The provider of the speech-to-text software provided with Project Valour-IT laptops is the Dragon Naturally Speaking software from Nuance.
They sponsored a contest among users of the software to tell their stories. There were three winners.
William Brotherton, a lawyer. Doug Edwards, a property inspector. And Chuck Ziegenfuss, Army Major, wounded warrior, blogger, and the inspiration for Project Valour-IT, a project founded by our own Fuzzybear Lioness.
They sponsored a contest among users of the software to tell their stories. There were three winners.
William Brotherton, a lawyer. Doug Edwards, a property inspector. And Chuck Ziegenfuss, Army Major, wounded warrior, blogger, and the inspiration for Project Valour-IT, a project founded by our own Fuzzybear Lioness.
Kewl, eh? Well done, Maj Z! And thanks to *all* of you who have contributed over the years to Project Valour-IT!I Speak Dragon to Improve My Life
While serving in Iraq, Chuck Ziegenfuss chronicled his thoughts and experiences in a blog. He gained a readership that appreciated the details and openness in which he told his insightful stories with self-deprecating humor. In June of 2005, Ziegenfuss was wounded by an IED while serving as commander of a tank company. During the recovery from his injury, his wife continued blogging for him. Soon he wanted to get back to authoring the blog himself, but his typing was impaired due to the damage done to his hands by the IED.
A loyal reader of the blog bought Ziegenfuss a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to allow him to freely dictate his thoughts without relying on others. Once he started using Dragon to blog, Ziegenfuss’ readers agreed that this technology should be available to other soldiers who were in the same situation that he was. Ziegenfuss partnered with SoldiersAngels to form VALOUR-IT (Voice Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops) with a vision to provide laptops equipped with Dragon NaturallySpeaking to wounded soldiers whose injuries prevented them from operating a computer manually.
“I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to regain control of the life that was temporarily robbed from me, and to bring that same sense of empowerment to other soldiers just like me,” said Ziegenfuss. “The use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking to use a computer, to connect, to do something that I was able to do before I was injured made me feel somewhat whole, somewhat normal, for the first time. It has been my distinct pleasure and honor to give that feeling, a feeling of ability, to our wounded. Dragon has not only improved my life, it has changed my life.”
In fact, I need to buy Naturally Speaking so I can write my blog without my wrists and shoulders cramping up so much! Maybe that will increase the number of blog posts I write!