DictationBridge: Seamless Speech Recognition for Blind Computer Users

These days it's no big deal to request songs, rides, lights and the current temperature with a few spoken commands to one's computer or mobile device. It's no wonder the technology has found its way into the workplace, where professionals use their voice to be efficient at their PC, but blind people and others with disabilities must pay extra for a convenience everyone else takes for granted. DictationBridge plugs right into today's leading screen readers to provide blind and otherwise disabled people using voice recognition an experience as efficient as everyone else enjoys. Please help us close the gap between screen reading and speech recognition technologies.

Upon its release, DictationBridge will be free software using every definition of the word "free." All of its source code will be released so people in the community with programming skills can make changes, add features or do whatever they choose with it. End users will never need to pay a penny to use the software as it will forever be a no-cost download.

DictationBridge At A Glance

The DictationBridge team is designing, coding, testing and documenting a sophisticated plug-in for NVDA, Window-Eyes, ZoomText Fusion and JAWS that will:

• Support critical dictation features including: echo back, full speech recognition UI access, and editing with voice only
• Provide access to all versions of Dragon from Nuance, including Dragon Pro, and Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) (Note that WSR is currently not compatible with JAWS)
• Use voice command and control as is supported by the voice recognition package being employed and the ability to issue screen reader commands if the user owns Dragon Professional
• Integrate with the target screen readers using native commands
• Require no changes to the screen reader's default scripts or configurations
• Provide 100% of its source code to the community upon final release. The main DLL, Window-Eyes, ZoomText Fusion and JAWS scripts will carry the Mozilla Public License 2.0 and the NVDA scripts will use GPL 2 or later.
• Include complete, professionally written documentation for easy operation
• Feature email technical support at a nominal annual subscription price

You can learn even more about DictationBridge at the project web site.

Our Team of Experts

DictationBridge is coming together on the strength of a top flight coalition of accessibility innovators. Matt Campbell, author of SystemAccess and the other Serotek products, is leading a team of respected names well-known in the world of accessibility and hands free computing, including: Lucy Greco, Erin Lauridsen, Pranav Lal, Sue Martin, Debra Kaplan, Bryan Smart, Amanda Rush, Jeff Bishop, Tyler Spivey and Joe Orozco. 3 Mouse Technology and Serotek Corporation are contributing their top talent to a project everyone agrees is essential for today's modern computer user.

How Does It Work?

Think of DictationBridge as four separate software components. The majority of the functionality lives in a DLL that communicates with the various supported screen readers. The other three components are the individual scripts for NVDA, Window-Eyes and ZoomText Fusion, and JAWS that handle the operation for those specific utilities.

Blind computer users typically interact with screen readers using a series of keyboard commands. However, there are many screen reader users with additional impairments, such as learning disabilities or repetitive strain injuries who benefit from speech recognition to get things done in a manner compatible with their disabilities and more efficiently in general. Working within the capabilities of Dragon and Windows Speech Recognition, a person with a disability can use DictationBridge to dictate to command and control their computers with minimal exertion. Writing e-mails, searching the web, and collaborating on documents no longer has to be a physical burden for those who use DictationBridge.

Check out an audio demonstration of DictationBridge! You can also hear members of the DictationBridge team talking about the project on BlindBargains, at NVDA Con and on Main Menu.

Gone are the days when blind users needed specific screen readers to accomplish custom tasks. Though DictationBridge will initially be coded for and tested against NVDA, the speech recognition plug-in will be made to work with JAWS, Window-Eyes and ZoomText Fusion as well. We plan to make the plug-in as robust as possible within the constraints inherent in each screen reading utility.

We hope that DictationBridge will find its way into the hands of as many blind users as possible. In fact, if used with the built-in Windows dictation system and the NVDA screen reader, users can enjoy DictationBridge at absolutely no cost. For users with custom needs, DictationBridge will work with several variants of Dragon products from Nuance. Though certain advanced features may require the use of Dragon Professional, DictationBridge is meant to be compatible with as many of the less expensive Dragon products as well.

Why You Should Add Your Voice

The DictationBridge team reaches out to you because we think you get it. Unlike many people who believe we have come far enough in technological advancements for persons with disabilities, you know better. You've read the same headlines that scream of popular mainstream features that do not work out of the box for the more than 65 million blind people around the world, and like us, you believe this population should not have to pay more to make these features work equally for all. That's why we need you to become a part of the DictationBridge project today.

With your generous investment we will:

• Pay the programmers responsible for the magic under the hood
• Set up a highly qualified technical support system ready at product launch
• Prepare the comprehensive documentation you need to use the plug-in as intuitively as possible
• Pay a one-time licensing fee to Serotek Corporation for use of their source code. DictationBridge started as a piece of the SystemAccess screen reader where it was written by Matt Campbell, lead developer on DictationBridge. Buying the code from Serotek permitted us to make DictationBridge as a free software package, to have the copyright for that part of the code transfered to our team and to permit Matt to work on the project. Plain and simply, we could not have done this project at all without working with Serotek in this cooperative and collaborative fashion.

The DictationBridge Milestones

As this is a "flexible funding" Indie Go-Go campaign, the DictationBridge team will get the dollars contributed even if it doesn't make the entire $20,000 goal. The following are the different milestones that the fundraiser may reach and what the team will do at each funding level:

• $7500 - the minimum. When the dollars contributed reach this level, the team will commence work on turning the demo into a real piece of software and will support the NVDA screen reader and Windows Speech Recognition.
• $10,000 - support for the entire line of Dragon products is included.
• $12,500 - The team adds scripts for Dragon Professional, permitting users to issue screen reader commands via voice.
• $15,000 - DictationBridge includes support for Window-Eyes and ZoomText Fusion.
• $17,500 - Within its limitations, the team adds a plug-in for JAWS to be able to access DictationBridge.
• $20,000 - Our ultimate goal in which the team builds and releases the "gold plated" version of DictationBridge.

For more details about what will be done at each separate funding level, please read this piece about DictationBridge milestones on the project web site.

We appreciate your generosity in helping to accomplish our shared mission of making accessibility a right, not an afterthought.

The Obligatory Legalese

DictationBridge is a trademark of 3 Mouse Technology. Dragon is a trademark of Nuance Corporation, Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation, NVDA is a trademark of NVAccess Foundation, JAWS is a trademark of Freedom Scientific, Window-Eyes and ZoomText Fusion are trademarks of AI Squared, and SystemAccess Is a trademark of Serotek Corporation.