Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

Texthelp Blog - Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

Blog

The theme for the 2019 International Literacy Association (ILA) Conference was Creating a Culture of Literacy. ILA believes that when literacy is infused in every aspect of education, it creates an environment where students can reach their full potential and sets them up for success in the classroom and beyond. And at Texthelp, we couldn’t agree more.

Regardless of an individual student’s ability and aspirations, literacy is a fundamental part of every young person’s learning journey throughout K-12 and beyond. The ability to read and write with confidence impacts all aspects of a child’s academic, social and personal development, from the early years right through to graduation and later life.

This is underpinned by ILA’s ethos when they state, “to become fully literate in today’s world, students must become proficient in the new literacies as well...literacy educators have a responsibility to integrate information and communication technologies into the curriculum to prepare students for the futures they deserve.”

So how do we create a culture of literacy?

As we attended the sessions, it became clear that the resonating response across the whole conference was one of equity, access, relevance and joyful interaction.

Pedro Noguera took to the main stage early on Saturday morning.  He shared with us that equity is not ensuring that all children receive the same thing, but rather about ensuring that every child gets what he or she needs in order to succeed. So it’s about meeting your students where they are, accepting the ways they need to learn and providing them access to the tools and materials they require in order to progress.

It’s about future proofing literacy too.  He said, “Ensuring that all students receive an education that cultivates their talents and potential is in all our common interest. Strong literacy skills - reading, writing, speaking are the key to a strong education.”

Cultivating a desire to learn is how we break down barriers…

Excitingly, technology has added another dimension to the equation, as it opens up a much broader and richer array of resources and information. Equity of access now includes access to devices to use digital content and connect and collaborate with fellow students, educators and experts all over the world. 

Technology can be used to find, analyze, create, communicate, and use information in a digital context to support literacy across learning, in particular:

Literacy means a whole lot more than just getting better English grades. Giving kids the confidence – and the appropriate supports – to read, write and express their thoughts with clarity has a direct bearing on their engagement and progress across all subject areas.  So does relevance too.

Educators need to tap into their needs and interests to make literacy relevant for all students. It helps to foster curiosity and creativity.  Students need to see themselves, and their own culture, reflected in the materials that they study.  Each child has the potential to craft a unique voice, and to make that voice heard across the curriculum.

It takes a community!  The real joy in fostering a positive culture of literacy means that the job doesn’t simply fall to the ELA department or library.  It’s about buy-in from all levels...students, teachers and parents.

For the student - Joy in taking ownership of and driving their own learning, collaborating with their peers

For the teacher - The joy of witnessing a busy classroom of learning

For Hamish Brewer - The joy of relentless spirit, relentless optimism and relentless love, “of never giving up on ourselves, each other or our school.”

“Don’t ever quit on a kid”, he says, “give them the opportunity to read, give them the opportunity to write, give them the opportunity to change the world.” 

The wonderful power of literacy really has the ability to change lives, to be completely transformative.  It allows:

Improves the development of the wider community

Empowers students to take part in and take charge of their own learning and their destiny 

“There has never been a more important time for literacy to be front and center.” 

If you were as inspired as we were at this year’s ILA - we’d love you to share your thoughts on how we can create a culture of literacy.

AND...if you missed our session at ILA, ‘Beyond the Red Pen, providing feedback that deepens learning then watch this space...we’ll be hosting a webinar with Mark Schwartz and Amy Mayer in the next couple of weeks.

A recap of our key takeaways from the ILA Conference

Community, Creole Cuisine and Creating a Culture of Literacy

The brass band has come to represent the real distinctiveness of New Orleans and what a wonderful NOLA welcome we had at this year’s ILA conference! Of course they had a band on opening night and of course they were serving Creole cuisine at lunch too!

This unique visual feature removes barriers that typically make reading and hearing text difficult, allowing users to look up the meaning of any word and see the dictionary definition in the form of an expressive illustration. Not only does this make your online content easier to understand and digest, but more accessible to wider audiences.

