My name is Robert O' Neill.
I and 19 years old and live at home with my parents.
I attended Villiers Secondary School in Limerick and I
did by leaving certificate in June of 1999 and now I am currently in
third level education in the University of Limerick.
I am just ending the first semester of a four year
course in business studies.
I suffer from Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa.
It is a rare genetic disorder which affects the layers
of the skin.
As a result of the condition my skin is very weak and
breaks down easily.
The dexterity of my hands is very poor and as a result
writing can be difficult and often impossible.
They are constantly bandaged and often surgery is
required to release the fingers.
I started using assistive technology to help me with
my school work when I was in third year.
I was assessed by the central remedial clinic and it
was decided that I would benefit from the use of Dragon dictate
classic edition.
I was successful in applying for a grant from the
department of education and have been using Dragon products ever since.
I used Dragon British classic edition from 1995 to
1999. While at the time it was of great benefit to me and it enabled
me to successfully complete the junior certificate, with me
eventually achieving nine honours.
I found it sometimes a bit too slow.
Even though I was able to speak pretty quickly with
minimum pause between words nonetheless as my machine got older it
became slower and constant speech recognition was never achievable.
The constantly pausing between words were starting to
become a hindrance by the time it came to doing more serious business
of Leaving Cert!
Unfortunately there were no more grants available from
the department of education, despite both me and the school I was
attending fighting the department there was nothing they could do for me.
They did agree however that if I were able to purchase
the newer edition myself I would be allowed use it.
I attended an exhibition by Jackson technology where
they showed me the latest Dragon product, Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
I was very impressed by the demonstration and thought
that this would be invaluable to my education. I was able to buy this
and luckily enough Dell Ireland sponsored me a laptop computer with
which I could do my leaving certificate.
I found Dragon NaturallySpeaking very foolproof and
was able to set it up and have my voice trained in in only a few
hours by myself.
The training exercises were much better in Dragon
NaturallySpeaking then they were for Dragon classic edition.
I am a science fiction fan and found a 3001 a space
Odyssey very enjoyable.
I thought recognition after this initial training was
excellent and I was able to use the computer for my pre-exams the
following day, much to my relief!
The more I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking the quicker
it got and by the time it came to doing my leaving cert it was
remarkably fast.
You do need fast machine to used Dragon
NaturallySpeaking as the machine is constantly calculating what it
thinks you said and if you have fast machine, the time it takes
Dragon to put what you said on the screen will be minimum, however,
slow machine it would be very confusing because by the time you would
be finished what you're saying the computer might only be halfway through.
Another reason I preferred NaturallySpeaking to
classic edition was that with classic edition you have to use based
on a regular basis otherwise the speech recognition would deteriorate
noticeably, whereas with NaturallySpeaking you could run a quick
training session which would bring recognition accuracy back up to
its previous level and even improve it.
As far as I'm aware the latest edition of Dragon
dictate classic edition also contains quick training sessions however
the version I had from 1995 did not contain this facility. My most
recent encounter with Dragon dictate classic edition was when I was
training in a user down in Limerick.
The user had a speech impediment and I found Dragon
dictate classic edition to be perfect for him.
He was unable to speak continuously so Dragon dictate
classic edition gave him a chance to both, think about what he was
going to say between each word and time to pronounce each word correctly.
In a short time Dragon dictate was recognising him
sufficiently for him to use it was at the same time it greatly helped
improve his speech.
The only downside I can see to Dragon dictate
NaturallySpeaking is that I often find myself out of breath from
speaking too quickly but that is hardly the computer's fault!
On a whole I would have been unable to finish my
second level education without the use of this assistive technology
and with me doing a business degree Dragon dictate NaturallySpeaking
will no doubt be invaluable tool to help me in my goal of getting a
degree in either management or law.
Robert O' Neill
roneill@eircom.net