Disability Futures

Just over a year ago, Microsoft introduced some welcome additions to its OneNote applications, in the form of new Learning Tools designed to "improve reading and writing experiences for all students - including for students with learning differences like dyslexia".

Non-profit organization Dyslexia Advantage hailed OneNote with Learning Tools as one of its top dyslexia-friendly apps of 2016, and they're not the only ones to be impressed with Microsoft's efforts in this area.

The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) carried out a limited, small-scale trial at Knowl Hill School in Surrey, England to explore the use of OneNote in assisting students with different learning abilities. The 11-week trial program found that OneNote's Immersive Reader, which can read out text shown on screen - including the student's own writing - had a significant and positive effect on the learning experience.

This trial was clearly very limited in its scale, but Microsoft UK is keen to build on its success, and said that it hopes to conduct a larger study to help further improve OneNote for students with learning differences.

Since launching Learning Tools for OneNote last year, the company has integrated some of its features into other products in the Office family.