CLiCk,Speak is a FREE tool that I believe needs to be available to ALL learners who have any reason to go online. It is a powerful tool, and one that is extremely easy to use for anyone who can use a mouse. The CLiCk,Speak toolbar installs with three buttons, as shown here.

In order to have text from a web page read aloud, simply place the cursor where you want to begin reading and click the green button. To stop reading aloud, click the red button. If you wish to read a selection of text, click the white button after selecting the desired text.

Under the Firefox ‘Tools’ Menu is an item called ‘CliCk,Speak Options’. You are able to adjust the reading rate and the pitch of the voice here.

As I repeat frequently, if schools are truly interested in supporting all learners, there is no excuse for continuing to insist on using Internet Explorer. If schools are really interested in trying to facilitate universal access, Firefox is a far superior browser because it is so much more accessible for countless learners. There is absolutely no monetary cost for using Firefox, but the potential to help learners with reading challenges is priceless!

]]> http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/06/27/clickspeak-for-firefox-3-firefox-add-on/feed/ 1 http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/06/26/awesome-highlighter-firefox-online-resources/ http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/06/26/awesome-highlighter-firefox-online-resources/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:21:37 +0000 Paul Hamilton http://paulhami.edublogs.org/?p=882 Continue reading →]]> Yesterday, I wrote about Awesome Highlighter. I had no sooner posted than I realized I neglected to mention a helpful feature. There is a Firefox add-on for Awesome Highlighter that can be installed directly from the website. Today, I want to write briefly about that add-on. While I’m at it, I also want to discuss the advent of Firefox 3 and some short-term implications on using Firefox add-ons.

To learn about Awesome Highlighter, and using it as a study aid, please read what I wrote about that yesterday. For anyone who finds Awesome Highlighter useful, the Firefox add-on makes it more convenient. When the add-on is installed, a button appears next to the Google search bar. (In my case that’s alongside buttons for my Piclens and Skype add-ons.

When you click on the AH button, it brings up the Awesome Highlighter toolbar and gives you all the options of the application. This saves you the trouble of going to the website each time you want to use it. This is invaluable for anyone using Awesome Highlighter on a regular basis. I have been very pleasantly surprised to discover that the Awesome Highlighter add-on works fine in the recently released Firefox 3.

But there is still a problem with some Firefox add-ons. They don’t yet work in Firefox 3. As of today, June 26th, this is still the case with CliCk,Speak, the text-to-speech add-on that allows any page open in Firefox to be read aloud. (I’m pleased to say that Accessibar is now compatible with Firefox 3. Since it is a little difficult to find it, I’ve used Awesome Highlighter to highlight the download link HERE.)

If you, or someone you know has already downloaded Firefox 3 and discovered that essential add-ons won’t work, there is a solution to tide you over until the add-ons you need are updated. You can uninstall Firefox 3, and re-install a previous version. You can’t download previous versions directly from Mozilla, but you can get one HERE at OldApps.com I suggest that you use Version 2.0.0.14. You shouldn’t need to worry about losing bookmarks or other personal information because this is normally stored separate from the program on your computer.