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When a quadriplegic relies on their voice as the only or primary method to control their PC, it can be most frustrating when an application or program ‘crashes’ – especially if the ‘crash’ causes Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) to fail as well.

In such situations, a quadriplegic can be left looking at an unchanging screen – completely unable to interact with their PC – possibly for 3 hours or more until a carer or family member returns and physically intervenes.

However, a Voice Recognition (VR) solution is available that runs completely independently of DNS and which can reset and restart DNS when needed. The solution is a program called SpeechStart+ and is available from PCbyVoice at:
http://www.pcbyvoice.com/shop/pcbyvoice-speechstart-plus/

SpeechStart+ works by installing and running its own, simplified, voice recognition application – or VR ‘engine’, which functions independently of the DNS VR ‘engine’ (SpeechStart+ is run as a separate task within Windows).

The set of commands recognised by the SpeechStart+ VR engine is limited, and are as follows:

Please note that although SpeechStart+ supports additional functions to those listed above, the commands for these are actually passed to the more accurate DNS VR engine for handling!
At present only the first 4 commands are supported by the SpeechStart+ VR engine. The other 5 commands are currently handled by the DNS VR engine, however in the next version of SpeechStart+ (expected to be released within the next 2 months) recognition of these commands is to be moved to the SpeechStart+ VR engine.

In addition to aiding the recovery of any windows application (including DNS) or service that may have failed, another significant feature of SpeechStart+ is that it also allows a VR user to select any clickable item from the Windows Desktop simple by speaking its unique number. SpeechStart+ does this by enumerating every link and/or form element using a preferred graphic numbering style (user selectable). The numbers assigned to all visible items are revealed by the commands “Show Numbers”, “Show Flags”, “Show Circles” or by “Show Taskbar”.
(Those who valued the enumeration facility implemented in Rudolf Noe’s MouseLess Browser (MLB) add-on for Mozilla FireFox at:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/mouseless-browsing/
… should also appreciate the enumeration feature supported by SpeechStart+!)

For examples of how SpeechStart’s enumeration feature works, please refer to the PowerPoint Presentation in the PCbyVoice webpage above or download the trial version.
NB: DNS needs to be installed prior to SpeechStart+ or else SpeechStart+ will not install.

The enumeration feature in SpeechStart+ is currently designed to support both the Windows Desktop and Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. It is planned to extend support of the enumeration feature to Mozilla FireFox (browser) in a future release.

NT RECES definitely recommends SpeechStart+ to other EC and computer access providers, not just for recovery purposes, but also because of the enumeration feature that it provides which allows a new user to “hit the ground running” with DNS – prior to the user learning DNS’s comprehensive command set.

Unfortunately the next version of SpeechStart+ will be more expensive as the developer considers that “it is heavily subsidised at the moment”. Expect the new price of the product to be closer to £50 instead of the current £25. However it should be borne in mind that the next version of SpeechStart+ will include a lot of new functionality after feedback from its worldwide, primarily quadriplegic, user community. Apparently to upgrade from an existing version is to cost a smaller amount – a figure of around £10 has been mentioned (TBC).

At present SpeechStart+ is only available for Microsoft Windows platforms starting with Vista.

Addendum: Another recovery option that should be considered when implementing computer access for a quadriplegic user is enabling the use of “Power on AC”, “Restore on AC Power Loss” or “AC Power Loss Restart” setting in a PC’s BIOS. Although this feature is named differently by different manufacturers, the option lets you tell the PC what to do when power is restored after an unexpected loss of power. Disabled leaves the system off, while Enabled reboots the system. Previous State sets the system back to the state it was in before the power interruption. For quadriplegics it is recommended that the feature be set to Enabled and that the user is provided with a head-switch and IR remote capable of toggling an IR mains power switching socket. In this way the user is provided with a fail-safe method of rebooting their PC. Note that there is a slight risk that by using this method of last-resort to force a PC to reboot, Windows may not select the usually auto-recommended “Start Windows Normally” option but may instead auto-select a Windows recovery option instead – possibly with unforeseen effects … this is perhaps another reason to install SpeechStart+ as the application provides both a method of avoiding a reboot and a safer means of forcing a PC restart should either be necessary.

Hope this helps,

Peter Hamlin [Tel: 0 (+044) 1895 279158 Fax: 0 (+044) 1895 279737]
Rehabilitation Engineer
North Thames Regional Environmental Control Equipment Service (NT RECES)
Alderbourne Rehabilitation Unit (Entrance 'C' - off Royal Lane)
The HILLINGDON HOSPITAL (THH) NHS Foundation Trust
Pield Heath Road
Uxbridge
Middlesex

UB8 3NN

www.thh.nhs.uk/services/RECES/