[Trainer-Talk] Using Dictation and a Screen Reader

[Snow, Amy L. (IT)]

You hit the nail on the head Brian!  That was a pretty good summary of what I was getting at and looking for.

And I agree...without a commitment by the client to use the technology (I often call it "student buy-in") it doesn't matter how well it works or how fancy it is, it's a waste of resources to force it.

I'd done some preliminary research last year on using dictation within Office (starting/stopping dictation using Alt + grave accent) but I had kind of wondered what others were using also or whether they'd had issues with this method.  Doing experiments with the idea is one thing, practical use is another (I know I'm preaching to the choir here).

Thanks also to Marci and Christopher!  Your input is much appreciated.

Have a fantastic day!

Amy

-----Original Message-----
From: Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Brian Vogel via Trainer-Talk
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 11:43 AM
To: List for teachers and trainers of adaptive technology <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Brian Vogel <britechguy at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Trainer-Talk] Using Dictation and a Screen Reader

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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
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