Glow Scotland

LTS is currently looking at how the accessibility of Glow can be improved, and a text-to-speech facility could be extremely useful. Help us to trial Browsealoud 6 within Glow. It will be ’speech- enabled’ until the end of January 2010 so trial it for yourselves and let us know what you think.

Browsealoud is essentially a tool for reading web sites with text-to-speech software. It can help pupils with visual impairment, dyslexia, reading and learning difficulties or pupils who are not fluent English readers access information on web sites. It can speak using a number of different voices including Heather, the Scottish voice.

You can find out further information about this free trial and how to download the software for Mac and PC in our Browsealoud Discussion. Once you have evaluated it then please leave your comments in this discussion thread as well – we want to know all the plus and ‘not so good’ points of using it within a Glow environment.

I spent a great morning with Hilery Williams recently looking at setting up a Glow Group across East Lothian for the Dyslexia Support Service there. Hilery has great ideas for building links for staff and encouraging their collaboration. It will be a great way for her to publicise the service further. The service provides:

• Consultation with class/subject and support for learning teachers
• Training for staff
• Advice on identification and assessment
• Advice on appropriate strategies, programmes and resources
• Small group/individual tuition where appropriate
• Advice and support for pupils in transition

The Glow Group will allow teachers to download information, find out about current research and initiatives and take part in discussions with each other across the authority. Current thinking from Hilery is that the Glow Group will be divided up into the following sections:

• DSS Info
• Resources
• Dyslexia Friendly Schools’ Pledge
• Dyslexia at Transition
• Dyslexia Forum

If you’re in East Lothian watch out for this super Glow Group appearing in the next month or so and hopefully we can persuade Hilery to agree to share this at a National Level.