Read&Write
Read&Write is an award-winning literacy software designed in line with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. Read&Write has two components:
- A Chrome Extension: provides text-to-speech accommodations for anything within Canvas, as well as for other websites when working online.
- A Desktop App: provides text-to-speech accommodations for any documents downloaded to a computer for reading offline.
Once a student is enrolled in Read&Write with their UWM credentials, they will have access to all the features provided in the menu bar, as well as the TextHelp Academy for video tutorials about features and additional learning materials on accessing and using these features.
OrbitNote PDF Reader
OrbitNote works in tandem with Read&Write and was created by the same software company. While Read&Write works well in reading in Canvas or other websites, and in reading while studying offline, OrbitNote provides in-the-moment access to PDFs that are not accessible.
A Few Notes about OrbitNote
- ARC has a limited number of licenses for students who are registered with our office and who are approved for text-to-speech accommodations. All UWM Students have access to Read&Write but only students registered with ARC may have access to OrbitNote.
- If a document is originally scanned as a two-page spread, or the article is printed with columns, OrbitNote may not scan the document well enough to recognize the appropriate reading order. In this case, students with Digital Textbooks as an accommodation may submit a document through their ARConnect profile for better remediation.
Once you have been added to ARC’s group license for OrbitNote, you can access the site, and add it as a Chrome extension, by going to orbitnote.texthelp.com. Log in, using your UWM email address and password. TextHelp.com also offers a tour of all the features found in OrbitNote, from annotating a PDF to converting an image to a PDF to using the Math tools.
Tips & Strategies for Better Comprehension when using Read&Write and/or OrbitNote
TextHelp.com provides a YouTube playlist, where students can review tips and strategies that may deepen a student’s understanding of the material. These videos expand on how to create a study guide or a vocabulary list through either extension, as well as how to use pre-reading as a strategy for understanding a required text.
Morphic
Morphic is a free download that works with your computer’s accessibility settings. With Morphic, you can easily access settings to zoom in on text, read short passages aloud, change the screen contrast, and more.
Morphic is installed on computers in all campus computer labs, and can be installed for free on a mac or a PC computer.