Monday, March 10, 2008
text to speech
I have been using kurzweil, an e-text alternative to traditional reading. While it improves my comprehension of the material, I fear that I am growing dependent on it. As beautiful as the concept of UDL is, the reality is that there are not text-to-speech options in the work place and everyday life. I want to make sure, therefore, that I am enhancing my literacy skills. Do etexts like UDL editions or kurzweil improve reading in the long run or do they just facilitate it in the meantime?
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2 comments:
Hi Marisa, I'm really enjoying your blog!! I want to respond to you request for question on this. I can't cite any research as I'm not a reading expert. But the argument I have read for providing Kurzweil and TTS support to students with reading disabilities is to minimize the double deficit or secondary disability that would result by making students access all of their content learning through text (as in the old days). If this is the only way students are allowed to access content, those students are sure to fall further and further behind on content knowledge as they simply aren't efficient readers.
So, I don't think Kurzweil is designed to improve reading skills. As you point out, I think it is still important to continue to improve reading skills as TTS isn't always available. The thing to keep in mind is that if you use the internet at work or have access to text online, you will always be able to use TTS support on a browser.
Thanks for posing this compelling question.
I'm a teacher of the visually impaired, many of my students read digital texts rather than braille, because: it is more readily available, it is much faster to read (up to 700 wpm vs 90-150 in braille
Are they "really" reading? And my real question: how does the brain process audio text vs print or braille?
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