A system for displaying textual information includes a receiver (300) for receiving textual information that includes a plurality of words. A text segmenter (302), operatively associated with the receiver (300), segments the plurality of words into a plurality of word segments, each word segment having one or more words. A user interface device (304) receives a signal initiated by an action of a user to indicate a display rate. A display device (306) including a processor and a memory, is coupled to the text segmenter and the user interface device. The display device (306) displays the word segments in a temporal sequence by displaying a first word segment for a first display duration, that is based on the display rate, at a first position on the display device (306) and automatically proceeding to display a second word segment for a second display duration, that is based on the display rate, at a second position on the display device (306).