[. . . ] Assistive Technology Features and Benefits Assistive Technology Software All Home Access Computers are installed with a range of pre-loaded software. This software supports language and literacy and eases access to the internet for people with a wide range of needs including dyslexia, visual impairments and learning difficulties. [. . . ] Great for: children and adults whose literacy needs development people with English as a second language people with dyslexia Speechmaker This lets you convert text from a web page or document into audio files that you can listen to on your computer or an MP3 player. Great for: people with visual impairments people with learning difficulties people who cannot read English people who want to learn English by listening to it helping with learning and revision listening to a document or book whilst relaxing or travelling Study Skills Toolbar This lets you select and collect important information from web pages or documents. You can highlight the text you need and collect it in a separate document. Great for: studying, revision and summarising long documents Study Skills Toolbar MindView 3 MindView 3 ­ Home Access version What is it? An easy to use thinking skills tool to help you generate, develop, and organise ideas visually. Graphic organisers like MindView have been shown to improve reading comprehension, critical thinking and retention, and increase overall student achievement*. * The National Reading Panel (NRP), "Teaching Children to Read: An EvidenceBased Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and its Implications for Reading Instructions". MindView 3 ­ Key Features Thought gathering mode Templates and layouts Images Putting Ideas into action Views Calculation feature Speech read-back Multimedia Thought gathering mode This mode lets you capture ideas easily. Great for: noting ideas quickly generating ideas revision Images There's over 1500 high quality educational images you can use in your Mind Maps. Great for: learners people who like or need to see things presented visually young learners Views MindView presents concepts with a number of different views including outline and timeline. Great for: visual learners Templates and Layouts It comes with 100+ curriculum-based templates which can be used as they are or tailored to meet your needs. It also offers a range of Map layouts, styles and galleries for you to easily customise your mindmaps. Great for: getting started with projects Calculation Feature You can make calculations on your layouts. You can even import numbers from or export numbers to some spreadsheet applications. Great for: working out costs, profits and budgets Speech Read-back MindView works with ReadWrite enabling the Mind Maps you create to be read aloud to you. Great for: people who need support with literacy young learners help with learning languages people with dyslexia people with visual impairments Putting Ideas into action You can convert your layouts to outlines and other written documents. You can reorganise documents easily using drag and drop and can also link to websites, text files etc. [. . . ] Great for: people with visual impairments Speech iZoom includes speech support to explain some of the events occurring on the screen. Great for: reducing eyestrain Assistive Technology Features and Benefits Find out more: www. becta. org. uk/homeaccess engage@becta. org. uk [. . . ]