[Trainer-Talk] Using Dictation and a Screen Reader

[Brian Vogel]

Amy,

You said, "This particular individual has not been able to master touch
typing (we are not really sure why) but can perform some basic navigation
with the screen reader."  My question after seeing that is, "Is the goal
here simply to replace typing with dictation, or is it to replace all (or
most) keyboard use with something else?"

Christopher Murphy has recommended J-Say, which is more the latter, and
integrates/coordinates functions of Dragon and JAWS.  But it sounds to me
that it's just the typing part you're looking to replace.  Even Hartgen's
J-Dictate relies on the presence of Dragon and JAWS both, but sounds like
it's closer to what you may need, as it ditches the command and control
aspect if it can literally be done by the user by hand.

Conventional dictation is tricky unless the screen reader has speech
toggled off while dictating, and the checking of what's dictated occurs
afterward.  Some people can do this, others don't like it.

This is going to come down to what the client is willing to try and, after
that, willing to use.  For things like J-Say and J-Dictate, if you have
both Dragon and JAWS already, see if a trial is available.  If you don't
have Dragon, and that isn't something that's going to enter the mix for
whatever reason, then a different option will be necessary.  If the client
doesn't want something, no matter how perfect a fit it seems to be, then
it's dead in the water.

But even Windows built-in dictation is light years ahead of what it had
been when it made its debut.

Brian Vogel