1 I SPEAK DRAGON 2009 – AUDIO FILES

2 Dragon Customer Judith Peavey “I run an assistive technology assessment center located in a rehabilitation hospital in southwestern Missouri, where I evaluate children and adults with varying disabilities who need adaptive and assistive technology to improve their written communication deficits. The clients I evaluate cannot effectively use a traditional keyboard or mouse to access a computer for word processing, ing and Internet access. Dragon NaturallySpeaking opens up a whole new world for these individuals or helps them re-gain an ability they once had, and lost. It allows them to interface with and access a computer as well as any individual that can use a keyboard and mouse -- giving them more independence and thus improving their quality of life.”

3 Dragon Customer Karen Butzen “I have used, and taught students with special needs to use, Dragon for the past 10 years. It has been a great equalizer for many struggling writers, whether they were physically challenged to write or mentally incapable of getting their thoughts together on paper. Once they were given the opportunity to talk their thoughts, school changed for them completely. They were so much more successful than they (or their teachers) ever thought they could be. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is high on my list of the best software around!!”

4 An Online Educator Using Dragon I had a colleague tell me about Dragon NaturallySpeaking a few years ago. I have found that my feedback to students is more comprehensive, my discussion posts richer, and my responses more direct through the use of speech recognition software. Before using this software I would try and limit my comments in papers because after 50 papers or so my hands were just too tired to give them more than the bare feedback relative to what the problem was. Now, with Dragon I can write feedback comments that are specific to that student without costing me any additional time. I have found that it works in most online software applications.

5 A High School Assistant Principal using Dragon “As a High School Assistant Principal and Athletic Director I have so many reports to type and I don't have a secretary. Now I do! I constantly found myself putting off typing my observation reports and rating forms for my teachers and coaches each year. This year it was late May and I had one typed so far. I was shopping for some school supplies and saw the new version of Dragon, and said to myself I have a few extra dollars and time is running out this year, so I bought the software. I was pleasantly surprised on the first report I typed. I was truly speaking naturally and it was recognizing almost all of my words and even some difficult names. As I learned the commands, it became even easier, and I had less corrections to make. Needless to say I was zipping through these reports I had put off until the last moment. In just three short days I was able to get all 18 of my reports done and had time to spare. How I got along without this for so many years is a mystery, but now it will be a regular part of my routine.”

6 A University Professor Using Dragon “I'm a University Professor and prior to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking would spend 5-7 hours a day typing. In the Winter of 2007, I required two surgeries that left me unable to type with my left hand. I spent 2 months using hunt-and-peck and it became obvious that this method just wasn't going to work. A colleague at work recommended Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Installation and training was easy (took about 30 minutes). I used it first to answer s which was very difficult using the hunt-and-peck method. The results right from the start simply astounded me. It recognized common words and highly technical words that I use for my research equally well. I then used it to write a manuscript and analyze data. Again, the results were incredible. Whereas previously I would have to look at a row of numbers, enter those I could remember and then repeat this process for hours, now I could simply look at the numbers, read them for Dragon and then hit the return key for each new number. What used to take 2-3 hours now took 20 minutes. Moreover, my accuracy with Dragon was way better than entering them by hand. It sounds like a cliché, but Dragon software really did save my career.”

7 Amy Blafer, Mother of Dyslexic Student “Dragon is used two ways at my house. I originally purchased Dragon to help me write my dissertation fast. Shortly after starting my dissertation, I found out that my son had dyslexia. He has spent the last two years learning to read, but he is still unable to get his ideas on to paper. Dragon has allowed his ideas to fly onto the page as fast as he can think them up. Dragon has turned his disability to an ability.”

8 A Special Education Teacher Using Dragon “I am a special educator at a middle school in Vermont. I have spent many years teaching students with learning disabilities to read and write. … These kids go out on a limb every time they write and some start to give up at this level. Dragon is changing that. The students who embrace this technology have taken off. They are independent and proud of the work they can do. Their teachers are amazed to see the depth of their understanding. Kids are getting work done on time and they are able to edit with the help of the read back feature to produce high quality responses. It is absolutely wonderful to see students who could be at risk of dropping out have new hope of being successful in middle school, high school and set goals for college.”

9 A Public School Teacher Using Dragon “When I assign a two-page written assignment, I have suddenly given myself 200 pages to read and on which to comment. In the past, I would be forced to make just a few comments here and there in the margins of the pieces that my students had written. Enter Dragon NaturallySpeaking! It was incredible to be able to bypass my awkward typing skills and to be able to create such lengthy documents in a fraction of the time it would normally take. The comments sounded friendlier...they sounded like a conversation that you would have with a friend rather than a teacher's observations. These extensive comments have removed the mystery from reading and writing and have empowered kids to make real improvements that they can see. They report feeling better about reading and writing than they have in the past, and that improvement in their attitude has paved the way for further growth.”