"Say it With Software (and Hardware)" in SWE, The Magazine of the Society of Women Engineers

This is an article I did for SWE, the magazine of the Society of Women Engineers on how speech technologies are being used as enabling technologies for the disabled community. I got to interview some really interesting people, including Jayne Zilisch, who has Multiple Sclerosis and works in the Center for Students with Disabilities at Northcentral Technical College in Wasau, Wisconsin. She told how she became a de facto expert on speech recognition systems out of necessity when her MS interfered with her ability to type and therefore, earn a living. Now she helps others navigate the maze of options and find out what works best for them. I also learned of a product that was helping those with vocal disabilities, enabling them to have a "prosthetic voice" to help them communicate more naturally. Although the technology in this article has been superseded, the stories behind the struggles of those with disabilities remain the same.

Download "Say it With Software (and Hardware) (PDF,560K)