Academic Version of Dragon Naturally Speaking Saves $$

I often recommend Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred to college students I work with who have challenges in the area writing. It has been an extremely helpful tool for students with physical disabilities that have difficulty accessing the keyboard to type efficiently. With Dragon, they are often able to complete those long, college papers with greater speed and less fatigue. For students with learning disabilities that affect their ability to get their thoughts onto paper or have spelling challenges, Dragon has also proved to be very useful. While it is definitely not the solution for everyone, for many college students, it is an invaluable tool.

I recently discovered an academic version of Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred offered on websites such as Staples or Amazon.com. This version comes with a significant savings as compared to the typical version of Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred. The Academic version ranges from $50--$80, while the typical Preferred version ranges from $115-$200.

To be eligible to use this academic version, you need to provide verification that you are a student, faculty, or staff of an accredited higher education institution or a public or private primary or secondary school. You can not get the product activation code without submitting proof of this. From reading a handful of reviews on Amazon.com, it seems that some feel this process has been somewhat tricky to navigate, although others felt it was very easy. There is detailed information on this process provided at: www.nuance.com/educationvalidation .

I haven’t had the opportunity to personally test this out with a student as of yet, but I plan to do so as soon as the opportunity arises.