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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

1538.0. " Working by voice to heal Repetitive Strain Injury" by EPIK::HEILMAN (I wanna be CDAted...) Fri Jul 19 1991 08:36

[Feel free to forward this note to other interested employees]

				Brief Summary

  I am a software engineer who has been dealing with a severe case of Repetitive
  Strain Injury (specifically tendonitis in my wrist, forearm, and elbow) for
  the last two years. This injury can be caused by the repetitive motions of
  typing and is becoming much more prevalent in the computer industry (see
  note 1004.*).

  In order to heal, I have had to strongly limit my computer use as well as the
  other activities that aggravate the injury. I was out on disability leave
  for 4 months because, at that time, I could not do any typing and very little
  writing or driving. When I returned, I was able to do a small amount of
  typing but was still very limited.

  For the last 5 months I have been using a voice recognition system to do
  my job. The system was developed by Dragon Systems, a company in Newton, Mass
  and runs on an IBM PC or clone. I use Pathworks so that I can run 
  applications on our VAX cluster by voice. I use the voice interface for DCL,
  MAIL, NOTES, DEBUG-32, my editor, and DECwrite.

  A videotape is now available showing how I do various tasks by voice.

				Background

Given my job as a software engineer, my computer use limitations were a very
difficult situation until 5 months ago, when I began to use the voice
recognition system to do my job. This solution has worked out very well for 
me -- I have been able to return to very close to my normal level of productivity
while continuing to limit my typing. Because of this I have made a lot of
progress in healing my tendonitis. I am now at the point where I can do a
reasonable amount of typing. When working with mixed voice/typing, I would say
I am at 100% normal productivity. If the voice system had not been available, I
don't think I would have had any option except to change jobs, which I
certainly did not want to do. This system has made a very big difference.

From this experience, I believe that using a voice recognition system is a very
viable alternative for employees who, because of an injury, must limit their
manual computer use.  Currently, I know of 6 people in the company who are
either using such systems, or are somewhere in the purchasing process. In
addition, there is a system at the Assistive Technology Access Center in
Northboro where employees can learn about devices that assist people with
disabilities (send mail to FRAGLE::ATAC for more information).

One of my hopes is for this solution to be viewed as an alternative to going
out on disability leave. Had this system been available and had I known of it
at the time I was going out on disability leave, I could have saved the
company a lot of expense, and prevented the disruption in my life that having
to be out of work for that period caused.

In order to get the word out inside the company that this alternative exists
I have made a videotape (with the help of Chauncey Wilson) in which I talk
about the system and how I use it, then do demonstrations showing:
 - basic capabilities
 - using it to interact with DCL, MAIL, NOTES, and DECwrite
 - my customized editor environment
 - writing C code by voice

To watch the tape you can either:
 - Call the Spitbrook Road library (after July 25 -- they don't have the tape
   yet) and ask for the videotape "Working by Voice With the DragonDictate(tm)
   Voice Recognition System". Or...
 - Send me mail at EPIK::HEILMAN, I have a copy which I will lend.

After watching the tape, if you have any further questions, feel free to
send me mail.

						Hans Heilman

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1538.1	move the strain?	UKCSSE::KEANE		`Mon Jul 22 1991 03:08`	12
	Hi This appears to be a marvellous piece of equipment, pity it isnt Digital's! BTW. Using a voice box saves your arm/wrist, but what about your vocal cords?, does the heavy use of a voice box strain your voce? 8>)). Rgds Pat K.
1538.2	not a problem	SAUTER::SAUTER	John Sauter	`Tue Jul 23 1991 16:19`	8
	Heavy use of the voice is not necessary. The person in the office adjacent to mine recently returned from disability and now uses a Dragon Dictate system. His microphone is good enough that I can't hear him talk to his system, any more than I used to be able to hear the keyclicks on his keyboard. What's wrong with the system not being Digital's? John Sauter
1538.3	Response to .1	EPIK::HEILMAN	I wanna be CDAted...	`Wed Jul 24 1991 08:47`	6
	> BTW. Using a voice box saves your arm/wrist, but what about your vocal > cords?, does the heavy use of a voice box strain your voce? 8>)). My voice is a little tired at the end of the day, but I have not really had any noticeable problem. When I get tired, however, the accuracy level of the system does go down.
1538.4	More info on reserving tape from ZKO library	EPIK::HEILMAN	I wanna be CDAted...	`Wed Jul 24 1991 08:50`	10
	To reserve tape from ZKO library, you can either call the library at DTN 381-1057 or send mail to ZEKE::LIBRARY and ask for "Working by Voice With the DragonDictate(tm) Voice Recognition System" by Hans Heilman (it has been added to the DLN catalog and the CID # is 76004). The library says you can contact them directly to reserve it even if you work in another facility. Hans
1538.5	Is it available in Europe	EICMFG::BINGER		`Fri Aug 02 1991 04:46`	3
	Is the tape available in Europe?. This is the PAL secam system. Rgds, Stephen
1538.6		ASICS::LESLIE	Andy Leslie	`Fri Aug 02 1991 16:26`	1
	Try your local DEC Library.
1538.7	Announcing DragonDictate notes conference	EPIK::HEILMAN	I wanna be CDAted...	`Thu Aug 22 1991 15:20`	23
	I wanted to let everyone know that there is now a notes file for the DragonDictate voice recognition system on STEREO::DRAGON. The moderator is Tom Beaudet. <<< STEREO::SYSA$:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DRAGON.NOTE;1 >>> -< DragonDictate users conference >- ================================================================================ Note 1.0 Introduction No replies STEREO::BEAUDET 14 lines 16-AUG-1991 15:15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that Digital has several DragonDictate users and interest seems to be gaining I thought it was time we had a conference to allow us to discuss this product. I'd like to keep this discussion to just DragonDictate and how it's being used in conjunction with various DEC systems and applications. The standard DEC VAXnotes conference rules apply here. This is a non-restricted conference so discussion of topics not for general consumption should be avoided. Tom Beaudet (mod)
1538.8	Dyslexia help?	CHEFS::GERRYT		`Fri Apr 26 1996 11:55`	14
	Has anyone thought of using these sort of systems to help dyslexics? (sp?) We know of a family with two sons who's IQ's are over 120, but have severe dyslexia. There are many adults and children with learning difficulties because they are dyslexic, and a voice activated, reasonably priced word processing package on a PC might help considerably. Has anyone any updated info on this sort of thing? Thanks, Tim @REO UK
1538.9	partial answers, more questions..	TEKVAX::KOPEC	we're gonna need another Timmy!	`Fri Apr 26 1996 12:42`	28
	In the short term, there are various "screen access" packages that allow speech-out, and I have read about a lot of speech-in stuff for Windows etc.. And of course, there is Emacspeak.. that's speech-out only as of now.. There is a fair amount of rumbling about Accessibility in general for modern operating systems etc, but I don't know when you'll see products.. (at the ACM computer-human interaction conference week, I brought up the issue of dyslexia in one of the SIGs .. as an example of a common condition that would benefit from more accessible interfaces) The basic idea there is to get away from a total infatuation with the various modes of interaction as a gee-gaw glitzy thing to do, and start to consider the sum of the modes in a way that (a) enriches the interface for everybody, and (b) allows a fully-functional interaction with one or more of the modes unavailable. I also hear tell that Microsoft is looking at abstracting the Windows presentation API up a level, so that an application can tell the OS "this is what I want to do" rather than "put this icon over there, and this text here" .. this would allow the user to set a preference re interaction modes and have the OS deal with it independent of the application. (warning: this is a fairly serious paradigm shift, and I'm not convinced it'll work..) ...tom