With 10 supported languages (English, Arabic, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish - and Swedish language capabilities coming soon), Browsealoud’s latest innovation enables those with visual impairments, dyslexia, or other cognitive or language challenges to easily engage with your online content and services. 

Amongst other benefits, this latest update helps Browsealoud users to:

Easily digest the information supporting the text and audio with imagery

Remember and comprehend information easily

The written word can often prove a challenging hurdle for those with unique ways of processing information, or those with language barriers. A visual accompaniment can open up information to a wider audience and offer support for those who need it most. 

We are visual creatures! We process images at an alarming speed, with the human brain able to recognize a familiar object within 100 milliseconds. 

When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information after three days. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retain 65% of the information three days later. (1) 

Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. (2)

According to a study republished by Forbes, “91% of consumers now prefer interactive and visual content over traditional, text-based or static media.”

New to Browsealoud? It’s easy to add to your website and it immediately helps your web visitors with dyslexia, low Literacy, mild visual impairments, and non-native speakers to better consume your information.

If you’re an existing customer using the ‘always updated’ version of Browsealoud, you will have received the new picture dictionary automatically. No action is required!

For customers using ‘versioned’ Browsealoud, you can visit Get Browsealoud to get the latest version (v2.6.0).

For customers using SRI Hashing, please be sure to update the SRI code when updating Browsealoud. The easiest way to do this is to copy the new code from our website at Get Browsealoud.

Not sure what version you’re using? Sign into your account in the Browsealoud Portal and all the information you need will be there. Those of you with a keen eye will notice we’ve made a few tweaks in the portal to make your user journey that bit easier. We hope you agree!

If you’d like to see just powerful Browsealoud can be at providing accessible, inclusive support for your users, or you’d like to get the latest updated version with picture dictionary support, simply visit Get Browsealoud.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) https://blog.polleverywhere.com/visual-content/

(2) https://www.fastcompany.com/3035856/why-were-more-likely-to-remember-content-with-images-and-video-infogr

Texthelp Workplace Blog | A Better Browsealoud coming October 17th

A Better Browsealoud: Picture Dictionary Support Coming 17th October

Browsealoud, our flagship accessibility software tool, has helped countless organizations provide accessible, online digital content for millions of end-users since its launch. From October 17th, it’s about to get even better with dedicated picture dictionary support.

From bluechip company directors to non-profit operations managers, and the people on the ground in between, the variety of attendees and speakers reflected a supportive mindset that has struggled to gain wider recognition until surprisingly recently. 

Luckily, the Texthelp team were in attendance to offer guidance and technological advice for those seeking to offer their staff the daily support to thrive at work. But we were also there to learn, and learn we most certainly did. 

Read on to discover some of the most important and enlightening insights we had the pleasure of discovering at the D&I Leaders Disability at Work Summit 2019.

Many of the sessions and panel discussions revolved around how companies have implemented and continue to build upon their D&I strategies, by focusing on the needs of the individual rather than policy. Even in the opening remarks, we heard from Tim Fallowfield, Chair of Sainsburys’ Disability Confident Business Leaders Group, who said “By removing barriers for those with a disability, inclusion works for everybody.” 

Graeme K Whippy MBE, who lead the day’s proceedings, made a salient point when he remarked: “Helping one person might not change the world, but it will change that one person’s world.” And so began a wealth of discussion around starting from a place of empowerment and supporting staff to come together to form Disability Confident groups within organizations. These groups then directly inform policy, procedure, and make it easier for reasonable adjustments to be communicated and accessed by everyone who needs them. Simply put, advocacy from within is powerful when everyone who needs to have a say are empowered to have that say.  

A staggering 70% of disabilities are hidden disabilities, and in the workplace it can be daunting to reveal such personal information. That’s why many leaders, including Loraine Martins of Network Rail, advocated taking a top-down approach to diversity & inclusion. Start at board-level and when there’s senior leadership buy-in, this sentiment cascades down through management, and an environment of acceptance and empowerment can truly develop, benefiting everyone. When those with disabilities aren’t afraid to reveal what they need to succeed, organizations thrive. 

