The only game in town unfortunately but, in my opinion, notable improvements are needed.
June 03, 2025

The only game in town unfortunately but, in my opinion, notable improvements are needed.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Read&Write

We are an assistive technology consulting group and we use Google Read&Write in elementary, middle, and high school students and as part of our evaluation process. We use speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and word prediction features most often.

Pros

  • The new Eleven Labs voices
  • Privacy protection for student use (i.e. not communicated to Eleven Labs or used to train more AI)
  • The voice recording comments feature.

Cons

  • 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 have many students who are able to produce larger volumes of work using speech-to-text than without.
  • The new AI voices have made revision and access to text online easier than when using the previous voices.
It works nicely across Google Suite tools, including Docs, Forms, and to some extent, Slides. I just wish it were able to read Slides when they are in presentation mode or without needing to highlight text, which can be difficult for students. Also, the fact that not all Read&Write tools have been integrated into OrbitNote for PDFs, including the updated voices and word prediction, has caused frustration for many students at not being able to use familiar tools across types of work.
I have one student with Dyslexia who regularly writes long essays on preferred topics using speech-to-text in his free time and enjoys sharing them with his classmates and teachers. This has been empowering for this student.
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 Co:Writer over Read&Write if the tool still existed. OrbitNote is a Read&Write tool and should include all of the tools available in Read&Write, but is notably missing the new AI voices, new word prediction, and ability to add voice notes without highlighting portions of text, which can be a difficult motor movement for some students. I do appreciate the "tap to speak" button on OrbitNote, which allows students to just click where they want to hear text read aloud, as opposed to highlighting, and the integrated OCR recognition, avoiding the clunky screenshot reader.

Do you think Read&Write delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Read&Write's feature set?

No

Did Read&Write live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Read&Write go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Read&Write again?

Yes

Read&Write is still unfortunately the only game in town when it comes to word prediction, but it now costs twice as much more as the better, previous product. For students who require word prediction, this is a huge detriment. For students and teams who benefit from having tools in one place, the toolbar is beneficial.

Read&Write Feature Ratings

Writing and Proofreading
5.5
Spelling and grammar check
2
Machine translation
Not Rated
Integrations
Not Rated
Browser extension
6
Text-to-Speech
10
Speech-to-Text
6
Screen masking
5
Picture Dictionary
5
Dictionary
5
Highlighters
5
Audio maker
Not Rated

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