Adapted Speech Recognition

You never know what tidbits you'll pick up at a conference.  I've evaluated and trained many people on the use of speech recognition as an alternative to typing, including people with speech impairments.  But there's always something new to learn.

Doug Bowes of SET-BC (Vancouver, Canada), presented on training those with speech impairments in the use of Dragon Naturally Speaking.  He spoke about students whose speech is intelligible to other people, but for whom speech recognition software might be difficult to use.  We've always talked to our students about enunciating, taking breaks, making sure they get enough breath support.  But one little tip from Doug was to encourage students to enunciate the ends of words.  This bit of advice can be easier for students to understand and follow, and naturally leads them to avoid combining the end of one word with the beginning of the next.

SET-BC has a great website with lots of AT training resources:  www.SET-BC.org.
Here's a form they use when considering speech recognition for any student:
Speech Recognition Consideration Form