Grammarly is no longer dyslexic friendly - I need an alternitive

Finally, I found the proof of what I've been suspecting for the last three years, that the spell-checking software Grammarly is no longer dyslexic-friendly.  

I loved Grammarly for years because its system helped me not only improve my writing but actually learn new spelling.  But this stopped a few years ago when my spelling started getting worse.  There were words that I went out of my way to get right and google the definitions, then I write the post,  then click through and accept the spelling changes that Grammarly suggested - being so dyslexic I can't tell if it's right or not, but it had a red squiggle, so it must be wrong.  I am heavily dependent on technology to communicate in writing and now I feel betrayed.  The spelling of my published work not only has more errors, but I'm making more errors pre-spellcheck.

Something's changed.  And I finally found a good example of what.


My garden wants weeding.


That's where the problem happens.  Yes, the grammar is not standard to a Chicago style guide (which Grammarly seems to favour), but I choose that wording because I wanted to create a specific feel to that sentence and maintain a rhythm in the paragraph.

It used to be if I got the grammar wrong, I would be given a green squiggle and offered alternatives and a cryptic note of what grammatical rule I broke.  Same for contextual misspellings (two/too/to).  Green line, alternatives, explanation.  

But for "My garden wants weeding" I have a red squiggle beneath the word "weeding" and am told that the word is incorrect and I must correct my spelling to "wedding".  (even in that sentence, it refuses to accept "weeding" as a real word, so I looked it up on google and nope, it's a real word).

The thing is, that I've been using the "correct your spelling" note to help learn when I spell something wrong so I don't make that same misspelling so often.  But it's not a wrong spelling.  The spelling is correct - especially in the context of my garden having weeds that need weeding.  (oh, so this time, weeding is correct....hmmm.)  It's inconsistent when it comes to contextual spelling correction (which makes it even harder for me to improve and learn), it doesn't give me multiple choices of the suggested correct spelling, it's almost always one word, and most of all, it doesn't do contextual spelling errors (or what it thinks is an error) as a green squiggle anymore.  Add to that, it missed four errors that when I look up the words, they don't exist in English.  

The last three years or so, I've been learning incorrect information.  It's destroyed a lot of confidence in my writing and now I have to figure out what words I need to unlearn.  


That's the rant off my keyboard.  Now to find some alternatives.  

I need
- plug into windows, chrome.
- be dyslexic friendly
- not shut down due to "no known language detected" error (like google chrome)
and probably some other stuff.

free would be nice

any suggestions?

I don't have any ideas for what you could migrate too, but I empathise with the problem. I have lost count of the number of times a software tool (especially "cloud-based) has been "upgraded" to the point where I could no longer use it. Especially when it comes to accessibility. Lots of times I think the developers are so caught up in new and shiny features that they lose sight of why certain people require a particular one, or why a richer user interface might be a barrier to someone who uses a screen reader, for example, or who navigates with the keyboard and not a pointing device.

Testing my grammarly:

My garden wants weeding.

Yes, you are right it wants to change the word weeding to wedding.

In the above sentence, it wants to change weeding to wedding and add an a or an to wedding. [this sentence is a nightmare]

My garden needs weeding.

That phrase works perfectly.

My garden wants weeding.
My garden wants a weeding. (okay, that wasn't an option available an hour ago, but I still have a red squiggle so let's see where it takes me if I follow down that path)
My garden wants a wedding.  (interesting)

I'm sure that's exactly what I was trying to write about.

I didn't know gardens could want to have weddings or is it only singular.  

Positing the desire to have the weeds removed onto my garden was a grammatical stretch, but not as much as it desiring a wedding.  
And the corrected version of that sentence reads: Posting the desire to have the weeds removed from my garden was a grammatical stretch, but not as much as it designing a wedding.  

If this is a software update problem, is it possible to get a 5 year old Grammarly program or will it not work on your current computer system?

It seems that Grammarly is pushing American English over British English. The first example from this site says that "want" followed by an "-ing" word is incorrect. Later in the article it says that "want" can mean "need" in British English, and gives examples.

