[Athen] Dictation/Voice Recognition Questions

[Steven Sullam]

Hi,


I thought I'd just chime in here.


I have seen the speech recognition in the latest mac work quite well and it has the power of cloud computing help to improve it's accuracy. It is very easy to try out. Just tap the function key twice and you can start dictating into any word processor.


Steven A. Sullam
Assistant Director of Assistive Technology
CUNY/College of Staten Island
2800 Victory Blvd.
Staten Island, New York 10314
718.982.3343

________________________________
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> on behalf of foreigntype at gmail.com <foreigntype at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 3, 2020 2:46 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] Dictation/Voice Recognition Questions

Shannon,

There is no more Dragon Dictate for Mac, sadly. Nuance dropped it's support for development several years ago and isn't planning on any new designs for the Mac users. Sadly, because there is no equivalent to how robust Dragon NS is for dictation and voice navigation. The options on the Mac are awkward, clunky, and inadequate (IMHO).

You could run DNS 15 individual professional off a windows partitioned HD on his Mac. It would solve the dictation part but not the voice navigation part.

I attended a seminar a few weeks ago offered by our Canadian colleagues in NOAT on Dragon Anywhere, and it is reported to work (for dictation purposes) with a Mac. Think of it as a voice profile in the cloud and portable recorded dictation. I haven't tested it live in the office so I do not know whether this works for live dictation or if it is more like the Voice Tracer recorder that one plugs in to the computer and imports.

So you'd have two options for your student to use for speech-to-text using a standard DNS speech engine: either a partitioned HD with windows & DNS installed on a Mac, or using the newest Dragon Anywhere subscription. i would really want to have the DA folks provide you with a demo of how well this would work on a Mac so you're not out $$ and your student's not overly frustrated with technology which is promised to do XYZ and only does 'x.'

As far as the conflict of the mic for DNS and the mic for Zoom, it's an easy fix: program a one keystroke macro that turns the dragon mic on & off, or program a one key macro that toggles between mics. I do this myself for the same reason as your student needs it!

I suspect the easiest solution would be to run a partitioned or parallel HD with Windows & DNS 15 individual professional on his Mac.

Hope this is helpful info.
Wink Harner
Accessibility Consultant/Alternative Text Production
The Foreign Type

Portland OR
foreigntype at gmail.com<mailto:foreigntype at gmail.com>
480-984-0034

This email was dictated using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please forgive quirks, misrecognitions, or errata .


On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 11:23 AM Lavey,Shannon <Shannon.Lavey at colostate.edu<mailto:Shannon.Lavey at colostate.edu>> wrote:
Hi friends!

I have a client scenario I wanted to run by you all for some help and ideas:

I am working with an individual who has difficulty typing and mousing and prefers to use dictation software. He prefers working on a Mac and has a Macbook Pro. He tried Mac built-in dictation and also Voice Control but it does not seem to be working that well, especially in Microsoft Teams chat. Do you have any other ideas for dictation on a Mac? He has the latest Catalina OS so I am not sure if Dragon for Mac would work any better?

He has used Dragon for Windows in the past, so the other idea we have been exploring is perhaps running Windows on his Mac so he can use Dragon.  Or if that doesn’t work, he would probably need to switch back to Windows.

Finally, the other issue he runs into is when he is on a Teams or Zoom meeting and needs to dictate in a chat or dictate notes, the software is picking up the other speakers in the meetings and dictating them.  I have suggested that he click the dictation mic off or say “go to sleep” when using Voice Control, but those options don’t seem to be working for him.  Do you know if there is a way to prevent dictation software from picking up other speakers/computer audio?

Thanks for your help and ideas!

Shannon

Shannon Lavey, MS, OTR/L, ATP
Student Service Coordinator
[Assistive Technology Resource Center Colorado State University]
Room 301, Occupational Therapy Building
P: 970-491-4241
shannon.lavey at colostate.edu<mailto:claire.simpson at colostate.edu>

Assistive Technology Resource Center<http://atrc.colostate.edu/>
Accessibility By Design<https://accessibility.colostate.edu/>

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