In this month’s blog, I am going to continue showcasing my favorite apps and talk about Co:Writer, a great app for word processing and document creation. It has a long history of being utilized as a PC-based program in the schools, but more recently developers have created a Co:Writer app.
Co:Writer has many accessibility features that make this an easy-to-use, productive app for children with NF1. Some of these features include:
Word Prediction: this feature increases typing speed and provides spelling support. The amount of words in your “word bank” can be altered in the app settings, and you can select the type of dictionary you want to use. This can vary from a core vocabulary to an advanced one.- Text to Speech: this feature allows you to select whether they want every letter, word or sentence spoken. You can also adjust the rate of speech in which it is read. This option is incredibly useful as it provides auditory feedback on what you have written.
- Text Features: you can adjust the font style or size to meet your visual needs, and provide contrast with white on a black background, if needed.
- Topic Dictionaries: these dictionaries enable you to put words related to a specific topic in your “word bank.” There are six example topics to choose from, however, when connected online, you also have the option to use a web-scraped topic dictionary, which searches the web for any topic you choose and moves common words associated with that topic into your “word bank.”
To share work completed in Co:Writer, you can:
- Email the information, however, it does not attach as a document or PDF but appears in the content of the email.
- Move it to cloud-based sites such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
- Post it to Twitter.
- Print the content.
Co:Writer is available within the iTunes Store for $19.99. For more app recommendations, check out our apps section or view my app page on the St. Louis Children’s Hospital website.
– Nicole Weckherlin, OTR/L, St. Louis Children’s Hospital Occupational Therapist