some background about me

so, I've been suffering from various RSI symptoms for the past nine years. Initially the problem was with my wrists and hands. I want to various doctors and there is no conclusive diagnosis, but seem not to be carpel tunnel and more like a tendinitis. Through frequent breaks and wearing of wrist braces, that got better. I'm still braced them a lot of the time but I am not in pain from my wrists much anymore. However about nine months ago I started getting a lot of pain in my shoulders, primarily my right shoulder. I've been going physical therapy for about six months and then going to a massage therapist for about a month and a half.

I got to a point where I wasn't getting worse, but I wasn't getting better while I was still working. So, I quit my job about one week ago, and I've been trying these computer as little as possible since then. It's very difficult.

In order to be able to use a computer, and not continue to injure myself, I am learning to use Dragon. Here's a link to an old forum post that I found about using Dragon and Firefox together. http://www.speechcomputing.com/node/942. One of the suggestions that I'm trying out right now is the use of the mouse lists browser extension, which if you're not familiar with it, puts numbers next to each link on the page that you can then type on a keyboard or with dragon speak the equivalent. One thing to note though, is that the defaults option for it requires you to press enter before it will follow the link.

Also, something helpful that I've been using for years he is the ergonomic timer "work rave", which you can find on sourceforge.net.

This post was composed probably about 75% with Dragon. One of the problems with using Dragon and Firefox is that Dragon treats all text entry fields in Firefox as nonstandard applications, so doesn't work as well. One workaround would be to dictate into the Dragon pad and then copy and paste whatever you're dictating into the appropriate Firefox field.

Todd

Desktop Speech Recognition and Me

So, I've quit my job and am taking time off to recuperate from ergonomic injuries. A colleague and friend of mine, Molly, who is an expert speech rec user recently started a blog (http://voiceuser.blogspot.com/) about her experiences and suggested that I do the same.

I've used Dragon sporadically for the past six months with mixed success. I've also tried the MS Windows XP built-in product, and today just downloaded and installed Opera and it's Opera-only speech rec package.

Please check back for sporadic updates about my progress and what I've learned.

Todd