Low Vision

I am really excited about sharing with you my latest toy. It is a speech recognition program that allows you to type as fast as you can talk. The name of this program is called “Dragon Natural Speaking”. In fact, I am utilizing this program in writing this comment. This is one of the greatest programs on the market for speech recognition which can be used by people that are disabled, or just can’t type fast enough. The program is a little on the spendy  side around $200. I bought mine through Best Buy of which I paid that price. Later I was scanning through Amazon.com and found the same program for $129 plus it had a $50 rebate, so you’re only looking at $79 which is one great deal for which you get, and what you can do with this program. As I stated in one of my comments, I have been a writer for 30 years with poetry and creative writing in both the US and Europe.  I was not able to type with low vision. Now, I am back to writing and currently writing a science fiction novel and hopefully a trilogy called “Tony Deaton and the quest of the Luyers”. Look for it on the bookshelf in the coming months as I am about three quarters from finishing my first book. Here is the link to where you can find out more about this program. I strongly suggest and recommend this to anyone who wants to type whether it be letters, books or e-mails.

This program does take a little time and work on your part to get it to work properly for you. But this process is quite easy and does not take long to do. In doing research, what makes the operation of this program more functional is the microphone and headset that you use with the program. What I found out is that the microphone should be a powered microphone and even better yet, a USB port microphone and headset. I obtained mine through Amazon.com but you can also find it at other  places like Best Buy, or other computer related sites. This is important for the quality of your microphone means everything. I chose a microphone and headset combination with a USB port hookup. As I promised earlier here is the website to gain further information http://www.nuance.com/talk/ The program does come with it’s own headset, but not powered, so it was an additional expense to by the  one I chose to use.

Hi there. Just thought I would pass a tip on to you that can increase a web pages’ font size easily. The trick is the browser that you use. The tool is already on your keyboard in the form of a plus and minus sign. (I got this tip from a friend who knows a lot about computers). If you use the browser called OPERA, which is a free browser, you will be able to quickly increase the font size for easier reading. Opera is a great browser as it has lots of options that make it easy for you to click on your favorite sites. Each new tab loads with a page called “Speed Dial” which has a menu of your top nine web destinations. You pick the nine sites on the Speed Dial page – for instance your home page, MSN, Google, etc.When you go to any web page the trick with the instant font change is to click on a clear spot on the page that is “not” a text box (for instance don’t click in a seach box) and then hit the plus sign (in the numbers section on the right side of the keyboard) to increase the font size – or minus sign to decrease the font size. So go to www.opera.com and download the browser to try out. It allows you to easily control the font size on any web page! I also tried it with Internet Explorer but I couldn’t get this tip to work with it.

“PS”
Experiment with this – try it first with the browser you normally use and if it doesn’t work in that browser give Opera a try. You can always use more than one browser on your computer to access the internet.

http://www.acb.org/resources/computer-products.html

The web site above has some interesting links for aids
for computers. If you’re like me, my computer was, and still is, a very  important part of my life. Being a writer for some years it’s a blessing to have access to computer aids to keep the hobby I embrace most… See my poetry to see what I can do and express with some of these aids.

http://www.rcsys.com/dt.htm

Here is a neat little device that can assist in making your computer easier to use. This is just one of many helpful items out there to aid using your computer more effectively.