Has Kurzweil Improved Your Reading?

I just barely got Kurzweil. Previously I couldn't even afford books on tape, so I had to have other people read to me and I would trade them for things I can do (my brother thankfully hated coloring in posters and such, but he is an excellent reader).

For people who can't obtain or afford Kurzweil, in high school I found a wonderful program online that is very similar. There is a free trial version too and it is great. It's called "Read Please". The voices aren't as good as the voices on Kurzweil, but you can change the reading speed and the font size. It doesn't do scan in recognition (or didn't when I used to use it), but it was useful for older books that are free as e-books because you can put text files into the program.

I wasn't able to afford books on tape until college, and even then some of the books weren't available on tape so I still had to find someone who could read them to me.

It is unfortunate but learning disabilities are not really seen as disabilities. My son was 5 and doing long division in his head...yet at 11 he was on an early first grade reading level and they called it being immature and not wanting to work.

It cost me a small fortune, but I took him to a tutor and did everything I could. Some how, he did graduate high school on grade level for reading but a kid who should have gone AP math hated school so much that it was all I could do to keep him in school.

Now he is thinking about college..but to be a chef.

My parents don't believe in learning disabilities. I knew from an early age that I had a hard time reading. I would sit and stare at books while other kids were actually reading. In high school I found helpful computer programs on my own. In my 2nd year of college I asked for help, but it wasn't until my 4th year of college that I was finally able to afford testing so that I could get help.

The schools gave out plenty of help where I went, but unfortunately since I didn't have any paperwork proving I had any problems, I never had access to any of it. I thought all the disabled kids were a bunch of cheaters because I "wasn't disabled" and couldn't read either, I read just like they did... yet there was no help for me. I'd get C's in classes for only finishing 70 percent of the tests, but I would have finished more if only I could have.