Talk Like a Robot for Speech to Text to Work

Speech to Text Solution

Speech-to-Text As a Solution for Writing Disability

Recently, I was at an airport dealing with a flight delay. I had been on the road for a week and, consequently, I was far behind in answering my emails. I decided to take the opportunity to answer emails with my phone while waiting to board the plane. I do not type into my phone as I find that process torturously slow. I used the speech to text function via the microphone to respond to text messages and answer email.

I stood off to the side for quite some time answering emails, one after the other. I felt like I was making some great progress. After about a half an hour, an older gentleman came up to me and asked, “What are you doing? A group of us have been listening to you speak to your phone for the past half hour. We are all trying to figure out what you are doing. You speak robot very well.”

I laughed and explained that I was answering my email using speech to text on my phone. I figured out that in order to make speech to text work I have to enunciate clearly and speak like a robot.

It was at that point that I had an AHA moment. I’ve heard so many parents and teachers express frustration that youth who could benefit from speech to text could not make it work because of their poor enunciation. Most youth have heard or seen robots on TV. They know how a robot speaks. If we could teach youth to speak into the microphone on their phone or iPad or Dragon Speak Professionally as if they were a robot,  speech-to-text might work for them.

I would love for you to try this strategy with your students and get back to me to let me know if it works. Can your students speak like a robot and make speech to text work?