Speech

[gregward44]

Hi,
I have Secondary Progressive MS and have big problems with my speech and my typing is very slow but my brain and eyes still work as they used to. Does anyone know of any technology that could help me to communicate?

[beau]

Try Dragon Naturally Speaking, I know of several folk who use it and say it is brilliant.

[gregward44]

Sorry. I've tried / got it but it doesn't recognise my speech!

[sea queen]

My daughter lost her speech for a few years (since returned)

During this time she used a lightwriter loaned by the speech therapy at our local hospital.

She typed in what she wanted to say and it spoke the words out for her. From what I recall it also had a sort of 'favourites' section where she could save sentences/words which she frequently used.

I stumbled on this by accident one day whilst playing about with it - got quite a shock when a certain phrase was spoken

[dlfteam]

Hi gregward44 There is an organisation called ability net that advises on alternative input/output computer software solutions. They can provide individual consultancy and assessments and can advise on the sort of adaptation you are looking for. I have included them in the report below alongside supplier details for the Dragon Naturallyspeaking software suppliers.

Possibly the reason why gregward44 found Dragon Naturally wanting is that such speech recognition software requires active correction by the user until the program adapts to his/her voice. Once it recognises nuances in your speech it can make corrections. Thus over time the errors are reduced as it adapts to the subtleties peculiar to your voice. This is why you cannot share the appliance with another user and why subtitles using the same type of software on TV stations can be quite humorous as they struggle to adapt to different voices. The waveform of the spoken word is a lot messier than its written counterpart unfortunately.

http://www.dlf-data.org.uk/report_it...133e33694&view - Dragon Naturally contacts

For anybody interested there are other computer input alternatives in the link below.

http://www.dlf-data.org.uk/report_it...1be8a4c3d&view