Saturday, 11 June 2016
Speech recognition software
What is it? It's software you use to dictate into your computer instead of typing with a keyboard. You can write in most programs with it, but it works particularly well in Microsoft Word. You can also use it to partially replace a mouse, depending on which version you get.
Does it work? I find that it helps me use a computer for longer without getting as much pain, but because it works imperfectly I still have to use the keyboard and a mouse a bit, so it's not as effective as not using a computer at all.
Who does it work for? People whose pain is set off by using either a keyboard or a mouse or both. This is likely to include people with RSI or wrist or finger problems and possibly also elbow and shoulder or upper back problems if these are exacerbated by using a computer. The questions to ask yourself are: do I end up in more pain if I use a computer? Are the problems due to my keyboard and mouse use or due to my chair or just the fact I'm sitting down? If it's due to using the keyboard or mouse, speech recognition software could well help. Obviously it won't cure any pain, but it might prevent you from getting computer-related pain.
Who doesn't it work for? People whose pain is not caused by using a keyboard or mouse. That probably includes most people with neuropathy, migraines etc. If you have neuropathy in your hands or arms that make it harder to use a keyboard or mouse for you, speech recognition software might also be worth considering, whether or not it has any impact on pain for you.
Where can I get it? From the Internet or from within your computer in the case of Windows 10. I have only ever used Dragon Naturally Speaking. I've heard that this is the best software available, although in my experience it still has a lot of room for improvement and people with pain problems and disabilities are clearly not its primary market, as it sometimes increases the number of ways in which you need to use a mouse to use it between versions, whereas if it cared at all about people with disabilities it would try and let people who can't use a mouse use it. You can get Dragon from Amazon or directly from the manufacturer, Nuance. I suspect you can also get it from anywhere else that sells software.
How much does it cost? Dragon is available in several versions. Because it is still a far from perfect product, I reccomend buying the latest version (Dragon Professional Individual or version 13 as at the time of writing). Within that, you will be given a choice between Dragon Home, currently £73.18 on Amazon; Dragon Premium, currently £109.94 on Amazon; Dragon Professional Individual, currently £279.99 on Amazon, or Dragon Professional (Enterprise), currently £699.99 on Amazon and definitely not necessary for any purposes other than for a large corporation. Nuance, the manufacturer, periodically seems to do offers. These are sometimes better value than the equivalent version on Amazon, but sometimes still more expensive.
Which version do I need? It depends where your problem is. If you just have a problem with using a keyboard but not a mouse, then Dragon Home is very probably enough for you. You can use it in US or British English (or Australian, Canadian or, I think, Indian English) and you can add your own vocabulary using vocabulary editor. You can also use Dragon's built-in commands. What you can't do is create your own custom commands (which better enable you to use it to replace a mouse) or use it in spreadsheet programs.
If you need to use it to replace a mouse, then I recommend Dragon Professional Individual, because you can use it to create your own custom commands. For instance, I have set up Dragon to copy the text I have selected then open up an Internet browser, go to Onelook then paste the copied text into the blank field and press enter (i.e. to look up a word or words I have highlighted in Onelook) when I say "Onelook". To do this, you will need to be able to look up the necessary keyboard shortcuts (I use Google to do this) and add the commands in Dragon's command browser. You need to be fairly confident on a computer to do that, but if reading that you think "I can probably look up all the bits I need to know", then you are almost certainly right, you are confident enough on a computer to be able to do this. Please note that I haven't succeeded in entirely replacing a mouse or keyboard with Dragon. If you absolutely had to, you might be able to, although if you can't even touch a mouse, you'll probably have to regularly call someone over to restart Dragon for you when it crashes, as it's not the most stable program in the world, and also you'll need the patience of a saint, as some of the things you'll need to do are rather cumbersome and fiddly. I actually use Dragon Professional Individual in conjunction with a special kind of mouse (also a far from perfect solution, but better than not having it from a pain perspective).
Here's Dragon's features matrix of what is and isn't included in each version. Some parts of it are easier to understand without an IT degree than others.
Is there a cheap/free version? Yes. Windows 10 comes with free speech recognition software included. To find it click the magnifying glass icon in the task bar to bring up the search box, or if you have a search box in your task bar, just go straight to that. Type: speech recognition software. Windows will then guide you through what you need to do to set that up. Because I owned Dragon Professional long before Windows 10 came out, I've never actually tried the Windows 10 version, so I'm not sure what its limitations are. You will definitely need a desktop microphone or headset microphone to use it, but then you'll also need one for Dragon. Some hard copies of Dragon come with a free headset. The one you use for Skype may well be fine. Roughly speaking, the better your microphone, the better the speech recognition software will work, because the easier the software will find it to understand your words (and believe me, you'll find it misunderstands you a lot even with a superb microphone. I've actually accidentally learnt new commands when it misunderstood something I said). The same applies to your computer's sound card, the better your sound card the better the software is likely to work.
Is there any evidence for it? Not as far as I'm aware, only the anecdotal evidence of me saying I'm in a lot less pain when I use it instead of a keyboard and mouse and less pain still when I don't use a computer at all.
Is there anything else I should know? Yes. You will either need to use it in a room of your own (for background noise reasons and because you're talking quite a lot of the time) or in a room with people who don't talk much themselves, but can cope with you talking to the speech recognition software while they're working. It's unlikely to be able to hear you well enough against the background noise in a busy room with lots of people talking. In a room with no one talking except me I always found it rather embarrassing to use and I also worried I was distracting others from their work. If you do need to use it in a loud room, you've got a better chance with a headset than a desktop mike.
Dragon is not designed to work with all programs. It is optimised for Microsoft Word. Whether it works in other programs is potluck and Dragon's support staff won't be able to tell you in advance whether it will work or give you any support if it doesn't. If you need to use a particular program and you want to use Dragon instead of the built-in Windows 10 software, your only option is to buy Dragon, try it and take advantage of the 30 day moneyback guarantee from Nuance if it doesn't (if buying from another seller, you'll have to check in advance if they offer that). The dictation box may help with some programs. This enables you to dictate into it then transfer the contents to any program, including ones where dictation doesn't work. But for others it is too fiddly, slow and frustrating. The dictation box works well in a program where you don't need to add any formatting and can add large chunks of text at once, it works badly anywhere you need to add a sentence or fewer words or numbers at a time and/or you need to add formatting.
Also, you'll need to get into the habit of using it. I use it for work and I find I only use it in my work software and not for anything else because I'm not in the habit.
Make sure you get a hard copy of it on disk. My experience of it is that it doesn't download properly and the version you download won't work properly. I've no idea why that is.
Finally, I've only ever managed to get two types of help out of Dragon's customer support: they've explained what the features in their features matrix mean and how to buy various products, aside from that they only explain why nothing else I ever ask is anything they can help with or anything other than my problem. Basically, if you're not trying to use Dragon with a Microsoft program (ideally Word), then they can't help you (and it does indeed work rather badly and inconsistently with browsers, for instance).
Was it worth the money/effort? For me, definitely. I wouldn't be able to do my job without it (well, not and sleep as well, and the excrutiating pain would probably be rather distracting). If you have Windows 10, I think it's at least worth getting hold of a headset and giving the built-in Windows 10 speech recognition software a go. If that works for you, but has limitations, it is probably worth investigating whether Dragon might be an improvement.
Do you use speech recognition software? Which one and would you recommend it? Have you got any tips?
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