Reading Accommodations
Students registered under Disability Services with a "Textbooks in Alternative Format" accommodation can have textbooks converted into their required formats if those books are not already available in the marketplace. These formats include digital, audio, Braille and printed copies. Note: Some books are available on day one of class in digital format via the D1 Access program.
Students with a testing accommodation who need tests, assignments, homework or quizzes in an accessible format can have them converted. Please contact the Assistive Technology Specialist for those special requests: altmedia@uccs.edu
Below is the link for requesting alternative format books, as well as a video tutorial to help walk you through the requesting process:
Request Alternative Formatting
Read & Write software is available to all students, faculty, and staff at UCCS that can be used to read text aloud on Word Documents, websites, and PDFs. Read & Write is primarily used to assist with reading and studying. This software is available on Windows, Mac, Google Chrome, Android, iPad, and Microsoft Edge. Visit Read & Write's website here.
Please contact the Assistive Technology Specialist, to obtain the software and related training for this product at altmedia@uccs.edu or via appointment on Accommodate.
NVDA is an open source, non-visual screen reader for Windows that works on web browsers, email clients, Office 365 programs, and more. This program is built for those who are blind, in order to give them access to computers. This software can read any text, with over 55 languages being supported. Here is a link to the NVDA website if you would like to download or read more about this software.
ZoomText is a magnifier built for people with low vision. Capable of enlarging everything on a computer screen, this software also has a text-to-speech feature that will read text aloud while still remaining magnified. The program can also enlarge real life documents using a web camera. Visit the ZoomText Magnifier page to learn more about this product and how it is used.
Please contact the Assistive Technology Specialist, to obtain the software and related training for this product at altmedia@uccs.edu or via appointment on Accommodate.
Microsoft Edge offers a myriad of built-in accessibility tools within their browser via their "Immersive Reader" toolbar. This toolbar can simplify webpages, change the layout of text, read aloud, split words into grammatical syntax like syllables and parts of speech, and more. Microsoft Edge is available for Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices. To learn more about Microsoft Edge's Immersive Reader, visit their webpage.
The Bionic Reading application helps those who are neurodiverse to read passages by making the beginning of each word bold, providing several anchor points that make it easier to keep your place within a block of text. Though our university does not offer this application to students directly, we can recommend it as a good resource for those who want their own personal reading accommodation software. To learn more about Bionic Reading, click here.
Some Text-to-Speech software comes pre-installed on certain devices and programs for free. These applications can read the entire screen, webpages, and more. A few native text-to-speech systems are Chromevox for Google Chrome, Narrator for Windows devices, and Voiceover for Mac/iOS devices. This technology can be accessed typically in a device's settings menu.
To learn more about native text-to-speech software for your device, explore these links: