About Helperbird
Helperbird is the broadest tool in this list. Instead of doing one thing, it bundles dozens of aids for reading and writing: dyslexia-friendly fonts, adjustable letter, word and line spacing, a reading ruler, colour overlays and tints, a reading mode that removes ads, and text to speech.
The free plan is the reason to try it. Its pricing page says dyslexia fonts and spacing, reading mode, text to speech and colour overlays are free forever with no account. The paid Pro plan adds extras such as summarising, screenshot reading and more writing tools.
The main thing to know is where your text goes. The privacy policy says the free version collects nothing and that fonts, colours, the ruler and built-in voices work on your device. Pro's online natural voices use Microsoft Azure, and its AI tools send only the text you choose to services such as OpenAI, which the policy says do not retain it. These are the vendor's own claims. It needs access to all websites, as any page-restyling tool does. For people with dyslexia, and teachers, it is the most complete choice.
Pros and cons
- Dyslexia fonts, rulers, tints and text to speech in one place
- Free tier covers the everyday visual and reading tools
- Built by a dyslexic developer, with an active update cadence
- Works in Chrome, Firefox and Edge
- Closed source
- Summaries, screenshot reading and other advanced tools need the paid Pro plan
- Asks for access to all websites, and the many features can overwhelm
Permissions
It asks for access to all websites so it can change fonts, colours and layout on any page, plus storage, context menus and scripting to apply your settings.
