October Is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

As many of you know, I was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease a couple of years ago. Since then, I have 9 made it a personal mission to write about my continued journey to continue working while the disease progresses. (You can follow my personal story on our Caring Bridge site.) For example, this post will be included in my Working with ALS content that highlights the methods I use to continue working through the various stages of the disease.

Supportive Tools

Tools and Software Presented at Kentucky ALS Resource Meeting

After becoming part of the disabled community, I wanted to learn more about the tools that support accessibility and how I could use those tools to keep working. I am truly thankful to companies like Microsoft who make accessibility a key part of their overall mission with their tools. I am an avid user of Voice Access including using it to write and edit this post. I have also used some of their adaptive tools such as buttons that allow me to do more work with my feet. I share about these tools because I want others to know that having a disability should not prevent you from working.

Supportive Employers

I really must give a shout out 3Cloud who have really supported me in the transition to being disabled in the workforce. I find some irony in the wording that I just used, as I would insist that I am still able to work though I have lost certain physical functionality along the way. It is their belief in my ability to continue to work while doing it differently that has made the transition easier. They continue to work with me to find great ways to work together. Sometimes this includes specific hardware or software to make my job easier. Other times this includes patience during meetings and supporting specific collaboration needs I might have. The support from leadership to my peers has been great.

Working Through Difficulties

It is not always easy to keep working. There are days when I am frustrated because I am unable to work as quickly as I used to work. My mind works faster than my body in most cases. Because I use voice for most of my work from controlling my mouse to typing up documents, what used to be a single click, now takes me multiple commands which can often result in a weird type of context switching.

While the tools are great, they are not perfect. Some tools are downright hard to use because they are 100 percent designed for mouse usage. For example, whiteboarding tools assume you can easily drag and drop and make connections between objects. Many times, this simply cannot be done with the tools that I use. I have relied on others for help when trying to use tools that are difficult to control the voice. Two of the biggest examples for me include Lucid which we use for charting and collaborating with whiteboards. The other example is PowerPoint. PowerPoint assumes you can work within boxes, move them around, and is not very good to use with dictation.

I often need help from family and friends to make these tools work. For me one of the most difficult parts of this is trying to explain what I am thinking in terms easy enough for someone to translate and produce something on the screen. In some cases, this is not that difficult but in brainstorming sessions it is very difficult as a thought poorly formed is not easy to express.

A Hope and a Future

Those of us that have physical limitations can and do continue to work and be productive in the workplace. Employers who support us are highly valued and appreciated. Often what we think in our minds outpaces what we can express with our bodies. As we look at future tools such as CoPilot from Microsoft which use AI to support a variety of tasks in our day-to-day work, there is a lot of promise to make us more productive in the workplace. Thank you to all the companies who support us through tools and employment. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Demonstrating How I Use Voice Access

As part of my effort to inform people on how to use tools with their disabilities and continue working, I created a series of videos that demonstrate how I use Voice Access to perform a number of activities that support my work. As we mentioned in the previous post, we have launched a Data on Wheels channel on YouTube. Over the past few days, I have created six videos which will walk you through various processes or types of work using Voice Access. You can get to the entire playlist here. I plan to add additional videos as I find more ways to work with Voice Access that might be interesting to others.

Here is a list of the videos I created with a summary if you are interested in just a single video as opposed to viewing the whole list.

Working With ALS: Voice Access-Introduction and Setup

In this video I walk through what Voice Access does and how to get it set up in a Windows 11 environment. If you are unfamiliar with accessibility capabilities inside of Windows 11 this is a suitable place to start.

Working with ALS: Voice Access-Using Grid Overlays

This video focuses on grid overlays used to manipulate mouse location and the ability to click various locations on your screen. This and the number overlays which are next are key command sets used to reduce the need for a physical mouse when working with Windows.

Working with ALS: Voice Access-Working with Number Overlays

Voice Access gives you the ability to click any location on a screen that can be clicked with meaning. It assigns numbers to all the locations in a window or on your entire screen depending on how you use it. This video walks through a number of examples of using number overlays to navigate a couple of different applications.

Working with ALS: Voice Access-Changing Modes

Voice Access allows you to issue commands and dictation at the same time when using the default mode. There were two other modes that potentially can be helpful depending on what you are trying to accomplish-dictation and command. I demonstrate how to use both modes and some of the difficulty of using these modes as they do not always work as expected.

