Abstract
Reading difficulties are identified to be arising from specific learning disabilities, low vision and blindness. Complications may be with letter-word recognition and comprehension. People with learning difficulties have been kept out of the mainstream academics for many centuries and had to face severe hardships in accessing knowledge. However, technological inventions in recent decades have given a fresh spirit to the disabled by enabling inclusive education with the aid of assistive hardware and software.
This study seeks to explore and analyse various software and hardware in the market that can be utilised by a learner with reading difficulties for successful learning. These resources include text-to-speech software products like ‘Natural Reader’, Balabolka’, ‘Verbose’, ‘Browse Aloud’ and ‘SpeakOUT’, screen magnification software tools like ‘MAGic’, ‘Desktop Zoom’, ‘Dolphin Computer Access’, ‘Virtual Magnifying Glass’ and ‘ZoomText’ and mind mapping software programs like ‘Inspirations’, ‘Kidspirations’, ‘Cayra’, ‘Mindfull’ and ‘Mind Genius’. The paper also emphasises the impact a sound understanding of accessible tools of modern technology in an academic learning.
Keywords: Assistive Technology, Reading Difficulties, Blindness, Low vision, Specific Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia.
[1] M.Phil Research Scholar, Dept. of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
[2] Assistant Professor, Dept. of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
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