ChromeBook Apps and Extensions for Learners with Dyslexia

Chromebooks are now used by pupils in several local authorities in Scotland and are also becoming popular in the rest of the United Kingdom, and particularly in the United States, We first produced a ChromeBook Apps and Extensions for Learners with Dyslexia poster in October 2016, since when it has been downloaded nearly 10,000 times. In view of the availability of both Apps and Extensions as tools to add functionality to Chromebooks we felt that our usual 'wheel' format would not work, so we decided to adopt the style of a 'wall' with Apps represented by red bricks and Extensions by yellow bricks. In the period since then, we came to feel that the 'wall' wasn't really getting information across in the way that we had hoped, so for this update, we have decided to return to our usual 'wheel' format. We felt it was still important to differentiate between Apps and Extensions so we have decided to use blue text to represent Apps and green text for Extensions.

The change of format allowed us to add more icons, so the following apps / extensions have been added:

• READING SUPPORT - Capti Voice, Claro Cloud, Save to Pocket
• TEXT-TO-SPEECH - Speechify
• READING EBOOKS - eBook Viewer and Converter
• READING THE WEB - Use Immersive Reader, Open Dyslexic Font, Just Read, Page Eraser, Dark Reader
• WORKING WITH PDFS - Texthelp PDF Reader
• WRITING SUPPORT - Docs Plus, Draftback, LipSurf, Wordbank Universal, Kaizena Web App
• NOTE TAKING - YiNote
• ORGANISATION - Note Board, New Tab Todo List

As with the app wheels, we have attempted to categorise the apps, but this has not always been easy. In the case of some of the multi-function extensions and apps, e.g. Read&Write we have tried to place them into the most appropriate category, but we recognise that they could easily be placed in more than one category. We have also used broader categories than in our other app wheels.

The Apps and Extensions included in the 'wheel' are not intended to form a definitive list of the 'best' options, but to give people an idea of what might be worth considering. There are many other apps that could have been included and we will review the contents of the poster at regular intervals to decide whether to add new Apps and Extensions, or to remove others.

We are very grateful for the help of Mike Marotta in producing this poster. Mike has extensive experience of using ChromeBooks with learners in the USA and made many useful suggestions with regard to content.

If you are using Chromebooks, you may also be interested in our Quick Guide to Chromebook Accessibility Features poster.

An accessible breakdown of this PDF poster is available further down the page.