Kurzweil Users

What is Kurzweil?

Kurzweil is a text to speech software that creates a customizable experience for students to listen and visually follow along with course material.

Kurzweil is for students who have been approved for alternate format in PDF and Kurzweil 3000. The requested material will be delivered to students through the Kurzweil's Universal Library.

 

 

Request Alternate Format

Steps to request alternate format in Kurzweil:

  1. Submit the Alternate Format Request Form and selected the following format to the questions: What format did the DRC approve your course readings to be converted to?
    • Kurzweil
  2. Create a Kurzweil 3000 account: the registration link will be provided by your Disability Services Specialist or the alternate format team
  3. Login to Kurzweil to access converted material on Fridays, the week before they are required for the course. Example: Week 4 readings will be uploaded by Friday of week 3

If you need assistance with any of these steps or do not see your requested material in Kurzweil, contact the alternate format team immediately via email accesstext@uic.edu

 

Create a Kurzweil 3000 account

Follow the registration link provided by your Disability Services Specialist via email:

  1. Fill out your name
  2. UIC email
  3. Select “University of Illinois-Chicago” as the school org
  4. Create a username for the “external id”
  5. Click “add new.”
  6. Navigate to your email where you’ll find an email from Kurzweil titled “Kurzweil 3000 Account Activated!” prompting you to create a password for your account.
  7. Login to your Kurzweil account and wait for an email from the alternate format team (accesstext@uic.edu) about next steps!
Only make ONE account to avoid confusion. If you do accidentally make multiple accounts, we’ll use the first one you created.
The Alternate Format Team recommends using the web version of Kurzweil
OR
Download Kurzweil to your operating system (it is a big program to download and takes some time to do, give you’re a solid hour or so where you won’t be using your computer.)
– Windows download:  Kurzweil Software Download for Windows
– Macintosh download:  Kurzweil Software Download for Mac
MAKE Sure you Choose Web License version to download!

Access Converted Readings on Kurzweil

For Courses That Assign Textbooks and Course Readings Provided By Your Professor
  • When your textbooks and course readings become available on Kurzweil, you’ll find them within the “private” folder,  by selecting “spring_2025”, and the desired course. Within each course folder you may find textbook files or sub folders for textbooks and/or weekly readings depending on the nature of the request.
    • Converted course readings will be uploaded to Kurzweil by Friday evening before the week the reading is needed. Example: Week 4 readings will be uploaded by Friday of week 3
    • Textbooks will be uploaded to Kurzweil as they become available
For Courses That Only Assign Textbooks
  • We will gain access to your requested texts and upload them onto Kurzweil within the course folder or as a subfolder within the course folder as they become available.
For Courses That Only Assign Course Readings Provided By Your Professor
  •  The alternate format team will verify the compatibility of the course readings with your professors and if necessary, convert scanned PDFs to make them compatible with Kurzweil
    • Converted course readings will be uploaded to Kurzweil by Friday evening before the week the reading is needed. Example: Week 4 readings will be uploaded by Friday of week 3
  • If the alternate format team determines that the course readings provided by professor is already compatible with Kurzweil (digitally created and readable meaning you can drag your curser along individual lines of text), then the alternate format team will not upload these readings
    • We recommend you use the built in Blackboard Ally text-to-speech format Immersive Reader (more info below).

Kurzweil Resources

Kurzweil Tutorials

This video walks users through how to access their material on Kurzweil and how to optimize the usability of the program. It has closed captions.

This video provides more in depth instructions on how to upload material and move material around your account. It has closed captions.

Blackboard Ally's Built-In Text-to-Speech Format, Immersive Reader

Youtube tutorial demonstrating how to find and access immersive reader (text-to-speech) on Blackboard which allows students to enable text-to-speech on documents uploaded to Blackboard.