Reassuring, if not unsurprising, technology was a talking point that expressed the need to equip staff with the technology they require to not only do their jobs, but to work productively, independently, and without barriers. With the average cost of reasonable adjustments costing approximately £600, and considering organization’s typically have around 2% of staff with disabilities, technology or tools to support people really are a minor investment with major benefits. 

Despite the different opinions and subjects that came up throughout the day, an inherent message was that people are the most important aspect to consider when building out a diversity & inclusion strategy at work. Put people first - their needs, their emotions, and their adjustments - and you’ll find that they can feel confident to do their jobs and inform policy. This not only helps companies to take a modern approach to disability confidence, but inspires colleagues to speak up and be part of an inclusive workplace that’s welcoming to everyone. 

If you’d like to learn more about how our technology solutions can help make that happen, or how they can fit into your organization’s reasonable adjustments planning, simply get in touch for a free trial!

Texthelp Workplace Blog | D&I Leaders Disability at Work Summit: Key Learnings

D&I Leaders Disability at Work Summit: Key Learnings

Last week saw a fantastic grouping of the UK’s best and brightest diversity & inclusion minds come together in London to celebrate and build upon the strategies, tech, and talent that has given the D&I agenda a major foothold in the modern workforce. Read on to find out some of the day's most pressing takeaways.

The World Health Organization defines health literacy as, “the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health.” Whilst most people have reasonable literacy skills, when you add medical terminology to information even the most intelligent people can struggle to understand the message being conveyed. In this sense, people can have good general literacy, but poor health literacy, impacting their ability to make the right decisions to deliver better health outcomes.

If we think of this in a non-health context, many of us consider ourselves reasonably intelligent adults, yet we go to pieces when confronted with pension investment information. We may have good general literacy but poor financial literacy - which can have a detrimental impact on our retirement savings and investment plans for the future.

This same principle applies to health literacy. How many of us visit a doctor and come out not fully understanding what we’ve been told - or unable to repeat it back to a family member? Seemingly complex health terminology can result in us misunderstanding what’s wrong with us and what we need to do to get better - including taking prescription medicines correctly. 

Why is good health literacy so important for the UK?

Poor health literacy is a bigger issue than one may think, affecting many in the UK, especially older people and those with disabilities and long term health conditions. Lower socio-economic groups, and those with English language challenges, are also affected. All these groups are also the biggest users of NHS services each year, accounting for more than 70% of all NHS spend per annum.

So if we don’t understand the health information being given to us, how much money is being wasted each year in ineffectual treatments and wasted medicines? 

More and more we are encouraged to play an active role in managing and protecting our health. If we are to do so, we need to be able to understand the health information being given to us. 

Poor health literacy affects a patient’s ability to: 

Discuss health information/medical concerns with healthcare providers

Engage in self-care and disease management

Navigate their way through the healthcare system

Inaccessible health information online is also a challenge, especially as we move towards a fully digital NHS.  Standards are in place specifically in England to tackle this, but other parts of the UK are lagging behind. In the age of digital health services, there is an enormous risk of leaving some of the population behind - including the older population and those with literacy and language challenges.

We know that funding is a constant challenge for the NHS. But investment in health literacy initiatives can ultimately save money and efficiencies in the long run, whilst ensuring a wider audience can access the health information they need. If patients are better equipped to self-manage their health it means that they’re more likely to become and stay healthy - including following treatment plans and taking medicine correctly - then we as a nation will have much better health outcomes.

In order to fully transform the digital NHS landscape, and particularly the digital NHS landscape, more support needs to be available to those who struggle most with health literacy - as stats show that it will be these people that will rely heavily on NHS services. We can’t risk leaving anyone behind. This may be a fine balancing act between creating services that suit those who would like to interact with the NHS like a bank - as opposed to those unable to access services online at all. 

