Public Health student Laura, currently on placement with BetterU, shares her top Read & Write tips in her first article — a game-changing study tool now free for all Flinders students.
Did you know Flinders has purchased Read & Write (and its PDF partner OrbitNote) and made the premium version free for all students?
I personally found out a few months ago while finalising my Disability Access Plan; it was suggested by my advisor to support some of the struggles I have — things like focus, reading flow, and productivity. I wasn’t convinced at first but ended up trying it (as 1. it’s free and 2. I was keen to procrastinate), and now it’s one of those things I wish I had adopted sooner!
Read & Write is a productivity suite, a ‘floating toolbar’, packed with features to support writing and reading. It was designed particularly for students with learning differences like dyslexia, autism, ADHD, as well as multilingual learners (anyone with literacy struggles really); and since I tick all those boxes myself, I thought I would share with you the features I’ve been using the most and how I use them!
I hope that some of these tools make your study a bit less stressful and more doable — as they did for me.
1. Read Aloud (Text-to-Speech)
What it does: Highlight text, click play, and the tool reads it out loud.
How I use it:
- When I lose focus (which is often) or get stuck on a heavy reading, I turn it on so I can read and listen at the same time.
- I’ll play emails, news articles, blog posts (like the BetterU newsletter), or topic readings while cooking, grabbing my 50th coffee, or hanging up the washing.
- For assignments, I listen to journal articles while taking notes in OneNote — it helps me catch key points and references without zoning out.
🎥 Watch my quick demo here: Read & Write Demo – Read Aloud
2. Highlight & Collect
What it does: Lets you highlight in different colours, then export all your highlights into a Word or Google Doc with clickable source links.
How I use it:
- I colour-code while reading (yellow = definitions, pink = quotes, blue = stats).
- When I export, I can choose to keep highlights in order or grouped by colour — really useful depending on the type of assignment.
- The best part? The export keeps the link back to the source. No more wasting hours trying to track down where I found that one quote.
🎥 See how it works in my demo: Read & Write Demo – Highlight & Collect
3. Translate, Dictionary & Search Web
What it does: Gives quick definitions, picture definitions, translations (90+ languages), and one-click web searches.
How I use it:
- As an ESL student, I use the dictionary when I’m unsure about a word.
- Sometimes I translate a passage into French to double-check my understanding (especially when I’m tired and my English brain slows down).
- The Search Web tool is my shortcut when paraphrasing, finding synonyms, or digging into tricky concepts.
🎥 Check out my short demo here: Read & Write Demo – Translate, Dictionary & Search Web
Bonus: Simplify (and Reword) Web Pages
If messy, cluttered web pages make your brain want to run (hello neurodivergent brain, ESL brain, or just plain tired brain), Simplify is worth trying. It strips away distractions and leaves you with clean, manageable text.
There’s also a new AI option that rewrites text into an even more simplified version (language and length), though heads-up, it’s not perfect yet and doesn’t work for really dense academic articles.
🎥 Check out my short demo here: Read & Write Demo – Simplify
Wrapping up
These are the tools I’ve found most helpful so far, but Read & Write (and OrbitNote for PDFs) also come with grammar check, vocabulary lists, audio maker, screen masking, and more. You don’t need to use everything — even one or two tools can make study a lot easier.
Not every version has been perfect. The desktop app on Mac feels clunky, OrbitNote is limited, and I haven’t tested the mobile app yet. But the browser extension has been brilliant, and just those few features have changed how I study.
Since Flinders has purchased the premium licence, every student has full access for free. You can download it for your browser, desktop, or mobile through the official Flinders guide here:
👉 [Flinders Read&Write download page]
Give it a try. Which feature will you test first? If you’ve already used Read&Write, I’d love to hear your go-to tool in the comments — or let me know if there’s one you’d like me to demo in a future post.
