Assistive technology for SEND

On this page:

• Microsoft Windows accessibility features
• Microsoft Immersive Reader for Word and other programmes
• Apple accessibility features

Microsoft Windows accessibility features

Microsoft has created a guide to the various accessibility features available on Windows 10 and 11 (Microsoft website). 

The different types of accessibility features on Windows include:

• Display: Here you can make the text bigger, make everything bigger plus access some advanced display settings to make the screen easier to use.
• Cursor and pointer size: Here you can choose the size and look of the mouse pointer and cursor so that it is easier for you to see it. 
• Magnifier: This enlarges specific areas of the screen to make it easier to see. 
• Colour filters: Here there are several settings to change the colour of the whole screen, you can reverse the colours, use grayscale or add various tints to help if you are colour blind.
• High contrast: This allows you to set the screen up in high contrast mode to make it easier to read. 
• Narrator: This is the screen reader that is built into Windows, it can read out text on documents, web pages (only using Microsoft Edge) and other text. You can alter the voice to one that you prefer. There is a complete guide to using Narrator available on the internet, as well as a quick start guide when you select Narrator in settings.
• Audio: Here you can change some audio settings to help if you have a hearing impairment.
• Closed captions: Here you can change the way that closed captions look.

Immersive Reader for Microsoft programmes

Immersive Reader is a free tool that helps to improve reading and writing for people with additional needs when using Microsoft products, such as Word.

This can help build confidence when learning to read at higher levels and offer text decoding solutions for people with learning differences such as dyslexia. 

It is available in OneNote, Word, the web version of Outlook (email) and the web version of Word.   

Immersive Reader lets you:

• read out text aloud and change the speed of reading
• change font size, text spacing and background colour
• split up words into syllables
• highlight verbs, nouns and adjectives
• choose between two fonts optimised to help with reading

You can read more information about Immersive Reader on the Microsoft website.

Apple accessibility features

All Apple products have built in accessibility features. These work the same or similarly across Mac, iPhone and iPad products.

Apple has created guides about how to use these features: 

• Apple accessibility features overview
• Accessible features on Mac computers 
• Accessible features in iPhone and iPad 

The different types of accessibility features on Apple products include: 

• Voiceover: Provides spoken descriptions of items on the computer screen and provides control of the computer using the keyboard. You can change a lot of features of Voiceover using the Voiceover utility. There is also Voiceover training available within the settings.
• Zoom: This is a screen magnifier that can zoom in on smaller areas of the screen. There is also the option to use something called Hover text, which allows you to see an enlarged version of the text that the mouse is hovering over.
• Display: This allows you to invert colours, reduce motion (useful for those who suffer from visual disturbances or vertigo), increase contrast, reduce transparency (so items stand out more), differentiate without colour (to help see the difference between options without needing to know what colour they are). 
• Speech: This is where you can alter settings for speech on the computer (such as the system voice). You can also enable visual announcements, turn on a setting to speak selected text as well as set the computer to read the text under the pointer. 
• Descriptions: Here you can turn on audio descriptions of visual content in media such as videos. 
• Audio: These settings allow you to set the screen to flash whenever a sound is played and alter the sound to mono. 
• Captions: Here you can alter the settings for subtitles. Within these settings, you can also set the computer to be controlled by various methods. 
• Voice: Here you can alter settings to allow the computer to be controlled by voice 
• Keyboard: Allows you to set features such as sticky keys (such as not having to hold shift down to type a capital letter). 
• Pointer control: Here you can set some accessible mouse pointer settings. 
• Switch control: These settings allow you to set how the computer can be controlled by switches. You can learn more information about switch control on the Apple website.
• Siri: Here you can enable Type Siri, which is a system-wide tool you can used to interact with the computer assistant Siri using your keyboard. This includes asking Siri to carry out operations such as sending a message or reading out a webpage to you.