I’d like to spend a little time talking about blog production, and a software product called Dragon. It is made by Nuance, which in turn is owned by Microsoft. It Is a very robust program, one that teaches itself and also teaches the user as it goes along.
I’ve been using it for quite some time now. It has made my life considerably easier and has had a significant impact on my daily activities. It’s not really hard to use, but it can take a while to get comfortable with it. It also takes a while for it to get used to your voice and its inflections. I am actually using it right now to write this blog. I’ve made it this far in the post without more than a couple of glitches, and have only used the mouse and keyboard a half dozen times.
The biggest problem it has is recognizing odd or mispronounced words. For example it had a very difficult time recognizing the word “glitches” in the sentence above. It was very simple to make that correction, and in the process I was able to teach it about the word so that it will probably get it right in the future.
It also has difficulty differentiating between certain words that are pronounced similarly, especially names, e.g. Aaron versus Erin. But it has quickly caught on, at least in this one instance, and gets it right – Aaron – this time!
I decided to start with this particular product review because of the difference it has made in my attitude about writing. It is an absolute joy to be able to use this kind of software in my post-stroke situation. As a stroke survivor I deal with many nagging health issues. One of them is hemiplegia – a partial paralysis in the muscles of my right side, including the muscles in my jaw. Besides being unable to walk without assistance from the walker, or sometimes a cane, I frequently have difficulty with speech. Not being able to use my right hand to work on the keyboard, or even my voice naturally and clearly most of the time, made it impossible to produce much writing or other forms of communication. That is until Dragon came along. It has made an incredible impact on my daily activities, from letter writing to research.
There are some drawbacks to the product, of course. For one thing it’s fairly expensive for a person on the fixed budget – it runs about $700 a copy right now, and that is just for the software. The microphone that is sold with the product is also costly – about $300. It is also time consuming to teach and learn from, mostly due to its robust nature. But time (which I have in excess) and a less expensive standing mic is all I need, since I lack the physical dexterity needed to use either of the options they sell.
I use Dragon Professional, 16th Edition, which is designed for Windows 11. Mac people can forget about using this software by the way, at least for the time being, as there is no Macintosh version. But it might be worth getting an inexpensive Windows style laptop just to run it, depending on your needs and wants.
To sum up, it has been a godsend to me, and I fully recommend it to anyone who is as challenged as I.
Note: I wrote this entry using the Dragon, and proofed it a couple of times; but I’m afraid that one of the casualties from the stroke was my ability to concentrate on such matters. Accordingly there may be one or two typos in this piece for which Dragon is not responsible. I should point out, by the way, that my comments have not been solicited, nor have I received any remuneration. I just like the product and hope it can be useful for other people in my predicament.