But there is plenty of technology out there to help make a difference. It can transform processes, speed up referrals, and connect all health departments to streamline services. The NHS has already transitioned itself in the past 70 years to maintain its status as one of the most crucial institutions of our time, and we’re still on that journey to ensure that it remains that one support that we all rely on. 

During health literacy month, we’ll be teaming up with leading experts from the health sector to bring you a webinar focussed on a dual approach to bridging the digital divide in health literacy. Find out more and register here. 

As we approach Health Literacy month, we sat down with our friends from the Patient Information Forum to examine the importance of good health literacy in the UK

Why health literacy matters

In the run up to Health Literacy Month in October, we sat down with our friends from the Patient Information Forum (PIF) to examine why it’s important to shine a light on the area of health literacy.

There are reckoned to be anything around 7,000 languages spoken in the world today. A multilingual speaker – or polyglot – may be able to communicate in half a dozen of them. Linguist Michael Erard extends this with the definition of a ‘hyperpolyglot’, an individual whose language tick-list stretches into double figures.

On September 8th, UNESCO’s International Literacy Day turns the spotlight on the diversity of language and its fundamental importance for individuals and society as a whole. Held annually since 1967, ILD reminds us of the vital importance of literacy as a basic educational right for all, and its role as a cornerstone for individuals’ empowerment and inclusive, sustainable development.

The specific theme of this year’s ILD is ‘Literacy and Multilingualism’, as reflected in one of the United Nations Foundation’s Sustainable Development Goals that aims to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.’

UNESCO notes in its commentary on ILD that people and societies are more connected and interdependent than they’ve been at any time in the past. And as UNESCO observes, the combination of instantaneous digital communication and greater human mobility has extended multilingualism far beyond its traditional geographical boundaries.

We all know that technology has made our world a much smaller place. Radio, TV and the Internet have connected us as never before, giving instant access to a dizzying breadth of different voices, opinions and cultural perspectives. Tech has also created a truly global workforce, as companies routinely off-shore jobs ranging from software development and financial services to customer care and support functions.

Putting digital technology aside for a moment, modern society is far more socially, culturally and linguistically diverse than at any time in the past. Freedom of movement – at least in countries where it’s permitted to a greater or lesser extent – has changed labor patterns profoundly. Here in the UK for example, some 140,000 of 1.2 million National Health Service employees are foreign nationals: that’s one in eight of the total NHS workforce.

In this increasingly diverse world, technology plays an important role in overcoming language differences. How many of us bother to pack a phrase book for our holidays when the translation for ‘what time’s the next bus?’ is a quick Google search away? Impressive advances in AI and machine learning have made the long-held dream of word-perfect real time conversation between two or more different language speakers achievable in the very near future. Imagine a surgeon, pilot or emergency worker being able to converse fluently and accurately with colleagues when they can’t speak a word of each other’s respective languages.

There’s a lot to excite us about technology’s role in lowering language barriers. But on the eve of International Literacy Day let’s acknowledge the challenges we face as a linguistically diverse society – and the role that technology can play in unlocking the full potential of those who are marginalized and excluded by language differences.

At school and in the workplace, lack of fluency in your fellow students’ or co-workers’ native language is a profound obstacle to educational, personal and professional development. Over the last 20 years at Texthelp we’ve been committed to use technology creatively to level the literacy playing field for everybody. And that’s why we’ve always baked multilingual features into our products that help people read, write and express themselves with clarity and confidence - even when they’re using a language that’s not their first (or their second, or third).

As we celebrate this year’s International Literacy Day, it’s an ideal moment to reflect on how far technology has already brought us in supporting literacy and multilingualism, in both education and the workplace. At the same time, however, we must not be complacent when there’s still so much more to do.

Where do you think technology’s heading next? I’d love to hear your own thoughts about the future of literacy, and tech’s constantly evolving role in lowering language barriers still further.

