Read&Write vs. Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition

Read&Write is especially well-suited to supporting students with reading accommodations during independent work, content-area instruction, and written-response tasks. In my 5th-grade classroom, one of the most effective scenarios is during science and social studies lessons, where students are expected to read complex informational texts independently. There can also be occasional challenges when websites, PDFs, or testing platforms are not fully compatible with all Read&Write features.

Incentivized

My job requires that I produce lengthy and detailed minutes of meetings and Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition is absolutely ideally suited for this purpose. Notably, meetings are recorded and it is extremely easy to playback the recording of meetings while dictating notes. This is a remarkable saving in time and effort in producing minutes that might otherwise take a few days. I cannot think of any scenario where it would be less appropriate to use Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition other than in a situation where it is not possible to dictate for whatever reason.

Incentivized

• Creates vocabulary lists for students that include symbols, definitions, and space to add additional notes or images (a staff favorite)
• Intuitive word prediction that supports spelling, grammar, and reduces the number of keystrokes needed
• Text-to-speech on any digital text using the regular reader or screenshot reader, making almost any content accessible

Incentivized

• The main advantage is that it calibrates itself around your tone and accent.
• Integration with many apps and operative system is good.
• Integrating custom words and acronyms is very easy, so, over time, recognition becomes very precise and customized.

Incentivized

• I would like to use the practice reading aloud tool more, but the kids that I work with have a hard time understanding the concept. I think that, while there are a lot of tools available, sometimes they are hard for younger students to understand.
• The hover to read function is nice as well, but my students struggle with the fact that if you move the mouse once it starts reading it will start all over in a new area. It's not as smooth as I would like it to be.

Incentivized

• Word recognition can always improve.
• Sometimes puts stray words or characters on the page if you forget to tell the microphone to go to sleep.
• Adds non-spoken words for no reason if there is a delay in speaking.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition is not up to par with any of the other AI voice recognition technologies currently available
• The software is also very buggy and crashes frequently
• Punctuation also seems like an afterthought for Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition software--requiring the user to speak out each comma, period, etc.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Overall, its gives the functionality that I need in my role and can support with automating tasks. I mainly use it for autotext, to add blocks of text and it works universally across all applications. It saves time and works well in Windows 11. It works very well navigating the web.

Incentivized

Seems to be available when Internet is working.

Incentivized

there are issues with the dictation not running smoothly.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

One of the worst companies in terms of customer service getting the download file because of a laptop upgrade took me months of work. No jokes.

Incentivized

It was easy to learn to use

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Other than the more recent speech recognition tools from Microsoft, Google, etc., I have always used Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition. I was introduced to AI technology on an appraisal assignment. During the engagement, I had an opportunity to learn about the technology, and when I researched speech recognition software, the best reviews were of Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition. I purchased Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition and have stayed with the product.

Incentivized

The pricing is reasonable. A lower tier with just screen reading and basic functions would be nice, but not a deal-breaker.

Incentivized

The product can be used on as many devices at once as needed

Incentivized

• We are early to deploying Read&Write but hope to see increased test scores
• We are early to deploying Read&Write but hope to see decreases in student behaviors triggered by challenging ELA assignments
• We are early to deploying Read&Write but hope to see improvements in student self perception as a result of increased ELA success

Incentivized

• Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition has made it easier to dictate progress notes
• Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition has made seeing patients more efficient
• Nuance Dragon Speech Recognition was a little expensive for our smaller practice

Incentivized