Is speech recognition a good solution for me?
Speech recognition is a good solution for some individuals,
and is constantly improving, but it is still by no means a
catch-all solution. Here are some issues if you are
considering purchasing a speech recognition system.
Do you want to be able to write on your own some day?
If you are using speech recognition to help a learning disability, you are
pretty much giving up at ever having a chance at improving your writing skills.
By using word prediction, you gain the opportunity to improve both your reading
and writing skills through use and practise, so that one day you may be able to
improve to the point of no longer needing a computer for assistance.
Will correcting errors interrupt your train of thought?
Can you recognize errors when they happen?
The biggest problem
speech recognition has yet to overcome is accuracy.
In a recent Byte magazine review (January 1998) the best
scoring speech recognition package scored 94.9 words a minute
with a 10.4% error rate, or a little more than nine words
that needed to be corrected each minute. Although correction
mechanisms vary, this is still a considerable distraction,
especially for someone with a learning disability who may have
serious problems recognizing errors in the first place.
Can you speak clearly?
You need to be able to speak clearly
to use speech recognition. Any sort of speech impediment will
significantly reduce accuracy of recognition.
Is your voice up to the amount of use you are going to need?
Some speech recognition users we have spoken to have complained of continual
sore throats and throat infections due to daily, continuous use of their
voice to operate their computer. They have also complained that speech
recognition accuracy is reduced by throat problems such as hoarseness and
coughing. You might want to try talking continuously for a couple of hours
as you work at your computer in the course of your normal work day and see how
your throat feels.
Can you use the keyboard and mouse?
Most speech recognition
products still do not provide assistance for individuals
who have difficulties with the keyboard and mouse. And with
sound card limitations, you likely cannot use two speech
recognition programs at the same time, one for navigation, and
one for speech recognition.
Do you also require speech synthesis for verbal feedback?
Speech synthesis programs usually will not work with
speech recognition without purchasing an external speech
synthesizer at extra expense since most
computer's sound cards will not both accept microphone input
and audio output at the same time. Also, the included speech
synthesis in some packages will not work with accessability
aids from other manufacturers. And any other program that
wants to use the sound card, like games, will also not be able to.
Do you have adequate hardware?
Minimum recommendations for current speech recognition packages
are significant. Make sure your system exceeds those requirements for
adeuqate performance.
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