District Administration's Reader's Choice Top 100 Products

wordQ+speakQ has been selected by the reader's of District Administration as a TOP 100 Innovative product for 2011.

“WordQ has made a dramatic difference in student reading and writing output, as well as confidence and independence levels.” Christina Schindler, special education teacher specialist, Queen Anne’s County (Md.) Board of Education

See the full list by clicking here.

Assistive Technology: Write Answers

WordQ is another tool that Green favors, saying she even uses it herself. The software assists with typing and proofreading by providing features such as word prediction, highlighting, and auditory feedback. The program (which costs around $200) also reads back text as the user types. "You’re less likely to miss errors in your work when you hear your writing said aloud,” says Green. “And when you’re stuck with spelling, it gives you a list."

The full review can be found here.

WordQ V3

PCMag.com recently reviewed WordQ and gave it a rating of 4 stars out of 5.

They consider it one of the simplest, useful, and least expensive options on the market today.

The full review can be found here.

Editorial Review of WordQ + SpeakQ Bundle

WordQ+SpeakQ was recently reviewed by PCWorld and received some very high marks!

Frustrated writers, particularly students from elementary school through college, will appreciate WordQ + SpeakQ, a software duo for writers with learning disabilities or attention disorders. Once it is open, WordQ sits in the corner of the screen, waiting for you to start writing–in virtually any program you choose. With a microphone activated and the SpeakQ component installed, you can talk to it as well.

The WordQ + SpeakQ duo appears as a small toolbar that sits on top of your other open applications. The toolbar has five buttons: Options, Mic, Words, Speech, and Read. As you type, WordQ predicts, in a small box nearby, what words you'll use next. A short list of suggested words will appear in the box; hover over one of the words to see a list of synonyms or a sentence that uses the word in its proper context. With a passage of text selected and the Read button toggled on, WordQ will read what you've already typed in a clear voice (several different languages and dialects are available).

The full review can be found here.

The Family Center on Technology and Disability

Version 3 of WordQ and SpeakQ offers a simple but powerful set of support tools for the reading and writing process. While not as sophisticated as some of the other options available that include text to speech, word prediction and/or voice recognition, they do what they do very well and with a simplicity and strategies that make them very useable.

The software installs on Windows XP or later and Macintosh OS 10.4 or later systems. WordQ offers a variety of starter to advanced vocabularies and predicts what you might want to write once you start typing, displaying a list of correctly spelled words from which you can choose. If you see the word you want, you can choose it with a keystroke or mouse click. If desired, each word can be read aloud before you make a selection. In-context prediction helps with corrections by displaying appropriate word predictions wherever the text cursor is placed. Prediction vocabularies can be expanded, focused on a specific topic, or limited to aid learning and success. Font, size, number of words in the box, sort order and positioning of the prediction box are all customizable. WordQ adapts to how you use words, becoming more efficient over time. Specific topic lists can be created to improve prediction rate. Different users can each have their own user vocabulary. Commonly confused words, such as “there” and “their,” are displayed with an arrow in the prediction panel and a sample sentence offered to help selection. Non-standard spelling is recognized as the user types, predicting words with spellchecked suggestions. The spell check within MS Word can be utilized and words from the drop down list read aloud.

WordQ also provides text to speech in reading new text as well as original writing. A text-reading mode helps with proofreading as documents can be highlighted and read aloud. After typing a sentence, it can be automatically read back, helping you catch any mistakes such as missing words or punctuation. Any text on the screen, including what you may be browsing on the internet or reading from a textbook, can be spoken.

SpeakQ adds basic voice recognition in an extremely easy to use manner. The training process is the easiest this reviewer has seen. Not only can training passages be selected according to reading ability, but the training can be undertaken in shorter segments, and for those with reading difficulties the program reads the text in manageable phrases for them, turning the microphone on and off automatically between phrases. For students whose speech is not as clear, or who have difficulty thinking in phrases or sentences, speech can be used with typing or word prediction. SpeakQ "guesses" one word at a time, placing it and other options in the word prediction window, easing the requirement for rigorous correction needed by some more sophisticated programs. With use, the program becomes more accurate at recognizing your speech.