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Speak it down quickly Norman Pollitt explains
how he became a hands-off writer Eighteen months ago a neurological problem affecting my arms and hands made using the keyboard very difficult. The Disabled Living Foundation put me in touch with AbilityNet, a charity devoted to helping the disabled communicate. The message was clear: if I were to continue to write I would have to move to a voice recognition (VR) programme. I was told that learning to use voice activation is not easy, and that I should allow for three weeks of training. They gave me a list of options (see panel below) and computer specifications, and I went ahead. In the event it was not difficult and I cannot speak too highly of the system I chose, Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Instead of scribbling on paper, tearing up and rewriting, I now marshall my thoughts and string them together in (what I hope are) fluent sentences which the microphone picks up and stores for a fraction of a second before they appear on the screen. If I don't like what I see, I can change it. I can move paragraphs around, delete, cut and paste - edit and subedit -all by voice. You don't have talk to like a newsreader, but it does help to be able to speak clearly, distinctly and fluently. You don't have to use Received English either; you can train your system to accept a broad Yorkshire or Scottish accent or a foreign language. The systems come with an extensive vocabulary but you can add your own special words - essential if you are writing medical or technical articles. After six months of almost daily use I reckon I now have 98 per cent accuracy with my dictation. Systems have improved remarkably in the last five years and the technology is brilliant. Prices have come down and you can get a good basic system for around £50, although £400 is needed for top-of-the-range. A voice recognition system will not prod your Muse. If you used to stare at a blank page, pencil poised, then you may still find yourself staring at a blank screen with the microphone switched on. But I have found VR an absolute boon, and the time spent on training it (and me) has been worth it. Norman Pollitt is a doctor and writer
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