Microsoft’s Immersive Reader just might be my favorite accessibility tool. This free add-in for Word, OneNote, Outlook, and Edge enables students to have articles read aloud to them at pace that meets their needs. Additionally, Immersive Reader will identify individual syllables, highlight each word as it is read, and identify parts of speech for students.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the addition of two great updates to Immersive Reader. First, Immersive Reader now includes a picture dictionary. Second, Immersive Reader now lets you customize the colors that are used to highlight the parts of speech in a document.
The new picture dictionary in Immersive Reader enables students to click on a word in a document and have a picture appear. Furthermore, students can click on a single word and have it read aloud while viewing the related picture.
Students and teachers can now apply custom colors to the parts of speech highlighted by Immersive Reader. This means that one student could have nouns highlighted in blue while another student has nouns highlighted in green. The benefit of custom colors is that students and teachers pick the color schemes that work best for them.
These updates to Immersive Reader are rolling out now. Click here to read Microsoft’s full support details regarding Immersive Reader.
In the video that is embedded below I demonstrate Microsoft’s Immersive Reader in action.
Click here if you cannot see the video.
