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Alice Keeler

Tip: Talk to Type with Windows 10 Accessibility Feature

Educator and Blogger, Victoria Thompson, shares how utilizing talk to type with Windows 10 can help people with accessibility issues.
Tip: Talk to Type with Windows 10 Accessibility Feature

Talk to Type For the Rescue!

I was recently on vacation and a friend broke her wrist! Such a bummer. She is doing well now, but still has some work she has to complete. The wrist she broke is not on her dominant hand but she still had difficulty typing and completing tasks. I taught her “talk to type” over my stay and it helped to save the day!

Try It!

There are some times where I even enjoy typing and there are some times where I don’t really care to type. This is where “talk to type” or “voice to text” or “speak to text” or “voice recognition”–whatever you want to call it–comes in handy. As the school year winds down and I am exhausted, I find myself using this feature more as a time saver. And, if you have a computer with Windows 10, you can enable this feature!

If you’d like to do this…

  • On a touch keyboard, select “microphone” to get started. From there, you’ll be prompted to speak so that the keyboard can record your voice. 
  • On a physical keyboard, press the Windows logo key and “H” to begin to speak what’s on your mind (and it’ll dictate it as well).

More Features with Voice

Microsoft has additional options for this in some other apps (like PowerPoint and OneNote), but I really appreciate it being embedded in Windows 10. It’s really neat to have an option on my Surface (and other devices I have that utilize Windows 10) where I can speak and the feature can automatically dictate what I am saying. Typically once I’m done with talk to type, I’ll go back and revise what I’ve said for clarity and ease of reading. If you’re working with students who may be slow to type/have difficulty typing but excel in oral dictation, this is also a great way to get them engaged in classroom activities like essays, summaries, and general writing.

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