Maine Antique Digest on Assistive Technology

I never suspected Maine Antique Digest to get into Assistive Technology, but there it is. In their March 2009 edition, in their computer column is an article entitled, Assitive Technology
Geared towards antique users, not those collecting antique AT, it's not the most detailed article, it does introduce the idea those unfamiliar with what AT is. It covers vision, mobility and speech impairments. I would have liked to see a bit more detailed information, but it's a start.

"Many antiquers depend on their computers for things such as writing letters and using the Internet for research, buying, or selling, but suppose reduced vision or mobility interferes with using a computer. Such problems can arise suddenly because of injury or illness, develop gradually, or exist lifelong. Perhaps the following ideas will help you or allow you to help someone else.

Information on computer technology to overcome reduced vision or mobility is available. In fact, there is so much information that it is hard to sort out. We can only do a broad survey and point out possible directions. The Internet is a rich source, but every hardware or software solution found should be evaluated. Some will be obsolete or unsuccessful. Others still will be under development. The successful current products will vary greatly in price."

-Maine Antique Digest

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Buying Dragon AT on Ebay

Nice article from Hand to Mouth: Assistive Technology about buying Dragon Natually Speaking 9.5 software from Ebay and what to watch out for. He warns against

“'disk' only” auctions, sold in quantities too large to be believable. You can bet that they’re pirated. The pirated software is a truly bad thing to buy, not only for legal reasons but also functional reasons. One disk means one serial number, a unique way of identifying that particular installation disk."

He says that other warning signs are no box, no paper manual, and not a Dragon headset.

His recommendations would go equally well for any other software I would suspect as well, whether AT software such as Dragon or JAWS, or more general purpose software.

FYI a free version of JAWS is available from the the Freedom Scientific website, it allows you to use it for 40 minutes then locks up, and you have to restart your computer to use it again. Fine for someone like me who uses it for accessibility testing, not great for a regular user. Is a great way to try it out and get some familiarity with it and see if its for you before laying out the $895 for it. http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

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Speech recognition

Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame) has recently declared that he predicts in the next five years people will be using voice activation software to navigate computers. In 1997 he predicted that in 10 years

"I believe that we'll not only be using the keyboard and the mouse to interact, but during that time we will have perfected speech recognition and speech output well enough that those will become a standard part of the interface. " <link>

Another writer appears to scoff at his prediction, as it's now 2008. However, I wonder whether he's familiar with the new Vista operating system that has incorporated the voice activation (and speech to text) into its operating system. I have been amazed at how little attention this feature has received. One magazine actually ran an article on speech to text software immediately following an artice about Vista and never mentioned this feature.

What other problems I might have with the Vista system, the speech recognition and it's inclusion in the standard operating system are great moves towards more universal design.
I have tried the speech to text feature of the new system, and was amazed at how quickly I was able to train it to recognize my voice and complete some basic typing commands. Navigating various windows or trying to play cards using only my voice was a bit trickier, though this could have had as much to do with the user as the software.

For more information on Vista and the accessibility features built into it and a demo of the speech recognition software, visit Microsoft's site.