To my ears, "My garden wants weeding," sounds incorrect and old. It's probably due to some anti-colonial feeling, not the correctness of the grammar.

"My garden wants to be weeded" or,
"I need to weed my garden," sounds much better. This example flows well because it is in iambic pentameter.

I wonder if you could change Grammarly to use a British English dictionary? Firefox lets you do that.

Jay Angler wrote:If this is a software update problem, is it possible to get a 5 year old Grammarly program or will it not work on your current computer system?

No, it's 100% cloud-based - aka, it doesn't run on my computer, it runs somewhere in the either of the interwebs and I only get to see the results on my computer.  I don't have any control over the updates (which I miss terribly)

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:It seems that Grammarly is pushing American English over British English. The first example from this site says that "want" followed by an "-ing" word is incorrect. Later in the article it says that "want" can mean "need" in British English, and gives examples.

To my ears, "My garden wants weeding," sounds incorrect and old. It's probably due to some anti-colonial feeling, not the correctness of the grammar.

"My garden wants to be weeded" or,
"I need to weed my garden," sounds much better. This example flows well because it is in iambic pentameter.

I wonder if you could change Grammarly to use a British English dictionary? Firefox lets you do that.

I have Grammarly set to UK spelling (it's the closest I can get to Canadian) but it doesn't do UK grammar.
"has taken ill"
"to hand"
this kind of thing always gets a red line

Not a green line saying it's a style error, but a red line saying it's a spelling error. That's the big problem I'm having.  I need a system that can tell me the difference between a style error and a grammar error.  Even better if I could set it to a specific style guide (in my publishing company I use the Canadian Oxford style guide and it would be lovely if my everyday spellcheck could help train my brain in this style.)

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:It seems that Grammarly is pushing American English over British English.

Actually, I think that like most AI systems it's pushing frequency over everything else. Grammarly doesn't know what a garden might want or need, it just knows that wedding comes after wants more frequently than weeding comes after wants.
Unfortunately, Grammarly is not designed as a tool for people with dyslexia. And is actually constantly learning from its users. Who I'm guessing talk about weddings way more often than they talk about weeding. (Incidentally, it just suggested I change that last weeding to just weed!)
Are you in any forums or groups for people with dyslexia? Maybe they know of a program that can help.

It used to look at the nouns like garden and use that to determine context.

But the biggest thing is that it isn't a spelling error,  so why call it so?

I wouldnt sweat it--your post was well-written.
I get a red squiggly line if a word is spelled
incorrectly (usually due to my typing) and then
Right-click for options and select the correct word.
Is this difficult for you--selecting a correct word out of
say 5 options?

Now, I will say, I misspelled well-written above and got
"wellington" as the only option.  So I corrected this but
if I didnt know how to spell, I would right-click and select
Google for spelling options.

I have a friend that is dyslexic and will ask what he uses
and get back if he gets back.

So I asked my friend...he said it took him work to learn to spell
but your brain can learn, then said this place is the best program
with tools to help...hope this helps some.

https://arrowsmithschool.org

I found this discussion while looking for help for my dyslexic friend. His writing has gotten worse recently. Even my own writing has gotten worse when automatic tools are turned on.  I think tools need to be easily overridden when one has carefully reviewed the sentence as in the posted example. The usage should then become a part of, at least that user's, database.  I would love to find a tool for my friend who "Wanders how to solve the problem."  His writing has so many errors that it is difficult to read even for me, knowing of his dyslexia, although it is not impossible to decipher.  

A possible solution would be a dyslexia switch to grammar and spelling tools which would display common dyslexic variants along with very short definitions in a box to the side. My friend's most common error is the substitution of an incorrect vowel in a word. Existing grammar and spelling tools rule out such variations based on statistics of common usage. There may be enough dyslexic errors in a sentence that it is impossible to find anything like common usage.

Now for a tool which will erase the gaps in my speech due to cataplexy which annoy my wife immensely.

J.P. Miller wrote:

A possible solution would be a dyslexia switch to grammar and spelling tools which would display common dyslexic variants along with very short definitions in a box to the side.

That's exactly what I need.  Any suggestions on what software can do this?

'Cause I've looked and cannot find it.