Marty is an adult who is working in a computer reservations office for a national hotel chain for his work study program in high school. Marty has a severe physical disability due to a congenital birth defect. He has unusually shortened arms and legs and is unable to walk or stand upright but drives a motorized wheelchair around the town and is getting his own car soon that will have customized accelerators and braking controls. His hands, although complete with five fingers each, are of limited use. He can use his hands to stabilize objects (cans of food, books, etc.) by pressing the object against another firm surface, to control his wheelchair, he uses a joystick switch, and as an aid in readjusting his position to prevent pressure sores. Marty is not able to write with his hands; rather, he writes by holding a pen in his mouth. Marty uses a mouthstick to input information into a computer at work and in school. This is very slow and effortful. He is in need of your assistance in modifying his computer so that he is more productive at his work site.

1. What computer barriers will Marty likely face using the unmodified computer at his worksite?

Marty is using a mouthstick to input information into a computer at work and in school and it must be very tiring for him to do all his work with a mouthstick. (As far as I read, mouthsticks can be big and bulky and stop people from working for an extended period of time.)

2. How should his computer be modified to meet his needs?

Marty should definitely try and see if voice recognition works for him. Voice recognition offers speed and efficiency and it can increase Marty's productivity. However, for some people voice recognition is not the best alternative because it requires a different set of skills. Written speech is much more formal than the spoken language. After Marty writes a paper for school or a report for work, he might need to go back and check if the paper or the report sounds formal enough and that might mean extra work for him. Also, talking to the computer for an extended period of time can be very tiring, and Marty's accuracy would go down the more he talks.Therefore, Marty defintely needs to see if voice recognition is helpful to him or not.

3. What specific technology may help Marty when he is using his computer?
If we consider Marty a Mac user, iListen (a voice recognition software) would be helpful when he is using his computer.

# Mac OS 10.1.5, Mac OS 10.2.x, Mac OS 9.2.2.
# Requires a PowerMacintosh G3 or PowerMacintosh G4 computer
# 192MB of RAM
# 256MB RAM with Mac OS X
# CD-ROM
# Approved speech recognition headset/microphone.

4. How much training do you think he will need to use the device (i.e., how easy is it for you to understand the device from your research on the web)?

I went to the manifacturer's website and read about the product but I couldn't find any information about the time required for training. However, as far as I read, newer versions of voice recognition products generally require 10-15 minutes of preparation. Some products also offer dictation pointers for those who enunciate poorly.