Rowena Portch's J-Say Story

I am a blind user who depends on a Braille display and JAWS screen-reading software to perform my duties at Microsoft. I was recently introduced to Dragon Naturally Speaking along with J-Say. Together, they enable me to talk to my computer and listen to feedback and text.

At work, I use Dragon to create release notes and to write content for our users. I also use it to quickly draft e-mail messages and reports. Because it can type faster than I can, it has saved me quite a bit of time. I just had to get used to talking, instead of typing.

In my spare time I write short stories and novels. I enjoy speaking my thoughts and having Dragon faithfully record them for me in Word. I have found that it frees my creativity more quickly, and my thoughts tend to flow more quickly because I can talk faster than I can type.

I am a massage therapist in the evening and have used Dragon to complete my SOAP charts. I listen to my tape recording of my client's session, and then simply transcribe the details to my computer.

J-Say enables me to move quickly through a page, whether it is a Web page or an email message. The enhancements it offers are amazing and really caters to us blind folk who rely on information to tell us what is on the screen. I pray that one day, this technology will be available on my mobile phone.

Now, if I can just get Dragon to make my coffee in the morning and let the dogs out life would be great.