Case Study: Don Johnston achieves more accessible reading and writing for students with IBM Watson Text to Speech

How accessibility is improving education

Don Johnston, an IBM Business Partner focused on accessibility for students with reading and writing challenges, needed a simple, consistent text-to-speech solution that would work across devices, especially Chromebooks. The company wanted to improve tools for dyslexia, dysgraphia, visual impairments, and multilingual learners while preserving features like synchronized word-by-word highlighting.

IBM helped Don Johnston integrate IBM Watson Text to Speech into its Co:Writer, Snap&Read, and uPAR platforms. The solution enabled read-aloud support, OCR-based reading of images, translation with multiple voices, and better comprehension guidance; Don Johnston reported that about 55% of students reading below grade level could comprehend at or above grade level when listening to text read aloud, and the system handled over 1 billion requests during remote learning.

Don Johnston

Ben Johnston

Director of Marketing