Bill...
I've got DragonDictates 2.5 for Windows which isn't anywhere near as polished
and feature laden as Dragon's Naturally Speaking program (2.5 is about 1 1/2
years old already...and 3.0 is on the market now).
I got the Dragon product not only to make typing less a chore but also because
in testing the various voice-to-text programs on the market (and I DO have PD
and I DO have speech problems - plus I often use "Barb-speak" words.. words
that NO computer program was "born" knowing!) <uh DUH...>, I found that 2.5 -
which isn't anywhere NEAR as finely tuned as Dragon's Naturally Speaking - was
able to master my own speech pattern AND my own particular vocabulary in a
matter of moments.
Not only that, but since my wee office 8x8 foot office is built into a corner
of my garage, it's forced air unit is in the wall rather than being on a part
of the condo's air unit. Can you IMAGINE how finely tuned the DragonDictate
software must be to pick up my faint little "Parkie voice" absolutely
perfectly even tho the air conditioner was running the entire time I "taught"
it my speech pattern? (and can you imagine just how COLD it gets in my
office?) <giggle> In fact, my purchase of the program was contingent upon it
being able to work and work well with the air conditioner running, and it more
than passed the test.
I'm not knocking the program you use, m'friend, nor do I work for Dragon
Enterprises. I happened to spend a lotta time researching voice-to-text
programs prior to purchasing DragonDictates and found it to work best for me
as a person with PD.
Please consider that while your dad MAY not be getting an optimum track record
on YOUR voice-to-text software, the "blame" MAY not necessarily lie within
Dad... It JUST might be that the software isn't the best one for HIS
Parkie-speak.
Barb Mallut
[log in to unmask]
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From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of William Levinson
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 1997 9:14 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject: Re: THANKS to all who responded re. house construction.
>HEADS UP! For those of you who are considering buying the
>new DragonDictate Natural Speaking (may not be the actual
>name of the program, but it's real close) <grin> which has
>had a street price of $600, I saw it being advertised at one
>of California's largest electronics outlets, "Fry's
>Electronics," for $149. Sooo..... before anyone pops 600 big
>ones to buy this outstanding program directly from Dragon
>Enterprises, ya might wanna call around and see what it's
>going for in your own neck of the woods.
I'm using Simply Speaking Gold (~$99), which may be saving
some wear and tear on my hands. I don't have PD, my
father has PD (or something similar). His problem, though,
is trouble speaking, so voice recognition software won't
help him. Simply Speaking Gold has reasonably good
accuracy, but I have to correct it 5-10 percent of the time...
also, I'm feeding it some technical words and names that
it couldn't possibly have in its dictionary. So far, I like it.
-Bill
