Five winning stories will be selected by a panel of judges, and the winning entrants will each receive an Amazon Kindle 2 as well as Dragon NaturallySpeaking upgrades for three years.
In 1985, at the age of sixteen, I was struck by an automobile while riding my bicycle, leaving me paralyzed from the neck down -- a quadriplegic. Not being able to use my arms, I graduated high school using a computer by pushing keys on a keyboard with a mouth stick. Then, just in time for college, I was introduced to the world of voice recognition. It was called DragonDictate. Remarkably, this new software allowed me to speak to my computer and see the words appear on the screen. I thought that DragonDictate was irreplaceable. Well, I was wrong.
Towards the end of my college career, voice recognition took a greater leap. Dragon NaturallySpeaking became a cornerstone of my life. Armed with this tool I chose to go to law school. There were naysayers who would say that a quadriplegic would not be able to successfully complete law school. I proved them all wrong and Dragon NaturallySpeaking helped me. During my four years of law school, Dragon NaturallySpeaking enabled me to write legal briefs, write my thesis and take dozens of law school exams. Without it, I might have still succeeded but I would have dread law school.
As I begin my legal career, Dragon NaturallySpeaking followed me everywhere. It found itself loaded on a computer in a Congressman's office, on a laptop where I was writing decisions for judges in the New York State Supreme Court and in a law office which allowed me to prepare motions and other documents for court.
Friends and coworkers were amazed at the speed and accuracy in which I could complete a project. They would laugh when I would say an unusual word such as "Saskatchewan" and they would see it appear before their eyes. I always enjoy impressing them with all of the neat gadget commands.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking has meant much more to me than a just a tool, It has given me a pair of hands and a level of independence that only someone with a severe disability such as mine can appreciate. Without it, writing the story for you would not have been as easy!