One such tool for including learning in the library setting is Natural Reader – an online program that converts text to spoken audio for students to listen to the information. This tool helps students who have vision disabilities or trouble reading texts for any reason. While there are similar programs, such as Microsoft’s immersive reader, Natural Reader allows for the user to choose the type of voice that reads the text. For example, the user can choose between a man or woman of different ethnicities or a child’s voice. The program is free to use its basic functions and very easy to operate; the user simply copies and pastes any text into the documents and hits play. There is also the ability to insert PDF documents!
Additionally, this adaptive resource is helpful to all students because it demonstrates how a text can and should be read fluently. Carli Spina writes “By demonstrating how a single, well-designed solution benefits everyone, librarians can advocate for putting additional resources toward these vital efforts, particularly if they also help the library to meet accessibility standards required by law” (2017). Her statement demonstrates that having universal design and accessible practices in the library, such as the Natural Reader resource, can benefit all learners in addition to meeting legal requirements and opening the door to other resources. Once educators and administrators see how an adaptive tool can be beneficial to a larger student population, then they are more likely to support its purchase and use.
References:
Ai Voices - Naturalreader Home. AI Voices - NaturalReader Home. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.naturalreaders.com/
Hehir, T. (2016, August). A Summary of the Evidence on Inclusive Education.
Spina. (2017). A place for everyone: how universal design will make your library more inclusive. School Library Journal (New York, N.Y.), 63(5), 28–.
Great comment that "inclusion is ideal for all students, but only when proper accessibility is put in place." I think you had a great point about readers helping students hear how a text should be read. Many of the students where I work have no one at home reading to them, and perhaps (outside of school) never hear good reading. This resource sounds like it is a wonderful tool for all students.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this tool Samantha!
ReplyDeleteYou're right that there are lots of text conversion resources out there, so it's helpful to see what sets this one apart. I like that there are various options for the voice itself and how truly natural the speakers sound. I've never bothered to use something like this in the past because I couldn't stand listening to something that sounded like a robot! What a helpful feature that you can just drag and drop a file as well. Copy and pasting text can get cumbersome.
I wonder if this could even be a good tool for students to practice reading something fluently after they hear the model of it read?
What a great resource!
This is such a great resource! I like how you brought up universal design. I've tried to shift my thinking to making accessibility a given that I've thought of beforehand rather than waiting until I have a student/patron who needs something to be made accessible. I think this would be an excellent tool, especially considering how many text-to-speech readers sound so robotic.
ReplyDeleteWow - this resource seems too good to be true! Just like Tiffany, I have never found a text to speech voice that is not a robot. But there are so many different voices with this one, and they all sound great. I wonder if this could be used successfully by a student as an e-reader if the ebook is not available to borrow from the library. I will definitely be sharing Natural Reader with my colleagues in special education.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Jennifer
Hey, Samantha!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with what you said about libraries. Libraries are the center of schools and librarians must find ways to include all students that walk through their doors. For this reason I am so glad that you introduced NaturalReader to us. NaturalReader seems like a tool that could be so beneficial to many students. As you mentioned in your blog post, being able to submit readings to this tool and have it read it back to students is great. I know I have known students that have been in my classroom that would have benefited from this program. The fact that it is free is another great reason to us it especially when we know that school and library funds are slim. Since it is free and seeing that it could be so beneficial to students in school libraries makes me want to go and tell my school librarian to use it now. I will definitely be adding this tool to my list to use when I become a school librarian in the future.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Sincerely,
Courtland Smith
Samantha, I had not heard of the tool before but will definitely be looking into it some more! I really appreciate your beginning paragraph where you said a student who is not provided accommodations in mainstream classrooms isn't being included at all. I think a lot of teachers feel that since the student has qualified to be in a "normal" classroom, there isn't a need for accommodations. This sounds like a really effective and simple tool to provide to students. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete