A Day in the Life of a Person with a Disability

Perhaps next year. It appears that Nuance, the current owners of the Eloquence IP are going to—reluctantly—license the current version to me. While I don’t sense that the AAC community places much importance on speech quality (yes, it should), a new Xpress-It running on a new speech engine might raise a few eyebrows.

 Becky,

Just to follow up on our conversation, my remaining IT friends have directed my attention to the availability of Nuance/ETI software over torrent. A quick check revealed it to your Symbian PDA app, and thus useless to me. However, that does tell me Nuance has the Eloquence SDK.

I renew my appeal for cooperation. I am not competition to anything Nuance is doing, and I know that a few AAC companies still license Eloquence. Please honor my agreement with ETI.

Scott

Ah yes, Wizzard. They are the marketing partner for AT&T on Natural Voice, and they are only interested in customers who will buy at least 200 licenses. It’s a contractual thing. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also market whatever IBM is doing, but similar contractual limits apply on everything they’re involved in so they are useless for me. I am trying to work with AT&T directly to evaluate Natural Voice, but I’ve already mentioned its limitations.

Now wait just a bleeping second, you (Nuance) must have the SDK for ETI in order to be able to sell the licenses. It’s a legal thing, my love (and no, I’m not intentionally being patronizing). My thinking is that, since you must have the SDK somewhere, you should be able to secure permission to send a digital copy to me (it used to be just a Zip file). In fact, my original agreement with ETI granted me rights to any updates.

You have been very nice, and I absolutely want to stay on good terms with you. I’m simply reminding Nuance that buying the intellectual property of another company usually includes honoring any related agreements. You already know enough about my situation to infer that I have been on the level with you. I really need a copy of whatever ETI files Nuance took possession of.

Please pursue the matter, ok?

Scott

Ah Becky,

So someone at Nuance does answer email. Good. I have been trying to reach Nuance for some time, and I note that this particular inquiry didn’t explain that my disability does not allow me to speak. That means that I can’t fairly tease you about asking if I was interested in Dragon. No, it’s safe to say I have no use for DragonSpeak.

As my inquiry did say, I’m needing a update of Eloquence. The Eloquence speech engine is a product that you likely don’t even realize Nuance owns. It dates back to its original version in 1996, developed by Cornell University for the Department of Defense. Eloquence Technologies Inc. was formed around that time. Unfortunately, they never did market the tool very well and were bought by Speechworks, which was apparently purchased by Nuance last year.

My relationship with the Eloquence speech engine started in 1997 while I was a programmer for a major oil company. I needed a text-to-speech solution to talk to my customers, and my managers didn’t like any of the AAC products that were currently available. Instead, we decided that I should build my own system based around the Eloquence engine. The last update I received from ETI was in late 1998.

Yes, Eloquence is a product you would normally license to other companies to build systems around. You don’t market it to consumers, because few of them could write programs that use it. I have. The program I wrote in 1997 was called Xpress-It, and I’m still using a version of it every day. In fact, the 1998 version of Eloquence, which I believe was version 4.7, still performs very well compared to even AT&T’s vaunted Natural Voice. Although Natural Voice usually sounds “better,” Eloquence still appears to be more flexible and adjustable. The problem is that I need to update Xpress-It for changes in my needs and the Windows environment, and Eloquence 4.7 is starting to cause problems in the program building because of its age.

I have tried to market Xpress-It, but the nature of the AAC market is such that an outsider can’t enter effectively without significant financial support. Sadly, I’m now living on Disability so it looks like I’ll be Xpress-It’s only user. Anyway, I need whatever was the last/latest Eloquence software development kit. I’m certain that Nuance hasn’t updated it, and it’s a pretty safe bet that Speechworks didn’t. That probably means I need ETI’s last SDK. Can you help?

Scott

Since you're a self-proclaimed radical liberal, the only way to reach you in a form that you might actually process is through an entry in my blog. Yes, I am a self-identified conservative so I understand that your attention span for anything I say will be very limited (even without your adult ADD J). I’m writing this entry as an open response to episode 197 of TWiT, where you and your guests asserted that university-style education is in crisis. I agree with you for the most part, but I think you missed the primary purpose of the whole college system. Obviously, colleges aren't trade schools, and they don't pretend to be. In fact, very little of what they teach the average four-year student has direct application in real-life. I’m your age, and I have a Computer Science degree so I have some first-hand experience with how colleges work. What I was told at the beginning of my college career was that college actually teaches you to learn. Please really think that through for a moment while I explain further.

I am reasonably intelligent, and I found high school to be a breeze. That was partly because I had some excellent teachers who took a personal interest in me, in addition to caring parents. However, colleges--especially large universities--are environments where students succeed or fail based on their own merits. Although support services do usually exist, it's up to the students to use them if needed. That’s part of the overall point of the college system: choice. College is generally the first time young people are out on their own, making their own choices and facing the consequences. They can excel, but only if they really apply themselves. That’s what I mean by learning to learn. The college system isn't going to reach out and proactively save the students who are failing. My conservative mind finds that to be a positive thing.

Remember that colleges are still relatively shielded environments where young people can mature safely (recent events notwithstanding). In that sort of situation, tuition becomes more than simply cost-recovery. Most of the people I knew the best in college were disabled so I can most accurately write about them. Unfortunately, very few even aspired to graduate. It’s true that things outside in the "real world" really aren't good for the Disabled, but that's well beyond the scope of this blog entry. The fact remains that virtually none the disabled people I attended college with graduated. They were quite comfortable staying where they were and receiving state support. I also knew some able-bodied students who were also quite content to be there as long as someone paid their way. This is why I believe tuition must fulfill a secondary role. Agreed, tuition shouldn't preclude anyone who is serious about learning, but it should be high enough to deter so-called "professional students." those are more common than you may realize.

Yet, colleges serve another function that I think you and your guests glossed over. Where I went to school, the first two years went to learning the basics. You know, small stuff like proper English writing, literature, and (gasp!) history. Also thrown in was a smattering of Math, Physics, Sociology, Political Science, and Biology. In short, the first two years went mainly to learning about humanity and what it means to be a human. True, that learning didn't make me a better programmer, but it definitely helped me to understand the world around me. I call that sort of teaching "deep learning,” and I daresay you won't get it in a trade school. If, as was suggested on your show, doctors and lawyers went to trade schools, would they as fully appreciate such niceties as ethics and human rights? Perhaps, but I say not. I say that upbringing and the first two-to-four years of college are what creates most liberals (though a few people are lucky enough to, well, reboot J).  Surely you wouldn't want to end that?

Lastly, I’ll respectfully remind you that even Sarah Lane has told you that you live in a bubble. She was talking about both technology and the way you view the world. Sarah's comment was even more memorable because she freely admitted to being right there with you, being a child of Haight-Ashbury and all that went with it. At least she has the mental compass to recognize that.  Not all conservatives are Bible-pounding zealots. Indeed, most of us aren't. We even use much of the same technology as you do, but we don't find all of it to be anywhere nearly so valuable! I too have a Twitter account, but I was amused today when a friend described his perception of Twitter as "mostly mental gas-passing." Bing! Don’t get me started about “Fiendfeed” either! J I’ve followed you for over ten years, and I understand that you have a need to broadcast your views. I apparently have a bit of that needed since I have a blog going into its fourth year. I’m also W5RUA. However, my blog is mostly about daily life with a disability so I’m a little less ambitious.

By the way, your perception of “teaching to the test” will largely vanish after Abby encounters her first essay exam. Expect tears, as Jennifer will probably tell you.

Scott (W5RUA) Royall

Finally found a good site for definitive data for CPU maximum temps, and it appears that HOT Roddy is very aptly named. http://is.gd/D1bs. Right now, she’s loafing along at 60C and 115 processes.

I do have to admit that Roddy has mellowed. Now she just eats mice and keyboards, which is pretty normal for laptops.

I did a quick search for complaints about Northstar and got numerous hits. However, I then did the same thing for the two major companies, ADT and Brinks, and guess what. Yep, same deal. Over 100 hits on each of them just on ripoffreport.com, which tries to be reputable. The last link in the list below is probably the most telling, because it reveals that home security companies all use the same tactics. As the man says, the home security business is really based on fear.

The complaints about Northstar are also interesting. Once you factor out the sales-roach tactics that they share with ADT and Brinks, the complaints come down to people not taking the friggin' contract seriously. At least Northstar was offering $45 a month for the length of the contract. I wish we had gotten that in writing, because it's a commitment the others don't make.

By the way, the current system the ADT offered me was so cumbersome that the guy wanted to install it in a closet with an enormous battery. Uh, no thanks. This is a house, not Fort Knox.

http://www.northstaralarm.com

http://www.yelp.com/topic/austin-anybody-know-northstar-alarm-system

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/338/RipOff0338837.htm

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/north-star-alarm-services-c141113.html

http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=ADT+Security+

http://www.my3cents.com/productReview.cgi?company=Brinks+Home+Security

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/390/RipOff0390866.htm

Ok. I live under a mile from the Fort Bend county line so can you send the plates to the Clay Road Annex?

Ok.

Angela,           

I appreciate your invitation to attend Texas Assistive Technology Network '09, and it was very kind of you to waive my entrance fee. However, I have given the matter much consideration and have regrettably decided to miss this year. Yes, the fact that my presentation was scheduled for the last half-day of the conference was a factor. I live far enough away from ESC to require that I leave home very early to get there in time to set up for the presentation, and my caregivers haven't had to deal with that level of expectation in several years. In truth, though, I was already reconsidering my attendance before your call for attendee registration arrived. The remainder of this email will explain why.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that the assistive and augmentative communication market is split into two segments. One is the medical rehabilitation field based largely in hospitals and other institutions that are trying to restore the ability to communicate to their patients. This is where the established AAC vendors spend a good deal of their advertising budgets, and where many SLPs prefer AAC products that can be applied to patients with a variety of disabilities at various levels. This is logical enough from the perspective of the SLP, because he/she probably only has a limited knowledge about computers. Anything that simplifies the amount of information that has to be known is seen as a positive thing.

The other segment of the AAC market is the one you are the most intimate with, naturally, Special Education.  This is actually the segment where an "unknown" vendor like me stands probably the best chance on gaining a degree of acceptance simply because educators are generally more open to new ideas. Yet, in practice, the two segments of the AAC market are similar in that they have gateway mechanisms that control the entry of new products. In education, the state has a list of recommended AAC products, for example. Moreover, many school districts have specialized technologists intended to evaluate new ideas. It is unfortunate that these technologists are supposedly too overloaded to meet with people they don't already recognize. One of my hopes in attending TATN has been to meet some of the gatekeepers in an environment where they could see what I had to offer.  Yet, none has revealed themselves to me in my two years at TATN.  I have no doubt they're there, but they're stealthier than a Romulan Warbird in full Cloak!

The reality is that I attend TATN in dual roles. Yes, I am nominally a vendor, but I am also a product of the Special Education system. Arguably, I am one of the few "pure" success stories in the sense that I totally left the whole rehabilitation community behind and was able to be a cog in the corporate America machine for 14 years. Great, but lay-offs ended that seven years ago. A skeptical person could reasonably ask if I’m still relevant. I still try to keep up with technology, but I haven't done much intense programming in years. Admittedly, being scheduled for the final half-day at TATN was disappointing in another sense, because it didn’t give me an opportunity to reconnoiter my competition in the vendors' room. That’s not your problem, of course, but it does make my position more difficult. Even as an observer of the Special Education system and the role of disabled people in society in general, it's becoming harder for me to keep up. I actually hope that I am missing important AAC advances; otherwise, disabled people are going nowhere fast!

