Designed by a team of Parisian researchers, the ADELE-TEAM software (Aide Directe à l’Écriture et la Lecture Express – Direct Reading and Writing Assistance) is completely free. If its design looks like an old version of Windows, don’t be fooled, it is remarkably effective! It offers reading and writing assistance that can support the schooling of secondary school, high school and university students with DYS, as well as the daily working life of adults with DYS. Here’s an overview.

The ADELE-TEAM software for people with DYS

As part of research funded by AGEFIPH, the THIM team at the CHArt laboratory of Paris 8 University designed a piece of software for people with DYS in the workplace. Named “ADELE-TEAM,” it favours listening-based reading when going through a long document, and makes it easier to extract useful information.

Developed in partnership with the French Federation of DYS Associations, this software is aimed in particular at adults and teenagers, as well as people who are dyslexic, have dysorthographia, or are dyspraxic.

How the software works: efficient and simple

When ADELE-TEAM opens, the screen is always split into two separate windows: “reading” on the right, and “writing” on the left:

  • “Reading”

The software allows you to open documents in PDF, Word, PowerPoint and LibreOffice formats. The font is automatically changed to “AccessibiliteDfA,” but it can be changed, enlarged, spaced out… The content can be listened to (with visual tracking), and it can also be searched by voice, highlighted on the fly on important sections, or the highlighted sections can even be extracted.

  • “Writing”

The ADELE-TEAM software lets you write text using your voice (voice dictation), which is immediately corrected by a spell checker (you can expand the dictionary to better personalise it to your needs). The content produced this way can be exported in different formats. Note that it’s possible to turn it into an audio file (.wav).

ADELE-TEAM, available for free

The ADELE-TEAM software is available for free download, for any teenager or adult with DYS who wants it. Indeed, this tool can effectively support children’s schooling, in secondary school, high school and in higher education alike. Ideally, even though it already has a first level of correction built in, it’s recommended to use it alongside software such as Antidote or Cordial.

At the time of writing, the downloadable version is 3.8.0, but a version 4 is already in development. ADELE-TEAM can be installed on a Windows or MacOS operating system.

The licence lasts two years from installation. At the end of this period, the software will offer to download a more recent version, which will automatically replace the current one. This update is also completely free.