Earlier this year, Microsoft added the voice dictation capability to Office 365 Education to let students write hands-free in various productivity apps within that suite. Today, the company announced that it will make the accessibility feature available on Word and OneNote Online for web browsers in the coming weeks.
The move is part of Microsoft"s broader commitment to the Made by Dyslexia initiative, which aims to provide technological access to 700 million individuals diagnosed with dyslexia worldwide. Toward that end, the software giant will grow its resources under Microsoft Education, including the development of free teacher and parent training materials on Microsoft Educator Community in January 2019.
Microsoft has also made Immersive Reader compatible with any accounts used for Flipgrid, whether connected to Microsoft or Google, to help all learners access topic text using the social learning tool. For dyslexic students struggling with math, Immersive Reader will add support for that subject in the coming days including read aloud, line focus, and page theme colors which will be available on OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote Online.
Later in the fall, real-time translation in Immersive Reader will also be introduced to allow students to translate a page, word, or sentence into another language in Word Online, OneNote Online, OneNote for Windows 10, OneNote iPad, OneNote Mac, Outlook Online, Teams, and Flipgrid. Other components of the initiative include improvements to Edge as part of the October 2018 Windows Update and the launch of Immersive Reader on Office Lens on Android.