Read&Write vs. Play.ht

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

Play.ht is generally suited for almost all text-to-speech needs. If you wanted clear and realistic audio, Play.ht was really good for that. However, the main challenge it had was its payment model. In our experience, from paying roughly $500 for our package, they jumped the cost to $10,000 and justified it by saying we should not have been paying that low.

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

• 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

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

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

It was very simple to use and easy to learn for the most part. The biggest challenge in using it was that you would need to know how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet to get the precise tone that you wanted the tool to make. This was easier said than done since not everyone could write in that way easily. That said, knowing IPA was not essential.

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

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

Overall, they do roughly the same thing. I switched out of Play.ht into NaturalReader because, in my experience, NaturalReader had clearer pricing models. In terms of functionality, they weren't much different. I'd recommend NaturalReader more since it is simpler to subscribe to them and start rather than use Play.ht and be confused about their pricing model.

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