Talking to the computer beats talking to yourself

I am just trialling the Speech Recognition system on Windows. You can search for it in the Run menu. You open it and then there is a very good tutorial which helps you and your computer to be able to write things. You do the talking. The computer does the writing. By the time you’ve finished the tutorial the computer can recognise your voice. It’s not perfect but the more you use it the better it gets. I tried to type an e- mail last night and it took me a very long time talking it but I’m finding this post today is going considerably faster. On the whole, it is better to speak faster rather than slower. I’m lucky that I can make changes with the keyboard. Some people would be reliant on speech recognition systems and not have other options. It’s 2013 and it is time to make these sorts of tools better. I believe that this will only happen if we all contribute to the usage and improvement of assistive tools. Speech recognition systems rely on constant use. The more ,the better. I need to try the speech recognition systems on my MacBook as well. I’m also thinking it might be worth exploring them for other languages as they would be useful tool for student learning.
Sometimes you want speech recognition systems to read text to you. There are some free ones here on Easy Freeware which you can try .
There are also others here at the University of Texas to use for different languages. Speech recognition systems are not just for people who need learning support and assisted functionality. They could become part and parcel of our everyday lives. That would be an even better way to include people. I am also finding using this is less wearing than mouse and keyboard/trackpad. I plan to make use of speech recognition systems on a regular basis. They might just lighten the load as well as providing opportunities for learning.