Working with ALS: Voice Access-Navigating Web Pages

Whereas the first few were about specific functionality inside of Voice Access, navigating web pages is how to accomplish a specific task using Voice Access. In this one I move through a couple of websites interact with those websites using Voice Access functionality has been demonstrated previously.

Working with ALS: Voice Access-Real World Dictation

In this video, I demonstrate how to use dictation in a real world setting. I create a journal entry for my Caring Bridge site using Voice Access. This gives the viewer the opportunity to understand what is required to use dictation and commands to create content. This shows how I typically create documents, blog posts, and Teams discussions. Voice Access is unique in that it allows us to use commands and dictation at the same time.

I realize not everyone has a need to use Voice Access. But if you work with someone who has limited functionality in their ability to navigate with a mouse or to create any type of content with the keyboard, these videos may help them understand how Voice Access can be used to improve their day-to-day work.

Working with ALS – ALS Awareness Month 2023

I have been living with ALS for the past two years. I was diagnosed in September 2022 but had my first symptoms and started researching what was going on in July 2021. As I begin to understand my diagnosis more, I realize that this is a progressive disease, and my needs and situation will change over time. In my situation, I lost the use of my arms and hands first and I’ve begun to lose functionality in my legs and torso over the past few months. To learn more about my journey to this point check out this video on YouTube which tells my personal story.

Launching the YouTube Channel

Now that we’ve mentioned YouTube, Data on Wheels is launching its YouTube channel focusing first on my ALS story. While this YouTube channel will support technical content like the Data on Wheels and the Data on Rails blogs, it will also support ALS awareness and accessibility technology.

I realized early on that a blog post was not the best way to share the story or tools that I use while working with ALS. We will have a couple of playlists that are directly related to this part of my story. We will have a playlist called Living with ALS that focuses on my personal journey and various things we’ve learned or experienced in the process. We will also have a playlist that’s called Working with ALS that will focus on the tools I use to keep me working and how I keep working as my disease progresses.

While I wish we could have started this much earlier, the disease itself has slowed my ability to complete some of these tasks as quickly as I wished. It is with a lot of help from my family who have supported me through video editing, content support, and motivation that we’ve been able to get this launched. I hope you enjoy it for what it is, and I look forward to having a number of you follow and learn more about accessibility.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023

I had the opportunity to work with the Voice Access team from Microsoft on a story video that was used on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 19, 2023. I am truly impressed with the work Microsoft has done with Windows and Office to create more accessible experiences for those of us who need help doing our day-to-day job. When I think about how Voice Access has truly helped me be productive in my day-to-day work needs such as IMs in Teams, it was a pleasure to work with them to do a video to promote this tool. You can check out the video in the Voice Access area here. You can also learn more about the other accessibility options available in Windows 11.

Supporting the Cause -ALS Walk Lexington, August 2023

As part of the effort we’re doing around ALS Awareness this month, Data on Wheels is the team name for our team that will be doing the ALS Walk in Lexington KY this year. This is an opportunity for us to do our part to help the local community continue to do great things for the ALS community. Check out our team site and support if you can. Every little bit counts. If you’re in the area and want to join us for the short walk that happens in August feel free to sign up on the team.

3Cloud – Inclusive and Supportive Workplace

I was employed at 3Cloud when my disability first surfaced. As you can imagine, it was an emotional roller coaster and I really needed to determine how much it would affect my ability to do work for the company. As you have seen above or in one of my stories, this disease first affected my hands and arms and my ability to type. Without knowing the speed or rate of the disease and the impact to my current workload, I was able to work with my bosses to find a good place for me in the company which allowed me to contribute while I sorted this out. With their help, I have been able to find a place to continue to contribute and participate in the technology that I love to work with. For example, just this past week, Microsoft released a new product called Microsoft Fabric that I’ve been working with them and our team on to understand how to best work with it in our field. The company has trusted me with this and other initiatives that have allowed me to continue to be productive and generally contribute to the growth and success of 3Cloud.

Wrapping It Up

ALS has changed a lot about how I work and how I view life. I hope that what I share about what I learn helps others in similar situations. I will continue to be as active as I can both through work and in the community. Each day is a new day. Some days bring good things and some days bring bad, but God is in control of it all. Thank you for your continued support!

