Will It Read It? — Making Printed Text Accessible

Text is all around us—on signs, mail, sticky-notes, worksheets, and it’s still the most common way to share information through technology. But a number of disabilities like dyslexia and visual impairments can limit the ability to access and comprehend this text. Fortunately, technology is making websites, email, and digital books more accessible. 

But what about print?

Until recently, there weren’t many good options, but Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology has improved to a level that even handwritten cursive notes can be converted into digital text and read aloud. Snap&Read is driving the latest reading technologies and integrating them into the latest devices including Google Chromebooks, Mac and Windows PCs, and iPads.

The latest Snap&Read release for iOS integrates the latest OCR technology with the latest cameras in iPad, iPod, and iPhone. This combined with iOS 11 updates create the most powerful text accessibility weapon in your backpack or pocket. With a simple snap of the camera, the widest range of text is read aloud, translated, and even annotated. 

But how far will Snap&Read go to make text accessible? We were surprised at just how well Snap&Read could understand text across different mediums and across a range of legibility. We were curious, so we started testing it on the typical worksheets, workbooks, and printed books. No problem. Then we tried hand-written notes. No problem. Then we tested it out with our messiest handwriting. Wow, it was impressive. Would it read cursive? Yes. Would it read a doctor’s handwriting? Surprisingly, most of the time it could OCR and read the messiest writing—sometimes even when we personally had a hard time making out the text.

So will Snap&Read read it? We gave an iPad loaded with the latest Snap&Read iOS app to Eric (our college intern) to test out over winter break. He really put Snap&Read to the test and recorded his experiences on camera to show you how Snap&Read can read just about anything.