jadelennox (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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accessibility_fail2010-03-12 10:59 am
jadelennox) wrote in accessibility_fail2010-03-12 10:59 am
dictation software. Mostly.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking very helpfully has the command "shut down the computer", which cleanly closes out of NaturallySpeaking, save your user files, waits until NaturallySpeaking has exited, and then shuts the computer down.
Except.
Periodically, NaturallySpeaking wants to ask you a question during shutdown. Like "would you like to allocate more space to the Acoustic Optimizer?" Something like that. And every time, it turns off the microphone FIRST. It doesn't ask you the question until it has already disabled the microphone. Which means every time it does that, I need to plug in my keyboard and answer the question manually.
This isn't the only way in which NaturallySpeaking forgets that some of the people using the software are using it hands-free entirely. When you run an upgrade, for example, it has to do a certain amount of data gathering: asking the user questions about the system. But instead of doing that BEFORE it disables the old version, it first makes you quit out of the old version and then starts asking question about serial number and installation location. Yes, I understand that using the standard ordering provided by InstallShield (or whatever software package they are using) is easier than doing something non-standard. But Nuance, think about your users. We are using our computers with our voices. If you can change the order of prompts just a tiny bit so that the microphone is ON when you ask us questions, do you realize what a difference that would make our lives?
(Answer: no. The NaturallySpeaking developers who turn up on forms and bulletin boards make it clear that they think nobody is using the product hands-free. There are features I use hands-free which the documentation specifically says can't be used that way.)
Except.
Periodically, NaturallySpeaking wants to ask you a question during shutdown. Like "would you like to allocate more space to the Acoustic Optimizer?" Something like that. And every time, it turns off the microphone FIRST. It doesn't ask you the question until it has already disabled the microphone. Which means every time it does that, I need to plug in my keyboard and answer the question manually.
This isn't the only way in which NaturallySpeaking forgets that some of the people using the software are using it hands-free entirely. When you run an upgrade, for example, it has to do a certain amount of data gathering: asking the user questions about the system. But instead of doing that BEFORE it disables the old version, it first makes you quit out of the old version and then starts asking question about serial number and installation location. Yes, I understand that using the standard ordering provided by InstallShield (or whatever software package they are using) is easier than doing something non-standard. But Nuance, think about your users. We are using our computers with our voices. If you can change the order of prompts just a tiny bit so that the microphone is ON when you ask us questions, do you realize what a difference that would make our lives?
(Answer: no. The NaturallySpeaking developers who turn up on forms and bulletin boards make it clear that they think nobody is using the product hands-free. There are features I use hands-free which the documentation specifically says can't be used that way.)
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The NaturallySpeaking developers who turn up on forms and bulletin boards make it clear that they think nobody is using the product hands-free.
I'm guessing that they consider it primarily a tool for taking dictation of notes, messages, and letters, with the ability to control other aspects of the system (launching programs, etc.) an afterthought. So their expected audience would use keyboard and/or mouse for everything except dictating texts.
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