Lange, A. A., McPhillips, M., Mulhern, G., & Wylie, J. (2006). Assistive software tools for secondary-level students with literacy difficulties . Journal of Special Education Technology , 21 (3), 13–22. https://www.isetcec.org/journal-of-special-education-technology-jset/

The effects of assistive technology (AT) software on secondary level students with reading difficulties were examined in this study. Specific accommodations examined included speech synthesis, spellchecker, homophone tool, and dictionary).

Participants included 93 secondary level students with reading difficulties from eight schools in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Students were identified as having reading difficulties through the Group Reading Test II, a standardized test of reading comprehension. All participants were at least one year below expectations given their age. Of the sample, 46 students were female, 47 were male, and all students ranged from 14-15 years old.

Literacy skills were measured using posttests measuring reading comprehension, homophone error detection, spelling error detection, and word meaning of participants.

Students using assistive technology improved on all four measures of literacy, the study found. Students in the Microsoft word control group improved their performance on spelling error detection and word meaning, but decreased in their performance on the homophone error detection posttest. Students in the full control group did not improve on any posttest measures. Results indicate that speech synthesis, spellchecker, homophone tool, and dictionary assistive technology tools are effective in improving the literacy performance of secondary students with reading difficulties.