Accessibility tools

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The digital tools outlined on this page are designed to make it easier to read and write. Most of these tools are designed for people with some type of functional impairment, but all students at the University have access to most of them and may find them useful.

Ally and Immersive reader in Canvas

Ally is a tool in Canvas that makes it possible to access documents in different formats. Ally can convert documents to MP3 so that you can listen to them, e-Pub format in order to make it easier to read on a mobile, or braille if you are visually impaired for example. Unfortunately, not all formats work all of the time, since there has not yet been time to make all documents accessible. It may, for example, be more difficult for a member of teaching staff to make material that they have not produced themselves accessible.

Canvas also features an integrated immersive reader. The reader can read the text in Canvas aloud, or machine translate it into other languages. With the help of immersive reader, you can also see the text in Canvas displayed in other fonts, with different backgrounds or with parts of speech shown in different colours. Immersive reader works on pages, on course outlines and assignment descriptions in Canvas.

In the Canvas guide, you can read more about how to use Ally and which formats may be available.

TorTalk

TorTalk is a speech synthesiser that makes it possible to have electronic text read aloud. The programme can read many types of electronic documents, e.g. Word files, eBooks and in some cases scanned PDFs. You do not need to download the files onto a computer in order to hear them, it is possible to listen directly in the web browser. This means that you are able to use TorTalk in Inspera, for example (as long as you are not using Safe Exam Browser).

You can adjust the voice, language and speed in TorTalk, according to what suits you and the text you are reading. In the default version, Swedish and English voices are installed, but there are voices in many other languages available to download.

All students at Lund University have free access to TorTalk. You do not need to have a functional impairment in order to make use of TorTalk.

EasyReader

EasyReader is a program for listening to audiobooks and having texts read aloud. If you already have a Legimus account, you can access EasyReader via the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media.

You can use EasyReader to search for, download and read audiobooks. In books that feature text, the text can be displayed on screen at the same time as you are listening. You can use digital bookmarks and customise how you would like the book to be read out. If you subscribe to an audio magazine, you can also read that with the help of EasyReader.

EasyReader is available for PC and Mac. Read more about how to access and use EasyReader on Legimus’ website.

StavaRex and Spell Right

All students at Lund University have free access to advanced spell-checking programmes – StavaRex for Swedish and SpellRight for English. The programmes are specially developed for people with dyslexia whose first language is Swedish, but they are also free for others to use. The library’s website has more information about how the programmes work, and how to download them to your word-processing software.