MITCH STURGEON
Author and Blogger Living With MS
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Can you have a little MS or a lot of MS?
I don’t know about describing our disease like that. But if we were to adopt such terminology, I wouldn’t hesitate to say I have a lot of MS, or a boatload of MS, or even MS up the ying yang. I can’t use my legs or my left hand, and my right hand is just hanging on (in terms of function, not in terms of connective tissue). Because of these limitations, I regularly scour the earth in search of new technologies that will keep me in the game.
Click here to read this full post at multiplesclerosis.net.
10 Replies to “Look, Ma, I’m Driving My Cell Phone With No Hands”
Thanks Mitch, excellent blog. I am so impressed by how far technology has come and also so impressed by you and your oodles of MS and oodles of good attitude.
oodles of thanks, Vicki.
Love your blogs, your posts. You keep me involved, keep me aware of the hurdles you face and the technologies (and attitudes) that assist you. We able-bodied folks need to be reminded, informed, and included in your life, and you do that beautifully through your willingness to be a voice for those who oftentimes have none. Thank you.
Deborah, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. I’m glad I don’t have to decide between a blog for disabled people and a blog for healthy ones. It’s good to know that I can inform and help both groups.
Oh rats, I just bought a new Motorola droid …and paid for it in advance! If you hear of them improving the program, will you let me know? I can’t even make the hands-free thing work!
Daphne, you will be the first person I tell!
I haven’t used a cellphone of any variety since I retired. My MS is neither oodles or blips but an ongoing meh or whine with no cheese. Yes, I’m wheelchair bound but lucky that my upper limbs function. Well, my fingers can fail me and typing becomes impossible. So for me, technology means a voice recorder and Dragon Naturally Speaking with headset. Works as long as my voice does – or the dogs don’t bark.
Roland, if you only have one piece of assistive technology, Dragon is a good one to have. But I know what you mean — anything that sounds like a word or a number to Dragon ends up on the page. Sometimes it’s quite humorous.
I’m frustrated with Apple’s apparent lack of interest in voice-to-text dictation system. They no longer support Dragon, and it no longer works with the latest OS. I don’t have the resources to invest in new technology every time it gets upgraded. I just want the Dragon software I bought, which used to work beautifully on my Mac Book, to keep working.
Stephen, it seems that we should be blaming Nuance (the Dragon people) more than Apple for this divorce, but neither party is squeaky clean. Nuance thinks of Dragon as primarily a productivity aid, not a lifeline for disabled people. Here is an article I read:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/30/mac_users_burned_after_nuance_drops_dragon_speech_to_text_software/
The voice recognition that I described for my iPhone is going to work across the spectrum of Apple products including tablets and mac’s. I don’t know if it will be as good as Dragon or not.
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