Thank you Mr. Rogers, I stand corrected. After my post I read further details on you website about the iPod. It was very clear and I apologize for the inference that MacSpeech claimed otherwise. It was an erroneous impression I obtained from a quick reading of a press release.
I will gratefully share your reply (see the reply from Chuck Rogers appended to the end of this message) I am delighted to hear of your company's commitment to the needs of blind/visually impaired people. Thank you for providing the solution to my problem. I was asking for help and, it would seem I found it. I am sure that you or your team could contribute wonderfully to the discussion at MacVisionaries. I'm interested in getting to know your products and welcome advice and guidance from experts. Voice recognition is of great interest and I am excited about what it can offer blind/vision impaired Mac users. The experience I described in my previous post related to my initial installation of iListen with Panther. The color and contrast preferences I utilize rendered the training story text unreadable. Now that I am facing reinstalling and retraining iListen -- I was hoping for a 'work-around' you have provided. Thanks again for your prompt reply and good advice. Best Regards, G! Send Discuss mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://macvisionaries.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss_macv isionaries.com or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Rogers [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 09, 2005 7:59 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: MacSpeech iListen! Gordon: We are very sensitive to the needs of our visually impaired customers. Let me clear up a few things for you, if I may: 1). We do not say you can work with an iPod for transcription. In fact, the reverse is true. You cannot. And we explicitly state that in our online Knowledgebase. The only exception *may* be the new Video iPod, but we won't know until someone comes out with an adapter to which a microphone can be connected. In order to use iListen for transcription, you must use a supported digital recorder. A list of supported digital recorders is available on our web site. 2). If you are using iListen version 1.6.8 you can print out a large print guide to all the training stories. It is called "iListen Training Guide" and can be opened from iListen's Help menu. We aren't sure what you are referring to when you say it does not respect the Universal Access Preferences. I just tested this here, and if you switch Universal Access to display White Text on a Black background, that is how the text for the training panels appear as well. So, in short, we already had you covered. There are a few other things available in iListen's Help menu you may find useful as well. Please feel free to share this email on the macvisionaries list. Best Regards, Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist MacSpeech, Inc. On Dec 9, 2005, at 9:28 PM, Gordon Fuller wrote: > Anyone have any experience with iListen!? > > I purchased the iListen voice recognition software and > am now installing it on my PowerBook. There are scripts > available supporting Tiger/iLife applications and > widgets. It would be great if it would allow control of > the Mac with voice commands (as advertised). IListen > even says it supports dictation and trascription with a > 330,000 word vocabulary. They even seem to suggest that > you can record with your iPod and transcribe recorded > dictation. > > When I installed the software I found that it did not > respect the Universal Access Preferences I need to > accomodate my vision impairment. Specifically, the > training text appeared as black text on white > background. This does not work for me. I had to set up > my girlfriend with a wireless microphone to read to me > the text -- that I would then dictate into the voice > recognition headset. A curious work-around but, I had > the same problem with Dragon's Naturally Speaking on my > Windows platform. > > Is it me or, is it strange that voice recognition > software developers don't bother to check its' > functionality (or lack thereof), with vision impaired > user requirements? > > As of today I've written an 'Urgent' support message to > the MacSpeech, Inc. support people inquiring into the > possibility of publishing their text samples as used in > training -- in an alternate form. I'll post their reply > when I get it. > > In the meantime, I would be interested in hearing from > anyone who has tried to use this program. > > Thanks > G! >
