There are a whole heap of extensions you can add to your browser that can change colours, fonts, or highlight words. Some people choose to use these extensions to help them if their course has a lot of text. We focus on making sure we’re compliant with browser standards so that people can use whichever tools they already use to help their online reading.
My day job involves a lot of screen time. And when my brain and eyes are weary and I’ve found myself reading the same line over and over, I know I can turn to a few tools to help me out.
This post is focused on some of the different apps and extensions you can use to personalise your course to support your reading and learning.
In this post we’ll link to the Chrome extensions (as it is a commonly used browser for iQualify) but many of these are also available in other browsers or have mobile app versions.
Many of these reading extensions are geared towards long-form articles (e.g. on news sites). iQualify isn’t a news site, our courses are progressively completed on shorter pages that you navigate between, and often pages contain other elements like tasks and discussion. So, this means some of the extensions don’t work as well as others when changing pages. The ones we’ve listed in this article all work between pages without needing to quit or refresh. But, others you might stumble onto, will need to be reloaded every time you change webpage.
Some of the common ones we actually have already built in as a part of your learning experience! For instance, clipping bits of a page to make notes, streamlining reading by removing as much clutter as possible etc.
Some extensions will interfere with the iQualify page more than you want/need and hide buttons or elements you might need for your study. So, we advise caution. Make sure you try them out on your course and compare the page with the extension on and off so you can see what it’s doing. And… Only have extensions on when you need them.
Now we’ve covered those disclaimers, let’s get on to some examples. The first two sections focus on limiting barriers to reading (read text aloud and change the text and background). The third and fourth sections are more about how people might want to support or enhance their reading and understanding.
People with visual impairments often use (and sometimes absolutely rely on) apps that read the text of a page aloud. These apps read not just the visible text on a page, but also the labels/descriptions for buttons e.g. A label "notifications" for the bell icon.
Although I don’t have any visual impairments, I still often use these apps. I use them for proofreading when I can’t see the mistakes from just reading (as my eyes skim over them). Or when I have long articles to read, but have been sitting at a desk all day and want to move (or need to pop the washing on!).
Read aloud reads aloud text from the main page including tasks and shows a separate window with the highlighted text currently being read (you can close this window). You can change the voice and edit the pitch, speed and volume. As this is a relatively simple tool, focused on reading just the main text on a page, it does miss reading aloud things like image captions, alt-text, and discussions. This limits its use for those with vision impairments.
Text Reader (Text to Speech) TTS is similar to Read Aloud, however I personally prefer the way it highlights the text on the page, rather than in a separate window (and you can change the highlight colour!). One downside is that with this extension, when you change to the next page you need to press the bin icon and then play to read the new page.
A high contrast between a background and the text is optimal for most people. But… some find pastel backgrounds best for their reading (this often applies to neurodivergent learners). Others with light sensitivity prefer a dark background with light text. As with the background, what is “optimal” for text font and spacing depends on the individual as well.
In the examples below you’ll see some of these commonly used text and background alternatives - justified text, Open dyslexic font, coloured background.
Dyslex.ie changes the font to open dyslexic which is said to be easier to read for those with dyslexia (it also changes the colour slightly). There is also a grey colour applied to paragraphs and you can choose to enable a darker grey highlight bar to help you focus on one or more lines at a time.
Midnight lizard has a range of “dark modes” which choose a dark background colour and lighter text. It has pre-defined colour schemes but also allows a great amount of customisation on the colours.
Helperbird lets you change the colour, font, size, and spacing of text. It also lets you choose a colour for the background. This extension can do a range of other things as well for instance, reading the page text aloud, adding a ruler/highlighter bar. It changes text in tasks as well, allows navigation between pages, and keeps your text and colour settings.
The example extensions in this section use a range of different strategies from changing text colours, to highight just a few words/line at a time. As with the above section, what enhances reading for one person, can be entirely different for another. For instance, I personally enjoyed trying out the colour gradient in Wasp line, but others who reviewed the extension found it too distracting!
Bionize uses the bionic reading to bold the start of words which is said to help us scan faster and with less effort. It seems to pick up most text on a page, but does interfere with some types of tasks, so you might need to switch it off at times.
Wasp line Adds colour gradient (from red to blue) to the main text on a page. This can help your eyes keep track of which line you’re on. This extension picks up page text, but skips text in tasks.
Pacer speed reading Highlights a set number of words and flicks through at an adjustable word per minute rate. You can also change highlight and highlighted text colour. It’s pretty simple to use, just click some text and it starts from there. It even works on text in tasks.
Visor applies a mask to the entire page except a slice of the screen. This “slice” simply follows your cursor as you track down the page.This can help your eyes to just focus on one (or more) lines of text. You can choose the colour of the overlay and slice as well as how wide the slice is.
The extensions in this section help you to understand the meanings of words. This can be especially useful for those of you who have a course with a lot of jargon or those learning in a language other than your preferred.
Google Dictionary gives you a simple way to get the definition of words - just double click and a definition pops up (also with an external link to more information).
Read&Write includes a bunch of tools to help people with reading and writing. Like previously described extensions, it can read text aloud, plus has dual-colour highlighting which highlights both a sentence and individual words as they’re read aloud. But, it also includes the ability to translate and define words including defining them pictorially.
As you can see, there’s an extension for almost anything. It’s just about finding what works for you.
We ensure we’re standards compliant so that we can flex with extensions people might want to use. But… not all extensions are standards compliant, and some will interfere with the iQualify page more than you want/need and hide buttons or elements you might need for your study.
So, we advise caution. Make sure you try them out on your course and compare the page with the extension on and off so you can see what it’s doing. And… Only have extensions on when you need them.
