This study investigated how assistive reading software affected the reading performance of a group of 20 post-secondary students who had a primary diagnosis of attention disorder. These students used assistive reading software for most of a semester to read assignments for an English class and in testing sessions in which comparisons were made between normal, unassisted reading, and reading assisted by the soft-243 244 THEORY-BASED PRACTICE ware. This software provides a synchronized visual and auditory presentation of text, and incorporates study skills tools for highlighting and note taking. Attention measures, reading speed, comprehension scores, and attitude questionnaire responses were obtained during these sessions. The principal findings were that the assistive software allowed the students to attend better to their reading, to reduce their distractibility, to read with less stress and fatigue, and to read for longer periods of time. It helped them to read faster and, thereby, to complete reading assignments in less time. It did not have a significant effect on comprehension, but it helped some students whose comprehension was very poor. The study results indicate that assistive reading software should be considered as a significant intervention to assist students who have attention disorders and as an accommodation to help them compensate for their disabilities.

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Twenty-eight middle school students, diagnosed as dyslexic and attending a school using the Slingerland approach to remediation of dyslexia, used a computer-based reading system for reading literature for about one-half hour a day for a semester. The system proved to be a strong compensatory aid, enabling 70 percent of the students to read with greater comprehension, approximately one grade level or more improvement, as measured by the Gray Oral Reading Test. For 40 percent of the students, the gains were large, from two to as much as five grade levels. However, not all students benefited. Fourteen percent showed lower comprehension scores when using the system, and there is some indication that this degradation is associated with kinesthetic-motor weakness. Some students reported gains in reading speed and exhibited increased span of attention for and endurance in reading when using the system. We did not find evidence that the computer-reader technology provided a positive remediation benefit incremental to that obtained from the school's intensive Slingerland remediation program. Our results indicate that computer-readers are important compensatory aids that can enable many people with dyslexia to perform more effectively in reading-related tasks associated with school and work.

We studied the use of computer readers, and especially their speech synthesis component, as a compensatory tool for adults with dyslexia. We first explored the enhancement of reading skills in a group of college students and working adults. Their unaided reading was very slow, and most participants in the study could sustain reading for only short periods. Although their timed comprehension was poor, their untimed comprehension was above average. The computer reader enhanced the reading rate and comprehension of most participants and enabled them to sustain reading longer. The difference between aided and unaided reading rate was inversely proportional to the unaided rate. Slower readers experienced greater enhancement than faster ones. The enhancement of comprehension was also inversely proportional to unaided scores, and good predictions of the enhancement were obtained from multiple regression models that included scores from specific standard tests of auditory and visual cognitive abilities. We also explored the use of computer readers in the workplace and show through case studies that their use can have important positive effects on individual careers and self-confidence when specific conditions exist. Finally, we investigated the use of computer readers to supplement an adult remediation program. The readers allowed and motivated the students to read more and, as a result, to progress more rapidly.

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