Reading and understanding complex texts
Dense academic reading takes effort on two fronts: decoding the words and understanding the ideas. Assistive technology is good at the first. Reading text aloud, reformatting it and spacing out the lines frees up your energy for the second, which can make a real difference if reading is tiring or slow for you. It is worth being clear about the limit, though: having text read to you is not the same as engaging with it, and summarising tools can flatten the nuance or get things wrong. Use these to get into the text, then do the thinking yourself.
Reading and understanding software
- Microsoft Learning Tools (Immersive Reader): free on your account. It reads text aloud, breaks long words into syllables and spaces out the lines, which makes it a good place to start.
- Read&Write: a well-established reading and writing toolbar with text-to-speech, spell-checking and more. Free to eligible students through Disability Services (the DSA route can take time, so apply early).
How-to guides (Texthelp). - ClaroRead Chrome: a free Chrome extension that reads web pages, PDFs and Google Docs aloud with highlighting, lets you hear letters and words as you type, and adds a coloured screen overlay to make text easier to read. A paid Premium upgrade adds features such as dictation, word prediction in Office and Google Docs, and saving text to an audio file. The free version covers the main reading features.
- Natural Reader or your device's built-in read-aloud: if you would like text read to you, Natural Reader has a free version, and both Windows and Mac computers can read documents aloud with nothing extra installed (check accessibility features).
- Speechify: natural-sounding text-to-speech, with a free tier; the fuller version is paid.
- Scholarcy: summarises long articles into key points (freemium). Only upload material you are allowed to use.
- NotebookLM: turns your own documents into summaries and study aids. Read the AI and copyright guidance before uploading anything.
