FINDING A VOICE
     SOUND - ACTIVATED COMPUTERS STREAMLINE WORK FOR DISABLED
                       BY Peggy Lee O'Neill
                   Albuquerque Journal, 11/7/95

Cyberspace is a great equalizer. In cyberspace, you don't need any arms. You don't need legs. With the right equipment, you don't even need eyes.

David Grisham, the 44-year-old computer security administrator for the University of New Mexico, happens to be paralyzed from the shoulders down and virtually blind. But that doesn't stop him from doing an excellent job, his supervisor and colleagues say. Thanks to some voice-activated computer equipment that UNM and the Veterans Administration purchased about a year ago, Grisham says his productivity has improved dramatically. "He's like Mr. Denial when it comes to his personal problems," said Jane McGuire, Grisham's supervisor. "He has so much to overcome and he's probably one of the most motivated people in the department."

Up to a year ago, Grisham had to rely on slow typing and enlarged print on the computer screen to do his work. He had students read his mail and type his memos. It was frequently slow and sometimes frustrating, he said. Reading and responding to a memo would take two to three days because of delays in transcribing and correcting work, he said.

Now Grisham does everything by voice input, and it takes only 30 minutes to create a memo, he said. He dictates to the computer, which reads the memo back to him, and then it's out the door. Click here for a picture of Dave at his workstation. Grisham was paralyzed in September 1974 when he had an accident while soaring. The accident also robbed him of most of his sight. When strangers find out what he does for a living, Grisham usually gets surprised responses. "Then they want to know how I do it," he said.

Grisham does it by talking. Talking whenever he wants to surf the Internet. Talking when he wants to respond to electronic mail messages. "I do what everybody else does on the computer, but with voice," he said. "Voice technology in the 90's is rapidly improving. I predict that all computers will go to voice input. You'll talk to your computers."

TECHNOLOGY CASES WORK FOR DISABLED

Continued....

If he's right, Grisham is on the cutting edge of a technology that will increasingly help disabled employees in the workplace. Census Bureau statistics show that out of 49 million Americans with disabilities, 56 percent are of employment age. Yet only 39.3 percent of people with disabilities are in the work force, while 79 percent of people want to work.

"To meet the needs of the physically challenged, individuals and employers can find technology for a reasonable cost if they do a little research," Grisham said. Grisham acknowledged that his equipment is "on the very high end" of what's available on the market. UNM and the VA spent about $42,000 to buy and install voice-activated equipment in Grisham's office and at home. In his office in the Computer and Information Resource and Technology Building, Grisham sits in his wheelchair and works on the computer on a typical day. He trades phone calls with the police occasionally regarding security incidents and communicates with colleagues primarily through e-mail. He also has a guide dog who keeps him company and maintains a low-profile under his desk most of the time.

Grisham works on a computer with a Pentium processor and has a Hewlett Packard scanner that reads his mail and other correspondence. The voice-input system also repeats back to Grisham what he has dictated. He also has a talking dictionary to assist him and some students who help him part-time. Click here for a picture of Dave putting a memo into his text-to-voice scanner.

As he has become more familiar with the voice-input system, Grisham's hearing has also become keener. He can tell if the computer misheard him and wrote "Greek" instead of "great." Indeed, the computer is so voice-sensitive, Grisham sometimes must whisper away from the microphone to talk with visitors. He periodically issues commands such as "correct that, delete that, stop listening."

It beats squinting at large type on the screen and slow typing, Grisham said. He had to have surgery on his shoulders last year because he had strained himself so much by typing. Grisham's bright mind (He has a doctorate in education administration) and sharp memory also help in his work. He carries in his head dozens of computer commands to access the World Wide Web and other commonly-used functions. He also teaches a class on information security to other university administrators. There is a downside to working so intimately with computers, Grisham said. "You don't have a human being double-checking your work." On the other hand, Grisham says the voice-input technology allows him to be more independent. Click here for a picture of Dave and his Guide dog.

"You're not depending on someone else's interpretation of what you said," he noted. Because Grisham does nearly all his work by talking into the computer, his voice gets strained sometimes. "It has 95-percent recognition," Grisham said. "But what happens during the day is your voice changes. In the morning your voice is all excited, and by the end of the day you just get tired and your words slur."

McGuire, his supervisor, and other colleagues say they noticed the voice-input technology has made a real difference to Grisham. "It's mostly in the volume of written work," McGuire said. "So much of security-related stuff needs to be documented."

Mary Berrens, a co-worker, said Grisham seems more independent and efficient. "He's always on top of things," she said. Theresa Villareal, another colleague, said she noticed Grisham has a much faster response time to memos and other paperwork. "He can get it out of the door a lot faster," she said. "I know of co-workers who don't do as much as he does." Villareal also notices fewer typos and fragmented sentences in Grisham's work these days. "The quality of his work has also improved, he doesn't have to rely on his aide as much," she said.

As head of computer security, Grisham is called whenever someone attempts or succeeds in breaching UNM's security. Because he has the same equipment at home, Grisham is able to monitor the school's computer systems during off-hours too. "The intruders are usually one step ahead of us," he acknowledged. "They find the holes and we find the software to fix it."

Grisham said he has a word of advice for disabled people who want to work: "You can't feel sorry for yourself. You need to take on the attitude you can't have others solve your problems." The evolution of cyberspace, he said, has been particularly beneficial for some disabled or homebound people. "It has allowed a lot of individuals access to the world even if they're homebound."