Typing with Your Tongue Part 2: Voice Access

A few months ago, I wrote a post on how I use voice technology to continue working with my ALS condition. Since that post was written, Microsoft released a new voice technology called Voice Access as a part of the Windows 11H2 update. I’m going to talk a little bit about my experience using it. It has changed how I interact with my PC and which tools I choose for voice to text.

Voice Access

You can turn Voice Access on if you’re running the latest version of Windows 11. (Voice Access is not available in Windows 10). You simply go to the Accessibility settings and choose the Voice Access option under Speech. Once you have turned on Voice Access, you will see a bar across the top of your primary screen as shown in the image below. This is how you know you have Voice Access ready to go.

Voice Access is much more than a voice to text tool. Voice Access includes many command tools including a mouse grid option which allows you to grid your screen and select items on the screen using only your voice. Voice Access supports commands such as Open and Close for application windows. You can find out the full list of commands that are available to you in Voice Access here.

How do I use Voice Access?

I typically have Voice Access on all the time except when I’m in meetings. (It will try to type everything that’s said in the meeting, so it needs to be turned off at that time.) There are only two tools where I use Voice Access less often. That would be Outlook and Word. More on that in a bit.

Because Voice Access alternates between dictation and commands, I able to use it when working with most tools. For example, with Windows Mail I will use it to dictate an e-mail, and then click Send to send the same e-mail. When I say “click send”, Voice Access finds the Send button on the window. If there are more than one, it will give me an option to select which Send I meant to click. I find the overall experience pretty good as it allows me to switch between dictation and commands without issue.

I use Voice Access a lot when working with Teams, WhatsApp, and other chat-based tools. Voice Access allows me to have a good voice to text tool in applications that typically do not have great accessibility support. At times, I have used Voice Access instead of Dictation in Office 365, especially when working with PowerPoint and Excel. Neither of these are particularly voice to text friendly and Dictation in PowerPoint is significantly lacking.

Using Office 365 Dictation

I primarily still use Office 365 Dictation when working with Word and with Outlook. Dictation in both tools responds quicker than Voice Access. It also handles some of the issues that are currently being worked on in Voice Access such as punctuation. For example, the bulk of this blog post was authored in Word using Office 365 Dictation because it’s quick, simple, and works well within the context of voice to text.

Other Insights into How I Work with These Tools

Office 365 Dictation is fully online. This means if you lose your internet connection, you lose the ability to use that function. Voice Access on the other hand does not have this dependency and will continue to work without a connection.

The commands between these two tools still vary quite a bit. For example, text formatting is very different between the two tools. In Word, they use “capitalize” to capitalize a word using Dictation. (By the way this has been improved since the last time I wrote my blog post. This improved capability in Office 365 Dictation is huge). In Voice Access you have to say “capitalize that” to capitalize a word or selected words. When you use that same command in Office 365, it will capitalize the whole sentence. This is true of other formatting commands between the two tools.

There are enough variances in those commands to cause frequent issues when working with the two tools interchangeably. I find myself using the wrong command to create a new line or change the case of words regularly. This is something you will have to work through if you go back and forth between the two tools.

I started working with Voice Access while it was still in preview. I am actively working with the Voice Access team and providing feedback about the tool. While many updates have been made, there are still issues with the tool as it continues to mature. If you’ve been working with Windows Speech Recognition and Voice Typing, I would still recommend switching to Voice Access as the experience is much better. Just keep in mind it is still new and you may still run into issues here and there as they continue to improve the product.

When Voice Access became available, I switched immediately to Voice Access as my primary voice command and dictation tool when not using Office 365 (Word and Outlook). I think that this technology will continue to improve and make voice accessibility better for those of us with limited functionality in our hands and arms. As you know from previous conversations, I’m not a huge fan of Dragon because of how it changed my workflow and made things more difficult for me to do in general. Voice Access is a more natural fit into my workflow, and I like it considerably better. I do find myself going back and forth between my roller bar mouse and using a complete voice solution when my hands get tired. That speaks volumes of the work done in Voice Access to help someone like me continue to function by having options in the tools I can use. I look forward to the improvements as they come along.