Slides presented at the JISC Accessibility Clinic in Oct 2022.

1. Reading and Writing
Innovation Lab
Assistive Technology, Accessibility,
and the Reading Process
Dominik Lukeš, Dominik.Lukes@ctl.ox.ac.uk

2. Oxford Reading
and Writing
Innovation Lab
bit.ly/ox-rewrilab

3. Becoming
Well-Read

4. Motivation
for the Lab
New products
Questions from students
and academics
No reliable way to give
advice

6. Purpose Test and review
Let people try
Help make purchase
decisions

7. Poll 1: Getting to
know each other.
What brings you
here?

8. The lab in context

9. What students say
I don't have time to read it all.
I read but I can't understand what it's all
about.
I get stuck on words and sentences and
can't continue until I look them up.
I forget what I read by the time I have to use
it.

10. Key lesson
Tools
Tools and
strategies
Strategies
and tools

11. Which is why the lab is not
just…

13. But it is also…

15. Reading is a
multiply articulated
activity.

16. Articulation
of reading
Decoding
Letters to words
Words to sentences
Understanding Sentences to ideas
Strategic attention
Read first / last
Deep / surface
Planning
Time
Place
Logistics
Finding the readings
Opening files

17. Blockers can get in the
way at many points in this
articulation.

18. What gets
in the way
Perception
Navigation
Understanding words
Understanding key points
Dealing with volume
Dealing with file organisation
Dealing with file formats

19. Thinking of only
perception is not
enough, because there
are more modes of
reading.

20. Three Modes of Reading
Comprehensive /
linear
• Read from start
to finish
• As in literature
• Most texts
formatted for
this
Skim
• Read for gist to
get a sense of
overall meaning
quickly
• Strategy to
decide is more
is needed
Scan
• Read for
specific
information
• Use on second
pass or in
research

21. Jeanne Godfrey, Reading & Making Notes, 2014
Myth 1: You need to read
most things on your reading
list, starting at the top and
working your way down.
Myth 4: You should read
academic texts carefully
from start to finish.

22. Steve New, Academic Writing Skills Guide, 2019
“The vast quantities of information
that are available mean that it is
important that you read as
intelligently as possible. For most
social science literature, this means
‘skim reading’ a document or book
before reading line-by-line.”

23. Hertford College Study Guide p. 13
“reading everything is not
always achievable. You will
have to learn to be pragmatic
and decide on a manageable
amount.”

24. What is the most common
mode employed in
academic reading?

25. How many of these did the authors read from start to finish?
Read abstract
Read twice
Read conclusions
Read after
article finished
Read carefully

26. Why is this important for
assistive tools and
accessibility?

27. Skimming and scanning
are not available to blind
readers and limited for
dyslexic readers.

28. Assistive technologies only
focus on decoding
individual words and
sentences, not on the
complex nature of
academic reading...

29. Academic
reading is
…
Purposeful
Read to identify facts and
arguments
Strategic
Read only parts needed for
purpose
Non-linear
Do not read in order of
presentation
Active
Read while highlighting and
taking notes
Productive and
interactive
Read to write and
communicate
Comparative and
cumulative
Read in context and never
just one thing

30. But

31. Reading is often seen as a
simple activity?

32. Affordances of
Reading

33. Affordance is the property of
an object that allows the user to
interact with it in order to
achieve a particular goal
without conscious
deliberation.

34. Door handle as an example of affordance

35. Affordances of a printed schedule

36. Affordance of a digital schedule

37. Affordances – my need now vs. my need in general
When is the next bus? How often do buses go there?

38. Affordances of books

39. Affordances
Physicality (Weight / 3D)
Touch
Ink absorption
Visibility – Comparison
Movability

40. Some examples…

41. How we read academic reading

42. Amazon took 13 years to figure out people read books non-linearly

43. Pocket guides have special affordances

44. Not thinking about the ereader as content consumer but as paper

45. Alternatives to saving highlights in publishers’ silos

46. Converting whole page to audio helps only with decoding

47. How does this reflect
your experiences?

48. Hardware and
software from the lab

49. Poll 2: What do you
use for reading

50. Low
investment
• Install an app
• Learn a shortcut
Medium
investment
• Create /
account
• Configure
settings
• Watch tutorials
High
investment
• Schedule
learning time
• Change
routines and
approach
• Convert old
documents to
new formats

51. What to
learn Learn that
it is an issue
it needs
attention
Learn how to configure
things
Learn to
make it part
of your
practice

52. Hardware for reading

53. What can you read with
Computer
Smart phone
Tablet
E-reader
Scanner

54. Comparing hardware solutions
Computer
• 👍 Always there
• 👍 Many tools
• 👎 Bad posture
• 👎 Screen glare
Smart phone
• 👍 Portable
• 👍 Flexible
• 👎 Small screen
• 👎 Battery
• 👎 Screen glare
Tablet
• 👍 Portable
• 👍 Large screen
• 👍 Side by side
• 👍 Pen option
• 👎 Screen glare
E-reader
• 👍 No screen glare
• 👍 Long battery
• 👍 Touch/pen
• 👎 Single function
• 👎 Slow refresh
Scanner
• 👍 Stand alone
• 👍 Printed text
• 👎 Single purpose
• 👎 Expensive

