I don't know the answer to the question about Dragon and Open Book, although
typically voice recognition doesn't work that well with speech output. I
think Open Book would allow him to save as a text or Word file, and then

he could use Dragon with MS. Word, for example.

Scanning may be the quickest way to get his textbooks into alternate
formats, if the books are straight text and the print is not too small. With
any OCR program, editing of the text will be necessary,

and this is normally the most time-consuming part of the process. Spell
check will catch some of the errors, but not all.

If the student or the library has Open Book, that would be a good option for
having the scanned text read to him. Alternatively, there are a couple of
programs which can read text files. One, called "Read Please" has a free
version for download at:

http:/www.readplease.com.

The other program is called Text Aloud. I don't remember the URL right off,
but a web search through Google or some other search engine should locate
it. Text Aloud allows reading of text with speech on the computer as well as
conversion of the audio files to MP3, which can be played on the computer or
an Mp3 player.



For questions regarding using Dragon with Open Bok, you may want to contact
Freedom Scientific, the manufacturers of Open Book.
http://www.freedomscientific.com.



Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic may be another option; however, if the
student is not registered with them, that process can take a few weeks. See
http://www.rfbd.org.

Hope this helps.

-----Original Message-----

From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information

[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ann Pearce

Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2002 9:38 AM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Question on Compatibility



I have a patron who needs to be able to scan worksheets into a program such

as OpenBook, then be able to answer the worksheets with a voice recognition

program. Can you use Dragon to dictate with a scanning program? This same

patron is still without textbooks. What would be the fastest way to make

textbooks available to the student? The student is dyslexic and needs to be

able to hear and see the text.

Ann Pearce

Community Assistive Technology Center

Manhattan Public Library

Manhattan, KS