Leveling the Education Environment for Dyslexic Learners

In this 2017 first-person piece, Dave Saltmarsh, describes what text-to-speech tools and visual learning can mean for people with dyslexia, drawing on a personal account. The section below looks at what research says about assistive technology for dyslexia, what schools are required to consider, and what does and does not have evidence behind it.

Learning technologies designed to meet equity challenges

When I first began using Apple technology with students, I immediately saw the power and opportunity of text-to-speech applications. While it may not have been my first experience with assistive technology in education, it certainly had a large impact on my personal and professional life – and this opened my eyes to additional means of helping myself and others diagnosed with dyslexia.

Prior to being diagnosed as dyslexic, I, like so many, was too often typecast as lazy or lacking certain academic potentials. But this couldn’t have been further from the truth. I was simply practicing my natural ability to think, imagine and express myself differently than the expected norm.

Visual learning advantage

As an article from Cone and Foster eloquently put, “As a visual learner, I will always gravitate first to any type of graphical or visual representation of a concept.” I couldn’t agree more. This way of teaching and learning provides a deeper connection with a given topic and increases understanding.

Animations can connect views and allow for visual transitions to aid dyslexic students. This includes scatter plots with sliders, gradually building bar graphs and multi-stage growth diagrams.

Personally, I would like to see an exploration of extending visuals beyond flat, one-dimensional images to take this concept even further.

Closing the learning divide

Learning programs must be designed to meet the equity challenges of those who require assistive technologies and those who don’t. We want to close this gap, not widen it. As a dyslexic who performs best when involved in learning conditions, I struggle with the reading requirements of many of my courses. The act of reading is not only challenging from a process standpoint, but also time-consuming and mentally exhausting.

As suggested by Tonsing-Meyer (2013), when alternative mediums are provided, I can disengage certain coping techniques and may be able to use less brain function to process information. Apart from reducing the time required to read and fully understand materials, images, videos or audio recordings allow dyslexics to replay these materials on their own to learn the way they are most comfortable.

For many, stressing about reading or learning in general can block the information that is actually retained. Making it easy for all learners helps diminish this anguish.

Also, the ability to perceive tone and context can be difficult to gauge in written work for dyslexics. The benefits of interpreting these correctly the first time around through watching or listening cannot be overstated.

Changing perception

The shame is, apart from the hurdles of trying to read, cope and succeed in a linear world, dyslexics are faced with challenges of disclosing their diagnosis in fear of losing their employment or not getting employment in the first place.

In my younger days, I was a fully qualified air traffic controller, who worked across seven positions and eventually became a first sergeant in the military. Had I been officially diagnosed at my time of enrollment and forced to disclose, I may not have been able to advance my career or even remain in the military.

I am not alone in my fear of being discriminated against, and this is not a story we want young learners to have to live through.

I encourage any interested in this cause to consult dyslexicadvantage.org to help promote the positive identity, community and achievement of dyslexic people.

Assistive technology for dyslexia: what the evidence supports

Dave Saltmarsh describes text-to-speech applications as the starting point of a change in outlook for Saltmarsh, and Saltmarsh asks schools to design learning so that students who need assistive technology are not left behind. This section sets out what research and federal rules say about assistive technology for dyslexia, so that a teacher, parent or school leader can separate tools with some evidence from those without.

What the research shows about text-to-speech

The best-known synthesis is a 2017 meta-analysis in the Journal of Learning Disabilities by Sarah Wood, Jerad Moxley, Elizabeth Tighe and Richard Wagner, “Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students with Reading Disabilities?”. It pooled 22 studies and found a modest positive effect on reading comprehension, an effect size of 0.35, with a 95 percent confidence interval from 0.14 to 0.56. After the authors adjusted for possible publication bias, the estimate fell to 0.24. Studies that compared different groups of students showed a larger effect than studies in which the same students were tested with and without the tool, and only the larger one was statistically significant.

The authors list important limits: the sample of studies was small, the tools and measures varied, few studies were true intervention studies, many lacked randomised controls, and possible publication bias was detected. The reasonable conclusion is that text-to-speech helps many students access text, particularly when the reading demand is high, and that the size of the benefit is uncertain. The review covers students with reading disabilities in general, not only those with dyslexia.

Saltmarsh’s own account fits the access role. Saltmarsh writes that reading is slow and mentally tiring, and that audio or video lets a learner replay material in the most comfortable way. That is about getting to the content, and the research suggests it is a sound use of the tool.

Tools that do not have the same support

A 2026 review in the journal Dyslexia by Christy Austin and colleagues, “Dispelling Myths and Misunderstandings About Defining and Remediating Dyslexia”, reports that dyslexic fonts lack evidence of improving reading. It cites a study in which readers with dyslexia were no faster or more accurate with the Dyslexie font than with Arial or Times New Roman, and in which preferences did not match performance. The review also describes coloured overlays and tinted lenses as unsupported, and concludes that vision therapy does not treat dyslexia, citing an American Academy of Pediatrics report that children with dyslexia have the same visual function as other children. Schools that are asked to buy such products can use this review as a reference before spending money.

The same review says structured literacy, meaning explicit, systematic and sequential teaching of reading and language skills, has the strongest evidence for helping students with dyslexia. Assistive technology therefore supports access to grade-level content while teaching builds reading skill, and it does not replace that teaching. For more on that instruction, see edCircuit’s Science of Reading Guide.

What schools must consider

Under federal regulations at 34 CFR 300.324, the team writing an individualized education program (IEP) must consider whether a child needs assistive technology devices and services. If the IEP team decides the child needs them, 34 CFR 300.105 requires the public agency to provide them, and allows home use when the team determines it is needed for a free appropriate public education. Colorado’s state education department explains in its dyslexia handbook that a 2015 federal letter confirmed nothing in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act stops schools from using the word dyslexia in evaluations, eligibility documents and IEPs. The handbook adds that dyslexia is not itself an eligibility category, so students are most likely to be identified under specific learning disability.

How common dyslexia is

A 2022 meta-analysis in Brain Sciences by Liping Yang and colleagues, “Prevalence of Developmental Dyslexia in Primary School Children”, pooled 58 studies and found a prevalence of 7.1 percent, with individual studies ranging from about 2.3 to 19.9 percent. The authors attribute the spread largely to differing definitions and cut-offs, and they note that no consensus on diagnostic criteria exists. Schools should expect that several students in each grade have reading difficulties of this kind, whether or not they have been identified.

Practical decisions

• Make audio versions of required reading available to all students, which also answers Saltmarsh’s call to avoid widening the gap between students who use assistive technology and those who do not.
• Pair each tool with a plan for teaching reading, and record which one the student uses for which task.
• Ask for independent evidence before buying fonts, overlays or vision programs marketed for dyslexia.
• Involve the student, who is often the best judge of which tool works, and review the choice each year.

Further Reading

1. Gulf News – Vacation routines help special needs kids ease back to school anxiety
2. NPR – Novelist Max Brooks On Doomsday, Dyslexia And Growing Up With Hollywood Parents
3. CNN – Technology opens new world for brothers with dyslexia

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