Diverse learners' library guide: Listening and reading aids

Some of library's databases have a separate listening option. Read more about listening to e-books and articles.

Celia has listed useful tips and tools for reading and listening:

Tools for electronic and online materials

• Mobile device listening features
• Downloadable listening applications for mobile devices
• Accessibility features of office programs: listen to contents in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and Excel
• Browser-based features (Read aloud)
• Google Translate can also be used to read text aloud
• Computer-based screen reader programs
• Listen to PDF documents

Listen to print materials or use tools to ease reading

From image to text and voice

With an OCR (Object Character Recognition) program, you can take a photograph of a textbook page or printed document, and the program will read the image and create an editable text file from it. Some OCR programs allow you to listen to the text file. If this option is not available, you can transfer the text file to another reading tool for listening.

More information on OCR (Object Character Recognition) programs on Celianet

Acrobat Pro

Acrobat Pro is a paid program that works on a PC or Mac, laptop or mobile device. Haaga-Helia students can use Acrobat Pro on campus computers for free. Acrobat Pro converts scanned documents, photographs, webpages and Microsoft Office files into PDF files.

• More about Acrobat Pro
• Instructions for creating accessible PDF files in Acrobat Pro and checking accessibility

Reading aids

You can borrow reading aid tools from the library.