55. Remarkable
About reMarkable: eInk note taker and
reader
Cost £450
(without case with basic pen)
Pros • Paper-like writing
• Magnetic pen holder
• Light-weight
• Long battery life
Cons • No illumination
• Slowish software
• No external apps
• Cost
• Some features require
subscription

56. Kobo Elipsa
About Kobo Elipsa: eInk note taker and
reader
Cost £350
(inclusive of case and stylus)
Pros • Paper-like writing
• Illuminated
• Can borrow books from public
libraries
• Long battery life
• Cheap for category
• Dropbox integration
Cons • No external apps

57. Amazon Kindle Scribe
About Kindle Scribe: eInk note taker
and reader
Cost £330
(without case with basic pen)
Pros • Paper-like writing
• Illuminated
• Can buy books from Amazon
• Long battery life
• Cheap for category
Cons • No external apps
• Tied to Amazon

58. Boox Max Lumi
About Onyx Boox Max Lumi 1: eInk
note taker and reader, 13in
Cost cca £800
Pros • Screen for A4 at 100%
• Illuminated
• Long battery life
• Can serve as external monitor
• Can install any Android app
Cons • Very expensive
• Included pen not best

59. Onyx Boox Lumi 1 in landscape

60. Onyx Boox Mira Pro
About Onyx Boox Mira Pro: 24in eInk
Monitor
Cost cca £1,500
Pros • External monitor
• Multiple viewing modes
• No glare
Cons • Very expensive
• Slow refresh rate
• Ghosting
• No touch

61. Bigme Colour
About Bigme Colour: eInk note taker
and reader, 10in, colour
Cost cca £800
Pros • Colour
• Competent reader
• Android apps
Cons • Expensive
• Limited availability

62. Cpen
About CPen: Digital highlighter converts
text to audio and copies
Cost £120
Pros • Connects to phone, tablet,
computer
• Easy to scan individual lines
• High quality recognition
• Language support
• Cheap for category
Cons • Only scans line by line
• Requires phone/tablet to work

63. ORCam Reader
About Orcam Read: Converts printed
text to audio
Cost cca £2,000
Pros • Can read entire page
• Can read text at a distance
• High quality voice
• Good recognition
Cons • More difficult to control text
input
• Does not copy captured text
• Cost very high

64. iPad
About iPad Pro 13in: Tablet
Cost £1,000+
Pros • Large screen
• Very powerful (including video
editing)
• Support many apps
• Can be used for reading and
writing
• Supports other media
• Cheap for category
Cons • Very expensive
• Battery life (no more than 1
day)
• Screen glare

65. Amazon Kindle Fire 8in
About Kindle Fire 8in: Android Tablet
Cost £50+
Pros • Cheap
• Supports all Android apps
• Integrates with Amazon book
store and Audible
• 10in size available
Cons • Smaller Screen (no 13in
available)
• Google Apps require work
around
• Not as much app innovation
on Android

66. Active styluses
About Active styluses: Connect to
device via Bluetooth
Cost £60-£120
Pros • Palm rejection
• Pressure sensitivity
• Additional functionality in
some apps
Cons • Expensive
• Only work with intended
device model
• Only work with one device at a
time
• Requires charging or batteries

67. Passive styluses
About Active styluses: Simulates
capacitive response of fingers
Cost £60-£120
Pros • Cheap
• Works on any capacitive touch
screens
• Works on multiple devices at
once (no need to reconnect)
• No batteries required (usually)
Cons • No palm rejection
• No pressure sensitivity
• Cannot take advantage of
some features

68. Wacom tablets
About Wacom tablets: Provide touch
input interface to computers (for
artists)
Cost £60+
Pros • Cheap
• Adds touch and pen input to
desktop or laptop
Cons • Learning curve
• Requires USB connection
• Less support on MacOS

69. Apps for tablets
hardware

70. About Margin Note: Power PDF reading
and note taking app
Cost £9
Pros • Many reading features
• Converts highlights to
mindmaps
• Export hightlights to mind
maps
• Create revision cards from
highlights and notes
• Built in text to speech
• Also Mac apps
• Cheap
Cons • No freemium tier
• No reflow
• No Windows app

72. About LiquidText: Power PDF reading
and note taking app
Cost Free + £25 or annual subscription
Pros • Ingenious touch interface
• Infinite note taking canvas
• Great Apple pencil support
• Usable free tier
• Mac and Windows apps
available
• Export highlights into separate
doc
Cons • No custom bookmarks
• Not as good
• No reflow
• Not as good at very large
documents
• Expensive – many features
part of subscription mode only

73. Touch affordance demo

74. Good Notes and Others
About Good Notes: Handwriting app
and PDF reader
Cost £5
Pros • Good organisation
• Designed for handwriting
• Searchable handwriting
• Can read PDFs
Cons • Not many advanced PDF
features

77. Also investigating features
of existing apps

78. Natural voices

79. DRM – Elephant in the
room

80. What does download mean?

81. Review and reflect
Already do
Will do
Will look into
Will stop doing
Not sure about

82. More to reading
than meets the eye
bit.ly/ox-rewrilab

83. This presentation is licensed
under Creative Commons By
Attribution license except where
otherwise noted.
Icons and stock photos licensed
under Microsoft Premium
Content and cannot be reused
outside this document.