Hello again!
I’m going to do something a little different with today’s post. Today I’ve decided to tell you a little bit about how I got to be a user of voice recognition software and its impact on my life. That being said, it’s hard to believe that I’ve been using voice recognition technology for over 11 years. It seems like forever. Technology and I have changed a lot over the past decade.
I began using the first-generation recognition technology, called DragonDictate, in 1993 during my first few years of middle school. Five years prior, my father had attended a disability Expo in our home town which at the time was Baltimore, Maryland. You can imagine his amazement as he watched a disabled lawyer (who also happened to have CP) demonstrate the software. At that point in time, that software only allowed users to type a word in the time. This didn’t bother me one bit as I was grateful to been doing my homework on my own for once. Because of this software, I now was independent and able to do things without always having to depend on my parents. With independence also came a new sense of self-worth and self-confidence. In high school, I joined National Honor Society; as well as participating in many of the physical activities, I also was responsible for keeping much of the paperwork for the society.
Granted, it took me longer to complete most tasks. But I did it on my own; not that I hadn’t before. But you can in different kind of satisfaction knowing that you, and only you had spent hours alone dictating the paper. By that time, I’m tired and I know I truly worked for the grade.
That’s the long short of it.
Any questions?