Just thought you might like to know about a very clever little program
released last month from textHELP - called "PDFAloud".  

As many of you will be aware, PDF (or Portable Document Files) files are a
real problem for people with reading difficulties or mild visual impairments
who rely on the computer to speak out text for them. It is difficult for
standard text-to-speech programs to read them aloud - because you can`t
highlight the text within a PDF file. As a result, PDF files are effectively
inaccessible to readers who rely on text-to-speech support for their reading.  

PDFAloud works as a simple add-in tool bar for Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat
Reader and reads any page instantly - with various buttons to activate speech
within the PDF document as and when required.  

I guess the most significant leap with this little program is that it is the
only tool currently available to read PDF files with synchronized colored
highlighting right there on screen within the original PDF document. This
obviously offers struggling students much more direct support with
comprehension of the text and relating it to the off-computer print copy of
the PDF documents. Prior to PDFAloud being available, PDF files had to be
converted and read as "text only files" - losing all of their graphics and
formatting and not always translating well for pages with complex formatting.  

At this stage, the program is only available in Australia within textHELP!
Read & Write Version 6.0 or Gold ... but if you have these programs installed
already - you are able to download the program for free from the textHELP
website at: 

http://www.texthelp.com/techdown.asp?section=support

More info is available on the Spectronics website at:
http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/library.asp?article=14343 

Contributed by Barbara Landsberg