ReadAndWrite

Read&Write is a digital support tool that can help students with a variety everyday study tasks. It helps by reading text out loud, providing context and definitions for unfamiliar words, and provides enhanced capabilities for spell-checking and proofing written work. It also includes a whole host of other features to enhance the learning and teaching experience such as image and PDF conversion capabilities.

A wide group of students and staff at the University have found this software useful, particularly researchers, those with English as a second language, those with disabilities such as specific learning disabilities, ADHD, audio processing disability, and Autism.

Read our user guide for Read&Write.

Watch a quick introduction to Read&Write.

Download and Install Instructions (Windows)

  1. Go to the TextHelp site.
  2. Change the region to ‘English (AU)’ – This allows Read&Write to download the correct voice options for the Text-To-Speech tools.



  3. Open the Read&Write page under the ‘Products’ section.
  4. Scroll down until you see 'Try free for 30 days' – This should open a drop down menu, from which select ‘Windows’. This should start the download.
  5. Open file manager and run the downloaded file to begin the installation. This may ask for your system admin login to continue.
  6. A window will pop up, prompting you to accept the Terms and Agreements. Click ‘Accept and Install’ and wait as the installation continues.

  7. Once the installation is finished you should now see a desktop shortcut for Read&Write.

  8. Open the desktop shortcut and a small RW tab should appear in the top right of the screen.

  9. Click the tab and a Google Chrome page will open prompting you to sign in.

  10. Sign in with Microsoft and enter your student myvuw email address: username@myvuw.ac.nz – Note you will also then be prompted to sign in using your VUW username and password once more through the authenticator. Signing in with your  myvuw email address will allow you to keep using Read&Write past the 30 day trial.
  11. IMPORTANT – After signing in, open Google Chrome and wait until the Support for Read&Write Desktop extension appears. Make sure to add this – Read&Write will not work outside of Google Chrome if you do not add this.



    You are now able to use Read&Write – be sure to sign up to a training session if you require further assistance in getting familiar with each tool.