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CLEMMONS, NC - Christian Remick is a teacher in the town of Brasher Falls, New York (not far from the Canadian border) who works with special-needs students in grades 7-12 at Brasher Falls High School, while also teaching a special education class in assistive technology at SUNY Potsdam. To assist with both sides of his teaching work, Remick discovered the Text to Speech program TextAloud, from NextUp.com, and the program has become a regular part of his daily life as an educator.

TextAloud 3 is the latest release of the popular Text to Speech software program that enables PC users to export almost any desired text into a natural-sounding spoken audio file. TextAloud's audio files can be listened to anywhere, and using any number of popular mobile devices, from the iPod (R), to the iPhone (R), assorted MP3 players and PDAs, and more.

Remick first tried TextAloud about five years ago, after seeking software options to improve accessibility for library patrons. "I was searching for downloadable screen readers, and TextAloud came up," he comments. "My interest at that time was to find examples to show my graduate students at SUNY Potsdam." The program proved easy to install, and he began to use it to simplify his work as an educator, doing his listening on computer, as well as using an RCA Thompson Jetstream for listening to eBooks and news articles on the go.

However, for Remick, TextAloud's greatest value is to his students. "My grade school students have used it to read web pages that are too difficult for them," he adds. "They also like to play with the voices, something which keeps them engaged and interested in the content -- an educational plus." The program offers a number of features that he especially recommends for use by other educators, libraries or schools, including its mounted toolbars, and particularly the opportunity to have a screen reader mounted in Microsoft Word.

"Meanwhile," he adds, "one of our challenges as teachers of students with special needs is to provide exams that are read aloud as a testing accommodation for students with print disabilities. Using TextAloud instead, students can read at their own pace and select the word or question they want reread, without having to ask the staff to read it to them again. This saves embarrassment, and encourages better test-taking strategies -- and results."

Remick also recommends the software for foreign language teachers, and uses the program's appropriate optional premium foreign language voices himself when reading foreign language text. "It can also be a helpful way to teach pronunciation," he adds. For Remick, TextAloud 3's most useful features include the flexibility of being able to select just the sections he wants to read, as well as the software's wide variety of quality premium voices. "NextUp has done a great deal of work at finding and offering really good quality voices," he comments, "and both I and my students are more likely to listen because of the better voices. It can be a struggle to get students to use this technology, so the great quality voices really motivate their use of the tech and thus improve their independent access to information."

Ultimately, TextAloud has become an important part of Remick's work as an educator, and he's currently recommending it to his local library for their grant to make the library itself more accessible. "I love TextAloud," he comments. "It has added a little more flexibility in how I teach, as well as in how I help students to access information."

About TextAloud
TextAloud has been featured in The New York Times, PC Magazine, Writer's Digest, on CNN, and more. Hailed by critics and users alike, TextAloud is priced at just $29.95, and is compatible with systems using Windows (R) 98, NT, 2000, XP and VISTA. The program is available for fast, safe and secure purchase via /purchase.html.

NextUp.com also offers TextAloud with optional premium voices from AT&T Natural Voices™, Nuance®, Acapela® and Cepstral® for the most natural-sounding computer speech anywhere. Available languages include U.S. English, U.K. English, Indian Accent English, Scottish Accent English, Arabic, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Belgian Dutch, Faroese, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Castilian (European) Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

About NextUp.com
NextUp.com, a division of NextUp Technologies, LLC, provides award-winning Text to Speech software for consumers, business customers, educators, and those with visual or vocal impairment, or learning disabilities.

In addition to TextAloud, NextUp.com markets other innovative Windows software designed to save time and deliver vital information. NextUp Talker is an easy and affordable program that allows people who have lost their voices to use the latest in high-quality computer voices to communicate with others.

Note to Editors:

Evaluation copies of TextAloud are currently available upon request. To receive a review copy, or for more information on NextUp.com or TextAloud, please contact publicist Angela Mitchell at (904) 982-8043.

All companies and products referenced in this press release are the trademarks of their respective owners.