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Free, and no account

Everything is open straight away. No registration, no account, no password, no subscription, no advertising. Nothing is reserved for those who pay, since nothing is paid for.

No data collected

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Freely licensed content

The content is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. You may copy it, translate it, print it and redistribute it, for your lessons as for your family, on the single condition that you credit ODERSA.

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A service of ODERSA

Build a sentence in symbols, and hear it spoken aloud

Useful when speech is missing or not understood: after a stroke, during intubation in hospital, at school, or in a country whose language you do not speak. ODERSA provides it free of charge, because this need is worldwide and immediate.

Start speaking How it works
  • Free, no account
  • No data collected
  • CC BY 4.0

The situation

An expensive tool, a need that does not wait

Dedicated augmentative and alternative communication devices are sold on quotation, and the reference applications cost around three hundred euros (the real cost, figures and sources). A paper board costs nothing: it too is a tool of augmentative and alternative communication, and this site prints it. The need, for its part, gives no warning and does not wait for a budget: it can begin in hospital, at school, or in a country whose language you do not speak.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates that about 1 in 127 people were autistic in 2021 (WHO, autism fact sheet). Autism is only one of the situations where this service is useful.

Words Within Reach fits in a browser, free of charge, offline, with no account, and prints on paper when there is no screen.

An open communication book, its pages covered with symbols arranged in a grid, each one under its word.
A personal communication book, organised by symbol themes. Photograph by Poule, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

Coming in through the right door

Where to start

Speak

Build a sentence by touching symbols, and hear it spoken aloud.

Open

The ready-made boards

Ready-made boards by situation: the body, meals, school, emotions, emergencies.

Open

My boards

Build your own boards, with your own vocabulary and your own pictures.

Open

Print

The same board on paper, ready to take where there is no screen.

Open

Supporting someone

For families and professionals: how to introduce the tool, and how not to speak for the person.

Open

How it works

What the tool does, and what it does not do.

Open

In figures

What the service already carries

306

symbols with their licence verified in the file

11

ready-made boards by situation

12

recorded sounds as a backup for the voice

7

languages served, including English

Information

Words Within Reach is not a medical device, not medical advice, and not a diagnostic tool. This service measures no one and assesses no one: there is no score, no assessment and no progress tracking. We do not claim that it improves a person’s condition, that it replaces support, or that it suits everyone. The choice of a means of communication belongs to the person, to those close to them and to the professionals who know them.

What the service does, and what it does not claim.