Occupation
I worked at the State of Michigan Department of Education for 30 years. Currently I work as an assistive technology advocate and education consultant. I love learning about new assistive technologies, and recently published the book Dyslexia and the iPad – Overcoming Dyslexia with Technology.
How long have you been using Voice Dream Reader?
I have been using Voice Dream Reader since it came out in 2012. I have dyslexia. I have almost everything read to me on my iPad. Voice Dream Reader is one of my favorite apps.
How does Voice Dream Reader help children with trouble reading?
Voice Dream Reader is a great educational tool. Besides instruction struggling readers need to experience the flow of reading. Reading aloud to struggling readers as they follow the text actually helps to improve reading. Voice Dream Reader is great for reading books and web pages to students. For students who have difficulty reading, they get lost and often lose their place. Voice Dream Reader highlights the text while reading out loud, which helps a lot. Voice Dream Reader’s additional customizations like setting the rate of reading by words per minute and changing the text color are also very useful.
How does Voice Dream Reader help you with your work?
Currently I am writing a new book for parents about how to help their children with reading. This requires a great deal of research and background reading. Voice Dream Reader is great for this. It not only helps me read, but I highlight imports passages to review later. I can also add notes and comments to what I am reading.
What is your favorite thing to read on Voice Dream Reader?
I like keeping current with science and technology news. As I find articles to read on the internet I bookmark them to the Pocket Reader. Voice Dream Reader is coordinated with Pocket. So all of my articles can be read to me. I also keep the articles that I need for research in a folder with in Voice Dream Reader as a research library.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about the app?
The iPad has dramatically changed my life and education. Voice Dream Reader is a major part of that revolution. I wish every school could purchase an iPad with Voice Dream Reader for every struggling student. I believe this would be the single most important advancement in education in the last 100 years.