Quick Reference Card".

Read & Write Gold also includes a "Fact Folder" which is a desk research tool that allows the user to capture text and graphics from other applications and add those elements easily to a document as a study guide or as part of a paper. When information is added from a web page, the web site address is automatically added to the "Document Sources" list boxes. These types of organizational features are useful to students who may have difficulties using and not losing separate cards and lists when developing research papers. Facts are organized in a slide show format (like a stack of index cards that can't be dropped and scattered). Students can search for facts using the search engine or manual text entry options. This entire set of features could be very useful to students with attention and organization issues (ADD, NVLD).

Read & Write Gold also includes both a standard calculator and a scientific calculator and has speech options for these as well. Operations appear in a screen alongside the calculator and an audit trail window tracks the work. The appearance of the calculators can be changed to match the visual needs of the student.

In addition to the speech utility that reads text and numbers to the user, the program also includes a speech input facility, allowing users to create documents by talking into a microphone. As with any speech input device, training the software to recognize an individual voice takes time and dedication. We strongly suggest that teachers carefully identify students for this feature who are strongly motivated and who read reasonably well. Teachers should be fluent themselves with the program before attempting to teach students.

The program includes an extensive teacher toolkit that allows teachers and trainers to control the features for each individual student. It allows teachers to view and clear student spelling and activity logs, add and edit features and configure user settings. Teachers and users can create custom dictionaries and custom spelling searches. This allows the teacher/user to look for the errors commonly made by the user and the "autocorrect" feature can be configured to automatically change mistyped or misspelled words. The "phonetic map" feature helps the spell checker to find phonetic errors as well as OCR errors.

It does take some time for teachers to master all the components of the program. However, textHELP provides an excellent, easy to use manual with the software, web-based support, phone support and e-mail support. The company is very invested in making sure customers are satisfied. They supported us through some difficulties we had with network installation. The web site is a good source of information in general. If formal training is desired, the textHELP technical staff can recommend a qualified trainer. The company will supply a tutorial CD upon request. Now that our teachers have received training our plan is to train students who will also assist in training other students. Students learn this program faster than their teachers in some cases.

Read & Write Gold is an outstanding program that can be used to assist a wide range of individuals to be more effective in reading and writing tasks. The program can make the task of writing much less challenging for students who can generate ideas in their heads but cannot easily put them in standard and required formats. The multitude of features truly makes it possible to customize support. We have used it with students who do not read well. It has been an effective tool to assist students who are very bright but who struggle with writing due to either manual dexterity or issues with written language. The word prediction can speed up writing significantly for students who cannot spell but who can recognize the correct word. For many of these students, it increases the sophistication of their writing since they can now select the multi-syllabic word that matches their cognitive ability rather than go for the simpler word they could spell.

There is no question that this program deserves an A+ and is worth upgrading computer systems to make its use possible.

Note:

TextHELP has recently introduced version 7 of Read & Write Gold. I would encourage you to visit their website to see the many extra features that have been added in this version!