MessagePath is a business writing assistant used to ensure business communications are effective, on brand, and legally safe, from the company of the same name in San Mateo.
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Read&Write
Score 9.3 out of 10
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Read&Write is a literacy support tool that helps individuals of all abilities read, write, and express themselves with confidence. For education and the workplace, its assistive features include text-to-speech, word prediction, and research tools for users with diverse learning needs.
MessagePath is the best tool as it doesn't check the errors only but also it scans the phrases and check the tone of the communication as well and to [giving] you insight that how your communication will impact the reader. This helps us in understanding the reader's …
We are still learning how to use equatio. I am not a mathematician and therefore I am finding understanding it a bit more difficult. Once I understand how to use it I will be able to cascade it down. My hope is that it will be as useful as Read & Write.
Cowriter, Snap and Read, Clicker, Kurzweil None of those popped up. I know of the merger but I would say some of the big things that made me choose CoWriter or Snap and Read over Read&Write for students still haven’t moved over and I’m hoping that will happen with time. Things …
Read&Write has a lot more inclusive features then grammarly especially in terms of the picture dictionary and reading rulers and screen masking and the text to speech.
Early on our district was using Kurweil 3000 but that was restrictive to the computer that it was placed on. We also used co-writer (Don Johnson) for writing supports. By having both features available in one convenient toolbar along with other amazing features that follow the …
We still utilize Microsoft Immersive Reader as our Tier2 / UDL support tool. However, the word prediction is barely functional and there are confusing limitations to when certain tools are available (the picture dictionary is available in Word Online but not in Edge).
We use the screenshot reader often in our classes. Things like drama scripts, music sheets or other pdf's can be read online through the screenshot reader.
Read&Write measure up well against these but can be a little more expansive. It does have a bank of tools in the one place though which is a positive as it means that users do not need multiple programmes
Read&Write has the benefit of better word prediction than Helperbird. The word prediction is not as good as Co:Writer (due to volume of topics and web-scraped topics, and iPad app), but Read&Write killed Co:Writer so it is not a competitor anymore, unfortunately. I would choose …
Well suited: for both professional and personal usage. You can use the free version for personal usage. Not suited: I don't find any use case or scenario where we cannot use the message path.
As I support students with SEN in a 6th Form College this is all of the time. A case is of a student who is going to university and who is going to claim DSA but needed to know what software would benefit them and how so that they could understand more fully before their assessment I was able to show them Read&Write and what it it could and would do for them on the course that they had chosen. The student was amazed and so much more confident in their chosen path that they would be able to achieve it independently.
The lack of custom, web-scraped topics in word prediction has significantly impacted my students' ability to produce written work. I am extremely disappointed with the Read&Write - Co:Writer merger, and feel it was more of a "catch and kill" maneuver to eliminate a competing product that was, frankly, much better. Read&Write has rolled out topics from websites and documents recently, but this would require finding a website or document that has relevant vocabulary, which is inaccessible for most students, leaving them unable to effectively write.
The lack of keyboard shortcuts makes this tool inaccessible for many students using alternative access methods, such as using their AAC devices to access the tool
When accessing using switches or tab/enter alt-access, the visual feedback of where the selector is is very faint and hard to see, and not customizable. Generally the lack of visual customization, from changing the colors of the word prediction list, the size of the toolbar, etc, impacts access for students with sensory disabilities.
The audio playback does not work well in Gmail for reading email lists.
I have been extremely disappointed in the focus on acquiring new products under the Read&Write umbrella to the detriment of updating or improving existing products, such as deploying the AI voices in OrbitNote, the associated Read&Write PDF annotation program.
The "CheckIt" spell check feature often misses words that can be corrected by built-in spell check tools.
The lack of auditory chime when using the speech-to-text can make it difficult for some students to know when to start and stop speaking, influencing the accuracy of their prediction.
I'm just really impressed with the software and the access it gives to learners who are used to coming up against barriers in education. It's a quick-fix for a learner - something they can access usefully and productively with very little training. I also love that learners can access Read&Write on their devices at home - that really is a game changer.
I am giving this an 9. Not a perfect score because working on PDFs is better but not yet as easy as I need for it to be. Working with many students who have executive function challenges, I need a smooth simplistic access method. We are not quite there yet for writing on PDFs. Overall the toolbar on Read&Write is super easy to access and I love that the suite includes several tools on the toolbar providing a solution to many accessibility challenges.
The support team at Texthelp is excellent. They're all super helpful and open to feedback and new ideas. Still, more importantly, they are ultimately fully committed to aligning with us and ensuring they help us provide the best education possible. Furthermore, they're open to new features and always communicate this incredibly well.
It took a solid 2 weeks for R&W to work on our students chromebooks even after reaching out to tech support. The toolbar was greyed out and not accessible to students. Took a long time before tech support helped us solve this problem.
MessagePath is the best tool as it doesn't check the errors only but also it scans the phrases and check the tone of the communication as well and to [giving] you insight that how your communication will impact the reader. This helps us in understanding the reader's perspective as well and we can get prepared and change the phrases accordingly.
We are still learning how to use Equatio. I am not a mathematician and therefore I am finding understanding it a bit more difficult. Once I understand how to use it I will be able to cascade it down. My hope is that it will be as useful as Read & Write
