Software to assist with reading, writing, browsing and testing

Read&Write Gold

Read&Write is the University's recommended text-to-speech tool. It is available on UofG computers and on Glasgow Anywhere Desktop.

  • Read&Write is also available on all UofG computers used for exams

For support with Read&Write, use the Everway support pages or contact the Disability Service to book familiarisation training.

Microsoft 365

Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader is a feature within most Microsoft applications designed to improve reading and comprehension. By using Immersive Reader, you can:

  • Customise how text appears, such as adjusting text size, spacing, and background colour 
  • Remove distractions with line focus and column width 
  • Read text aloud using natural sounding speech, with accompanying highlight 
  • Look up words including use of a picture dictionary  

To access Immersive Reader in Microsoft Word desktop app:

  1. Open your Word document. 
  2. Select the View tab, then select Immersive Reader. Immersive Reader will launch a full-screen experience.

Dictate speech-to-text feature

Dictate is a feature in Microsoft (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote) that is a speech-to-text tool, meaning it transcribes what you say into a microphone into text. With Dictate you can: 

  • Create transcripts of audio files 
  • Select from several spoken languages 
  • Verbally brainstorm ideas into a Word document 
  • Dictate an email in Outlook 
  • Practice your presentation skills while making your slides in PowerPoint 

To use Dictate, find the microphone icon! In most apps it is near the top right hand corner. 

Speak (text-to-speech) 

Text-to-speech (TTS) is the ability of your computer to play back written text as spoken words. Depending upon your configuration and installed TTS engines, you can hear most text that appears on your screen in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. For example, if you're using the English version of Office, the English TTS engine is automatically installed. To use text-to-speech in different languages, see Using the Speak feature with Multilingual TTS. 

To learn how to configure Excel for text-to-speech, see Converting text to speech in Excel. 

Browser features and extensions

Edge

Immersive reader

Using Immersive Reader, you can:

  • Customise how text appears, such as adjusting text size, spacing, and background colour 
  • Remove distractions with line focus and column width 
  • Read text aloud using natural sounding speech, with accompanying highlight 
  • Look up words including use of a picture dictionary  

To access Immersive Reader, use Microsoft Edge to visit a website you want to read. Select Enter Immersive Reader in the address bar or use the keyboard shortcut F9.

Chrome

Reader View

The Reader View extension enhances the readability of webpages to make them more accessible.

  • It has a built-in read aloud function, the ability to change colours and font size and reorders all content vertically
  • It works in the browser and doesn't send information anywhere, so it is fine from a privacy perspective
  • Useful for websites with lots of ads or where the layout makes it hard to extract text
  • You can also select just a section of a website and turn on Reader View, and it will just give you that section in the accessible view to remove distractions or capture something in an iframe

Read aloud

Read Aloud uses text-to-speech (TTS) technology to convert webpage text to audio.

Read&Write

The free version of Read&Write provides text-to-speech and dual highlighting (yellow and blue) for any text on any website.

Firefox

Text-to-speech and Reading Mode helps provide a clean and customisable reading experience.

Accessibility testing tools

HeadingsMap

HeadingsMap generates a document map or index of any web document structured with headings, allowing direct access to content by clicking on any of its items. 

Although the extension was initially meant to assist web developers, consultants, and accessibility auditors, it turned out to be useful for many users, facilitating the reading and navigation of long structured pages. 

ANDI Accessibility Testing Tool

ANDI is an accessibility testing bookmarklet. A bookmarklet runs from your bookmarks bar. ANDI works on any webpage and can:

  • Provide automated detection of accessibility issues 
  • Reveal what a screen reader should say for interactive elements (the accessible name computation) 
  • Give practical suggestions to improve accessibility and check WCAG 2.2 compliance 

Find out more: ANDI Frequently Asked Questions 

WAVE Browser Extension 

The WAVE Chrome, Firefox, and Edge extensions allow you to evaluate web content for accessibility issues directly within your browser, including:

  • Checking contrast issues 
  • Checking the structure of a page 
  • The existence of alt text 

Because the extension runs entirely within your web browser, no information is sent to the WAVE server. This ensures 100% private and secure accessibility reporting. The extension can check intranet, password-protected, dynamically generated, or sensitive web pages. 

Atkinson Hyperlegible fonts

The Braille Institute has designed a series of fonts that improve legibility and readability for individuals with low vision.