The best assistive technology for dyslexia, from speech to text up

The most useful assistive technology for dyslexia is speech to text for writing and text to speech for reading. Together they let you skip the two things dyslexia makes hardest, spelling words out and decoding long passages, while keeping everything you actually know and want to say. Add a reading pen for paper, word prediction for typing, and an accessible ebook library, and you've covered nearly every reading and writing task at school or work.

Understood.org describes dyslexia as a lifelong learning disorder that affects reading and spelling that can also cause problems with writing. Technology doesn't treat it. It removes barriers, the same way glasses don't change your eyes. For an assessment, or for help choosing tools for a child, talk to the school, an educational psychologist or a specialist teacher.

We make Sayburst. Product details come from each company's own site, checked October 31, 2026.

#The categories, and what to use on a Mac

Understood.org's guides to assistive technology for writing and reading group the tools by job. Here's that map, with what's free on a Mac and what's worth paying for.

#Speech to text: the biggest win for writing

Speech to text is the top search in this space for a reason. When you dictate, you never have to produce a spelling. You say "unnecessary" and it appears spelled correctly. Your vocabulary stops being limited to the words you're confident spelling, which for a lot of dyslexic writers is the real cost of writing by hand or keyboard.

What to look for in speech to text software for dyslexia:

1. It works everywhere you write. Email, Google Docs, Word, a job portal, a school's learning platform. Copying and pasting from a separate dictation window adds steps and errors.
2. It cleans up after you. Punctuation added automatically, "um"s removed. Saying "comma" and "period" out loud is one more thing to remember.
3. It learns your words. Names, course terms, product names.
4. It doesn't cut you off when you pause to think.

Your options

• Apple Dictation is free on every Mac. It's on-device on Apple silicon and fine for a few sentences, but it stops after 30 seconds of silence and has no custom vocabulary. Sayburst vs Apple Dictation compares them in detail.
• Microsoft Word's Dictate button works inside Word; see how to dictate in Word on a Mac.
• Read&Write includes Talk&Type dictation alongside its reading tools. It runs on Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad, iPhone and Android, and many schools license it, so ask before you buy.
• Sayburst is a Mac dictation app that works in every app with one key.

What dictation looks like with Sayburst

Hold fn, talk, let go. Here's the opening of a cover letter, dictated into a Google Doc with Sayburst Writer, the optional on-device AI model, switched on:

"I'm applying for the logistics coordinator role, um, advertised on your website. In my current job I schedule deliveries for, uh, for over thirty retail sites, and I'm known for, for keeping complicated schedules accurate, even when, um, suppliers change things at short notice."

What lands:

I'm applying for the logistics coordinator role advertised on your website. In my current job I schedule deliveries for over 30 retail sites, and I'm known for keeping complicated schedules accurate, even when suppliers change things at short notice.

"Coordinator", "logistics", "complicated", "accurate", "suppliers": none of them typed. The fillers and doubled words are gone. And numbers are safe: if a rewrite would ever change a number you said, Sayburst types the cleaned transcript instead.

Recognition runs on your Mac, and audio is never uploaded. Add names and jargon to the vocabulary and they come out right. If you click away mid-sentence, the text is kept and ⌃⌥⌘V pastes it. It's $29 once after a 7-day free trial, on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 or later.

For a deeper comparison of dictation tools, see our guide to speech to text software for dyslexia.

#Text to speech: for reading and for proofing

Text to speech reads text aloud while you follow along. On a Mac, turn on Speak Selection in System Settings › Accessibility › Read & Speak (Spoken Content on older macOS), select text and press ⌥Esc; Apple's guide shows how to highlight words and sentences as they're read. In Word for Mac, View › Learning Tools adds Read Aloud with word highlighting, plus syllable breaks and wider spacing.

Its second job is proofreading. Dictation spells words correctly, but it can choose the wrong one of two sound-alikes. Listening to your draft catches that faster than rereading it.

#Paper: reading pens and OCR

Worksheets, letters, forms and printed handouts are where digital tools stop. A reading pen fills that gap. The C-Pen Reader 2 scans a line of printed text and reads it aloud, looks up definitions, and works offline with no phone or computer. For whole pages, take a photo on your iPhone or Mac and use Live Text to copy the words, then let Speak Selection read them.

#Accessible books

Bookshare is an accessible ebook library of more than 1.3 million titles with a free reading app that reads aloud with karaoke-style highlighting; check its site for who qualifies. Learning Ally offers more than 80,000 human-narrated audiobooks for students with dyslexia and other reading differences. Both are worth asking a school about, since schools often handle sign-up.

#Getting technology through school or work

You don't have to buy everything yourself. Students can ask their school's learning support or disability services team about assistive technology and exam arrangements. At work, the Job Accommodation Network's learning disability page lists speech recognition software, word prediction, reading pens, OCR systems and text readers among accommodation ideas, and JAN gives free, confidential advice to employees and employers.

Writing by hand is a different challenge from spelling; if handwriting itself is the barrier, our guide to tools for dysgraphia covers that side. And for a list of individual apps rather than categories, see the best apps for dyslexia.

#Limits worth knowing

Assistive technology works best when someone helps set it up and you practice with it on real work, not just in a demo. Dictation needs a fairly quiet room or a headset. Text to speech struggles with tables and scanned PDFs that aren't real text. Sayburst is Mac-only; on Windows, Chromebooks or phones, use the built-in dictation or a school suite like Read&Write. And tools sit alongside teaching: for children still learning to read, a structured literacy program from a trained teacher comes first.

Questions people ask

What is the best speech to text software for dyslexia?

On a Mac, a dictation app that works in every app and cleans up the text, such as Sayburst, saves the most effort. Apple Dictation is free and fine for short pieces, and Read&Write's Talk&Type suits schools that already license it.

What are the best dyslexia tools for writing?

Speech to text to get words down without spelling them, text to speech to hear your draft back, word prediction for typing, and a spelling and grammar checker for the last pass. Most people use two or three together.

What counts as assistive technology for dyslexia?

Any tool that works around the hard part of reading or writing: dictation, text to speech, reading pens, OCR scanning, word prediction, accessible ebooks, digital dictionaries and display settings like fonts and overlays.

Can I get dyslexia technology through school or work?

Often, yes. Schools have support processes for students, and the Job Accommodation Network lists speech recognition software, reading pens and OCR among workplace accommodation ideas. Ask your school's support team or your employer.