Visit the UO AEC YouTube page for a collection of Kurzweil tutorials for everything you might need support with! 

Most aspects of Kurzweil are intended for independent management. Here are recommendations for how to make the best use of Kurzweil: 

• Purchase digital copies of your textbooks that can be directly uploaded into Kurzweil
• If you can't acquire a digital copy of a text, purchase the hardcopy text and contact altformat@uoregon.edu to show us proof of ownership and discuss options.
• You can open PDF, EPUB, RTF, Daisy, PNG, and JPG files in Kurzweil. After the document is done opening in Kurzweil, save the document by selecting the floppy disk icon on the top left. When you save the converted .kes file, you don’t have to wait for Kurzweil to run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and convert your document each time you open it. You can save the .kes file to your local computer, Kurzweil’s Universal Library, or to Google Drive.
• Due to the amount of time the recognition process can take, we do not recommend opening an entire textbook at once within Kurzweil unless it has already been saved in a “.kes” format. The longer your document is, the longer it will take Kurzweil to open and convert it. It is generally best to open a chapter of a textbook at a time. If you don’t have your textbook split into chapter files, you can simply input the page range that you need without opening the whole textbook at once.
• The document might take a few minutes to open as it is processed by Kurzweil. Kurzweil runs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software so that the document text is accessible to be read out loud. There is a progress bar on the bottom right of the window that you can use to track the conversion process. Once the bar is filled on the last page, you will be able to access and navigate through the document.
• If a PDF or other document for class is not reading correctly in Kurzweil, or if you have many documents and need support with conversion, contact altformat@uoregon.edu for consultation. 
  • In this case please refer to the instructions to request alternative format materials so we can provide you an accessible version. You will be able to request books through this process, as well as upload articles and other electronic material that needs to be converted. 
  • Please note: for conversion of books, proof of ownership is required before AEC can begin any conversion work. This may be a receipt, or may be verbal verification that the book belongs to you. If you have a receipt, please upload it when prompted. If not, please contact altformat@uoregon.edu to describe your ownership. Receipts are not required for conversion of any other material (i.e. articles, research papers, etc.), and thus the prompt for a receipt can be ignored.
• We also provide additional support including 1:1 consultation on how to use this software in different situations or along with other software, scanning and conversion of physical textbooks, and fixing low-quality unreadable PDFs.