In this increasingly diverse world, technology plays an important role in overcoming language differences.

No language barriers: ILD celebrates literacy and multilingualism

There’s something wonderful about the word ‘polyglot’, isn’t there? You might think it’s an exotic skill that few of us possess – but over half of all Europeans speak at least one language other than their mother tongue.

One of the secrets for school success...the humble pencil case. Yes, the pencil case. Twenty years ago, a researcher at University College London suggested just this. At first glance, it’s hard to see the potential impact of something so simple. Think deeper though and the humble pencil case starts to make sense. 

Fast forward twenty years, and the pencil case is still critically important, but so is the support offered in this digital age. 

The widespread use of digital technology is making a huge impact across our schools, colleges and universities. Yet despite this shift, the trusty pencil case with its range of tools is still an essential part of every student’s life. 

So whilst we all focus on ‘moving to the cloud’, enabling 21st century skills, personalized learning and building new opportunities for learning, we shouldn’t forget that students need the digital equivalent of the pencil case - essential tools for learning in our digital world.

Take Read&Write, for example. It provides all the tools students need for support and for learning in one location. At first glance, you’ll discover Text-to-Speech. That’s great for dyslexic students, right? Absolutely - it’s essential. But it’s also useful for the A Level student working towards a History exam who prefers to listen to questions to increase understanding and then listen to their answers to proof and improve. 

While Read&Write may be an obvious tool for English classrooms, it can actually be a huge support across the curriculum. So, we want to take a couple of other subjects and highlight how Read&Write can be used within those classrooms as well. 

The Screenshot Reader helps students to read inaccessible text (i.e. Ordnance Survey maps) on-screen. 

The Highlighters feature helps students to differentiate between economic and social impacts of a natural hazard.

Students can use the Vocabulary List to compile quick reference lists for a new area of study.

With EquatIO, (our Math and STEM tool) students can create mathematical and scientific expressions by handwriting on a touchscreen or speaking into a computer’s microphone.

Students can use Read&Write to hear their math problems (created with EquatIO) read aloud.

Students who would previously struggle to engage with math and STEM materials can now easily access course content.

Use the Translator and Text-To-Speech tools to have passages in French, Spanish, etc. read aloud to help students with pronunciation.

Use the Vocabulary List, Translator and Voice Notes feature to enable students to create personalized vocabulary lists.

Encourage students to prep for oral exams by recording their answers using the Voice Notes feature.

If you find these blogs useful, check out our dedicated Back to School resource page for other handy hints and tips to help you get the most out of Read&Write. 

We’re also running live webinars for each of our Back to School blog series themes. If you would like to learn more about how Read&Write can help provide support across the curriculum, sign up to Alison's ‘A day in the life of a student using Read&Write’ webinar taking place on Wednesday 9th October 2019 from 3:45pm- 4:30pm. 

Lastly, if you would like to share how you use Read&Write or EquatIO in your classroom, feel free to add your ideas to the comments section below. 

In this Back to School blog, we’re discussing how Read&Write can be the digital pencil case for all students - across the curriculum, to help you think differently about your lesson planning, and the technology that your school has invested in.

A pencil case of digital tools - for all subjects

Back to School: A pencil case of digital tools - for all subjects

In this sixth blog in our Back to School series, we’re discussing how Read&Write can be the digital pencil case for all students - across the curriculum, to help you think differently about your lesson planning and the technology that your school has invested in.

Blog

Community, Creole Cuisine and Creating a Culture of Literacy

A Better Browsealoud: Picture Dictionary Support Coming 17th October

D&I Leaders Disability at Work Summit: Key Learnings

Why health literacy matters

No language barriers: ILD celebrates literacy and multilingualism

Back to School: A pencil case of digital tools - for all subjects

Categories

Education

Solutions

Products

Workplace

Solutions

Products

Resources

Resource center

Events

Learn & Support

Company