Student Accessibility Support

Quizlet: This app/website provides a tool for practice tests or quizzes. You can create your virtual flashcards. Then, your virtual flashcards lead you to use other options, such as practice quizzes of multiple questions and matching games.

Google Calendar: This app/website is a virtual calendar. You can set alerts when you schedule events, assignments, or projects deadlines. Whenever an email with an event attached is sent to your Gmail, it can automatically go into your Google calendar if you set it that way.

Remember the Milk (RTM) To-Do List: A to-do list app that alerts you of your tasks and assignments or projects based on upcoming deadlines. The app automatically sets you up with a RTM email address, so each email sent to this special address is automatically converted into a task, and added to your Remember The Milk account.

24me: This app has a virtual calendar, to-do list, and notes including weather and directions with various modes of transportation. The app syncs with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and iCal.

My Study Life: This program is a mobile app and desktop website. Your dashboard tracks your exam/quiz dates as well as your assignments for completion. It shows you how many days before the deadline. It will alert you when the deadline is due via your computer and/or your phone.

Todoist: Helpful for students who want to plan not only their school work, but errands, travel, and other tasks as well. In “Settings,” you choose whether you want to receive push notifications, email notifications, or both AND choose how much time beforehand you want to receive the automatic reminder.

Trello: A project management app that lets you organize to-do lists and projects into visual boards. Each board in Trello allows you to create lists inside, and these lists have cards. You can attach files to each card, as well as add labels, task lists, commenting among many other features.

Flora: Free version of the Flora app is useful when you want to stay off your phone with a set timer to focus on your tasks. You grow a virtual tree every time you accomplish your goal. If you pick your phone up before the time is over, your virtual tree dies. As you complete many goals, you have created your virtual forest.

SelfControl App: This app only works for Apple products and blocks you from accessing any websites of your choice until your set time block set is lifted. This app is perfect for preventing someone from going onto social media instead of working on a paper.

Pomodoro Timer: Helps you effectively manage your time and work on a task without distractions. Each Pomodoro is a 25-minute cycle followed by a 5-minute break. After the fourth Pomodoro, you will take a 15-minute break. If you prefer, you can customize your timer to meet your needs if you focus better with shorter or longer periods of work and/or breaks.

Grammarly: This program works well as an add-on for computers and checks basic grammatical mechanics, tones, or spelling errors for writing papers or emails. However, it does not help with topic organization and clarity.

Google Voice Typing: This feature only works when you use Google Chrome for Google Slides and Google Docs. You can turn on the microphone feature under tools to speak into. The computer will convert your speech to type for you.

Microsoft Word Dictation Feature: This feature in Microsoft Word can type what you say and you can also use punctuation commands. The feature can support nine languages including: Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Mexico and Spain), and English (the United States, Canada, and the UK).

Magnifying Glass + Flashlight (Apple): This app works for the iPhone. You can zoom in and brighten the images. Also, you can adjust the screen to a dark contrast black mode.

Magnifier + Flashlight (Android): This app works for Android phones. You can zoom in, use lighting controls, and your flashlight to get a better image or activate the negative color mode on the screen. You can screenshot the image so you can read, save, or share it.

Kurzweil 3000: Kurzweil 3000 is an assistive technology, text-to-speech software, that supports in making course curricula accessible and is free for all Brandeis students, faculty, and staff. There is a desktop version (which you can download from ITS’s website), an online version, and a web extension for Firefox and Google Chrome. SAS and Library Services have a user-friendly Kurzweil 3000 guide (PDF) for all Brandeis community members. If you still have any questions on how to use the software, please reach out to SAS (access@brandeis.edu).

Recently, we have been promoting the online version of Kurzweil 3000.They had an update that improves the functionality online over the downloaded software. You can watch the instructional video to get started once you have created your username and password to log in.

Speechify: This software can read messages, documents, news articles, and social media on your computer, phone, and tablet. You can maintain a free trial of Speechify by skipping credit card information.

Natural Reader: This website can read aloud your course readings (you can either upload the document or copy/paste the text onto the actual website) and it could also be helpful to allow you to listen to your paper drafts for revision. You can adjust the computer voice tone with a choice of high or low-toned voices.

TTSReader: This website and its free app version is similar to Natural Reader and can read aloud your papers or your course’s reading materials, from PDFs to ebooks. You can adjust the reading speed.

Nagish: This is a free Apple/Android phone app that provides automatic text-to-speech and speech-to-text options when initiating or receiving phone calls. While speaking during the call, you can use your own voice or even type out your message on your phone for the caller to hear a natural-sounding automatic voice. While listening during the call, you can use the speaker as well as read the captioning. Although this conversion can lag for 3-4 seconds, and the automatic captioning can contain some errors, it is a good app for supporting communication access in situations when a phone call is required.

MathType: This software add-on for Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Google Docs, and Mac Office Software (Pages, Key Note) converts math and science equations into an accessible format that can be read by a screen reader such as Jaws, Read Aloud, and Voice Over.

Math Assistance from Microsoft OneNote: This program requires a Microsoft OneNote account. Write or type any math problem and Math Assistant in OneNote can solve it for you—helping you reach the solution quickly, or displaying step-by-step instructions that help you learn how to reach the solution on your own. After solving your equation, there are many options to continue exploring math learning with Math Assistant.

Khan Academy: This website provides many free videos that demonstrate various math subjects, such as algebra, pre-calculus, and calculus in a verbal and captioning format to refresh any lessons and/or clarify course materials. It also includes other science subjects, such as physics, chemistry, biology, and electrical engineering.