DREXEL TO PROVIDE DICTATION SOFTWARE TO ALL STUDENTS
Drexel University has announced it will provide students
and staff with free Lernout & Hauspie speech-recognition
software that will allow them to dictate documents into their
computers.  Lernout & Hauspie, which owns Dragon Systems, will
join Drexel representatives at the university's freshman
orientation to display Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 4.0,
which will be distributed on CDs to students and staff.  EDUCAUSE
says no other university that it is aware of has launched a
campus-wide rollout of speech-recognition software.  Drexel
officials say they are impressed with the software's accuracy and
speed, noting that speech recognition has advanced significantly
in the past several years.  The new software handles continuous
speech and allows users to speak with little affectation, says
Drexel's Kenneth Blackney.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, September 20 2000)