2003 New Technology Breakthrough for hearing impaired.

More than 15% of the population is now hard of hearing or deaf. With software called iCommunicator from Interactive Solutions, a speaker talks into a wireless microphone at the front of the room, and the speech is transmitted to the user's laptop computer. The speech is converted into text, translated to sign language on the computer screen and is transmitted to a connected hearing aid or assisted-listening device. Users can type back to the speaker or allow the computer to speak for them. The result is a two-way communication device that allows anyone to sit down with a deaf individual and have a two-way conversation in real time. Michael F. Dorety, executive vice president of business development for Interactive Solutions said, "This product creates a whole different level of independence," he says, because it requires less reliance on other people for communication.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred Edition 7.0 offers significant increases in speed and accuracy. This edition is ideal for home use or for students because it is easy to use and affordable. This version lacks the powerful features found in the professional series but can be fine for writing e-mails to friends and family members or the occasional term paper for school. Basically, this allows a disabled person to simply speak into a microphone and have their speech translated into text in real time on their computer screen. Microphone options include wireless, handheld, headset and hands-free. We can help you select the right microphone option for your needs based on your disability.

The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional Version 7.0 offers superior macro control, mouse by voice, a high quality microphone and a much larger vocabulary which means less time training. The superior macro control capability in the professional series allows a user to associate a series of commands to one or two words when spoken. This can shave hours off of the time it takes to compose several lengthy documents by allowing the user to associate common words or phrases in sentences with one or two verbal commands so that they do not constantly have to repeat themselves when dictating.

For example, you might create a macro commands that says, if I say the word "business e-mail", I want the program to open Microsoft Outlook, start a new e-mail, place my letterhead at the top of the e-mail, insert standard greeting and then place my signature at the bottom of the document. Now the user can simply dictate only the body of the e-mail and then the name following "Dear”. For those with certain types of disabilities, this macro creation process can be extremely helpful because it will reduce or eliminate the need for keyboard and mouse.

Last but not least, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can reduce repetitive stress injuries at home and in the workplace. For those of us who deal with pain in our hands or have already experienced an injury to our hands or wrists, Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 7.0 voice recognition software will allow us to almost completely eliminate the mouse and keyboard from our lives.

Here at work I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional version 7.0 and I would say I use about 90% voice recognition technology to 10% keyboard and mouse which as you can tell is a tiny fraction of the amount of keyboarding and mousing I had to do in the past. As a matter of fact, this article is being composed with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional version 7.0 as I speak! I am sitting in my chair looking out the window at another beautiful South Florida day here in Palm Beach Gardens Florida and as ideas come to mind, I simply dictate them into my headset microphone. Of course, there will be a few corrections to make before we publish this to our web site, but the amount of errors will be a fraction of what would happen if I had to type this up manually by myself. I don't know about you, but I am one of those people who need to be able to think and speak nearly simultaneously to get my thoughts and ideas down on paper. In the past, my hands could not keep up with my brain which led to great ideas and thoughts going out the window while I hunt and pecked around the keyboard trying to get it on to the screen. If you would like some additional information on RSI please look at our article on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Please contact us today and let us know how we can help you.

There are many disabilities that may be comforted and assisted by the use of voice recognition software. 

DragonDictate has been the overwhelming choice for people who suffer from any RSI (repetitive strain injury).   DragonDictate is also used in conjunction with the screen reading software such as Jawws for Windows for people with sight disabilities.

DragonDictate is a discrete speech system that allows the person to work around Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, or NT completely by voice.  The three major functions are mouse by voice, dictation into any application and command and control. The strongest feature about this product is it's macro processing capabilities.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred Edition offers significant increases in user throughput.  However, they do not offer all of the capabilities of DragonDictate.  This is why a Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional is the product of choice.

The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional  offers superior macro control, mouse by voice, a high quality microphone and DragonDictate all in one package.   You can use DragonDictate with screen readers and it comes with its own text to speech system (which unfortunately isn't the greatest in the world).  There are commands that allow you to switch back and forth between the systems to give you a totally speech dependant system.

For a more in-depth article on RSI, please look at our article on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.