Dictation Bridge is an add-on that works with NVDA to make using speech recognition software more accessible. Anything that you dictate will be read back to you automatically by NVDA. I find this to be a very useful feature because it lets you know if what you said is what was entered on the screen. You can also select text and ask Dictation Bridge to check spelling. I don’t see this being very helpful for Microsoft Word users, but perhaps it can be helpful when working in other applications.
These features work with both Microsoft Speech Recognition and Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but the following only work with Dragon.
You can use your voice to control NVDA and also check to see if your microphone is active. Here is a more complete description:
From the developer>
The dictation bridge team is proud to announce the release of our first public beta. Over the past several months our team of excellent engineers, private beta testers, and technical writers, (the people responsible for creating documentation to guide you), have been working hard to bring you the world’s first NVDA add-on to allow screenreader users access to leading edge speach recognition software.
Our team is still working hard on bringing you access to JAWS and Window-eyes access and will be rolling that out shortly. In the meantime, please feel free to download the beta and try it with your favorite speech recognition package. This beta works with Microsoft speech recognition and Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Please be sure to let us know what you think and stay tuned for our next public beta and final products.
Please see below for your own copy of the beta and our product release notes. Thank you once again for your patience and support in our crowdfunding campaign and development of this free software.
Release notes for dictationBridge beta 1
Currently working features
• Echo back of dictated text in Dragon and Windows Speech Recognition also known as WSR.
• Speech only support of the WSR correction box.
• Support to control NVDA from Dragon and WSR. At this time, only Dragon commands have been written.
• A verbal notification of the microphone status when using Dragon. WSR has this feature built-in therefore no support needs to be created.
• Command NVDA by voice from Dragon.
Feature Descriptions
Echo back of dictated text in Dragon and Windows Speech Recognition also known as WSR
When you dictate into any application with either Dragon or WSR running, dictationBridge will speak the text that has been recognized by either engine if the NVDA screen reader is active. There are no additional settings that have to be done. The functionality works out of the box. If you want to disable echo back, then disable the dictationBridge addon.
Speech only support of the WSR correction box
When you need to correct misrecognized text in WSR, do the following.
Position the cursor on the word you want to correct. Once your cursor is positioned, say “spell”. A floating window will come up on the screen. This window is invisible to NVDA and other screen readers. NVDA will read out the choices. You then say “choose” followed by the number of that choice; for example, if you wanted to select the fourth choice, you will say “choose 4”.
Support to control NVDA from Dragon and WSR
It is possible to execute any script in NVDA. This is done by sending the script name to dictationBridge which in turn sends it to NVDA. So, you can say “speak focus” to have NVDA say the contents of the keyboard focus. There are over 70 commands that have been added for Dragon. Commands for WSR have not yet been written. These commands, in the background execute NVDA scripts that have keyboard shortcuts assigned to them. These scripts are present in NVDA 2016.3. These script names should be the same with earlier versions of NVDA. To get this feature to work, you need to add the dictationBridge folder to the system path. Instructions for doing this will be included in the installation section.
A verbal notification of the microphone status when using Dragon
It is important to know if the microphone is active or not when using speech-recognition. This avoids the transcribing of unwanted text into your document. DictationBridge will now speak the status of the microphone as it is changed when using Dragon. WSR already indicates this status and there are distinct sounds mapped by default to microphone status changes.
Command NVDA by voice from Dragon
It is possible to control NVDA by speaking voice commands from dragon. The commands should have been imported into your user profile. If this has not happened, please see the section on importing them. These commands map to the majority of NVDA features giving you complete hands free control of this program. You can then use native Dragon commands as well to control other programs such as the Windows desktop, note pad and Microsoft Word.
