Jeepers Creeper, I've got Peepers

Hello all:

More good news to report. My vision continues to improve. It was good
enough last night that I could install Dragon NaturallySpeaking on my
computer and use it to dictate to the system instead of typing. Exactly 1
week ago I couldn't read the face of the clock from farther than 2 feet.
Today the details are almost luxurious. I suspect that by the end of the
week, I'll be able to resume working without too much eye strain, and I'll
be in full swing by next week.

My eyes are at their best in the morning after a full night's rest. After
an entire day of trying to strain and see things my vision isn't so hot.
But I'm a patient man, and I know I can't push my luck too far. At this
point in the game. I really believe the doctor when he tells me that my
eyesight will recover fully. When this is over, I am going to post a
picture that I drew of my a worst field test just to show you how dismal the
situation really was. And hopefully you'll get a sense of how rotten the
situation actually proved to be. I know I've blathered on at some length in
this blog, but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

As this episode winds down, I think I am certainly more qualified to speak
about computers and disabilities. If anyone loses their vision quite
rapidly, I am sure it would prove quite difficult to adapt. As my vision
was rapidly circling the drain, I purchased the Dragon NaturallySpeaking and
found out that it was virtually impossible to set up. I'm sure a lot of
people make the same mistake thinking they can use their computer with voice
commands, but unfortunately, you need to be able to read the text on the
screen to set up the software. It is a cruel catch 22 situation. I am not
aware of other offerings for visually disabled people, but Dragon seems to
have the market share for voice activation software, and I think they could
do a better job of catering to people who can't set up their systems as
easily as they would suspect. I probably would have been beat anyway,
because even if they had included Braille text in the booklet for training
the software, I wouldn't have been able to read that anyway.

Despite this little glitch, the Dragon NaturallySpeaking worked quite
nicely, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to have dictation software
on their computer. As a professional computer geek, the personal computer is
my tiny window on the world, and I felt at a great loss when I couldn't use
it as effectively as I wanted to. I'm sure glad that I can see again.

Things are improving rapidly. All we have to do now is make sure Handsome Jack doesn't slip in the slush.