I think you are familiar enough with the story of Xpress-It to know that it was purpose-built. My bosses informally gave me a set of requirements that current AAC solutions did not meet. I have noticed that major AAC providers have made efforts in the past two years to get near what Xpress-It does so there is movement. However, they still have a long way to go because they are re-inventing underlying tools that are in Windows and Xpress-It depends on. I announced in my blog late last year that any further development of Xpress-It would be only for my own needs, because I’m not seeing any commercial interest in it. I know you suggested marketing it to an independent vendor, but that would create a real dilemma for them. Given that Xpress-It approaches the AAC problem from a totally different vector, it would require a vendor of other products to essentially have a split personality. He would have to make a decision about which approach is “right” for any given customer. I may be cynical, but I don't think an independent distributor is going to even want to make that choice. Thus, I’m not really clear that my attendance of TATN is doing anybody any good. My presentation last year seemed well received, but there was no follow-up interest. That’s sort of consistent with the overall problem of how AAC products are used in the education system. Namely, there's never going to be advancement toward more flexible AAC until there is demand for it. It would be great if the end user (student/student's parents) did the demanding, but they usually depend on the educators to direct them. That means nothing much is going to change until end educators really put pressure on the technologists (and we know how likely that is).

Ironically, this email is a miniature version of what this year's presentation would've said.

Scott

Amelia,

A couple of issues:

1.      If those plates indeed read “WDRUA,” they are useless to me. I requested (and was granted) “W5RUA.” I have the printed receipt as proof. That is an Amateur Radio callsign, and you can look it up at FCC.GOV or QRZ.COM.

2.      I am disabled, and texasonline.com mentioned nothing about picking up the plates. (I was charged $40, and the plates should come to me at that price!) I could redirect the plates to Clay Road, and have my driver collect them.  However, nobody has monetary authority on my behalf. I am disabled, not a vegetable.

I request that you please re-check those plates. If they do not read “W5RUA,” they are worthless and you need to follow whatever procedure you have for telling Austin they royally screwed up (pun notwithstanding). Can you do that for me?

D. Scott Royall (W5RUA)

Yeah, ok. As I see it, there are at least two ways in which Dell could deal with this. One way with Alps’ cooperation, the other not. Either way, something needs to change.

So the Alps touchpad in my M1530 doesn't act right in certain games if I have its add-in driver running. Big deal, right? Well actually, yeah, because it also affects Windows features for accessibility for disabled people. I’m talking about Drag-Lock, which I’ve mentioned to you before.

Drag-Lock is an absolute necessity for any one-handed person who's interacting with a graphical interface. In Windows, it is an option to have the left mouse button "lock" if held down for a second. This allows the user to drag things around the screen without holding the mouse button down. Unfortunately, the first thing the Alps add-in driver does at start-up is to turn off Drag-Lock. I must manually go into the Control Panel's mouse applet to turn it back on. Not acceptable, Rich.

What makes this situation more important now is that, as you know, I'm beginning the process of selecting my next primary laptop. At this moment, any candidate laptop with an Alps touchpad would be immediately disqualified because of this problem. something tells me that the M1730 could be the only laptop Dell still makes with a Synaptic touchpad, and that model is simply too power-hungry. However, the good news is that I don't intend to complete a purchase until Windows 7 is released, and the current industry buzz puts that around early September.  The point of starting the selection process this far in advance is exactly to identify and deal with potential show-stoppers. We know Dell is the opposite of Apple in that it is changing its laptop line-up obsessively.  That works to our advantage in that it creates almost a continuous opportunity to influence a change for the better.

Listen and learn. http://twit.tv/sn190.

From Twitter: @Rich_at_Dell So Rich, my Dell Preferred Account is now 0. Time to discuss Lilly Mk 4?

Careful. I think the Republicans are running the real risk of playing right into the hands of the Democrats. Who do you think they will blame at the mid-term elections when things haven’t improved? Republicans, of course. Democrats won’t be bothered by the reality that they enjoy majorities in both houses of Congress. They will claim with some truth that Republicans blunted the thrust of their efforts with obstructionist tactics. This is what both parties do when things don’t go their way.

Instead of emulating the Democratic jack-ass, I think the Republicans need to stop digging in their heels and become much more pliant. Pick and choose your battles much more selectively. Rather we want to accept it or not, the last election clearly handed the Democrats a mandate. All you are doing right now is facilitating grid-lock and painting yourself with clown paint. The Democrats have the Congressional votes to get the things they really want so you’re not accomplishing anything. To me, it would be better to go quiet for now, and then point out all of the Democratic failures in time for the 2010 mid-terms. The country is going to be a mess anyway.