RSI, also known as repetitive strain injury, is a common health condition that is often closely linked to physical activity whilst working. In fact, 1 in 50 of all UK workers in the UK have reported an RSI condition.

It is when an individual sustains damage to their muscles, tendons and nerves through an action that they regularly complete for example, typing, painting and decorating or driving a lorry are all tasks known to lead to RSI pain.

You may have guessed from the mention of typing that we frequently work with employees that have RSI, often off the back of an Access to Work assessment. In fact, speech recognition is recommended as a reasonable adjustment or assistive technology in these cases.

So how does speech recognition benefit those with RSI pain exactly? Let’s take a look…

Reducing clicks

Although a seemingly simple task that most of us wouldn’t think twice about, clicking a computer mouse can be extremely painful for someone with RSI. However, in most jobs, it is a non-negotiable and a necessity within the role.

That’s where Dragon speech recognition comes in.

Although a productivity tool also, Dragon primarily started off as an assistive tool and so it has in-built features to cater to the users with special requirements. A great example of assistive features is the “Click” command.

Dragon allows users to complete a clicking action through a simple spoken phrase. Common voice commands are “Click Insert” or “Click Save” however various others are available.

A simple feature like this can save users with RSI pain a lot of discomfort – Which is a win if you ask us!

Please note: This feature is only available with non-cloud versions such as Dragon Professional 16 and Dragon Professional Group.

Step-by-step commands

One of the great things about Dragon is how much you can personalise your voice profile, it can be tailored incredibly specifically to its user and step-by-step commands are one of many ways to do so.

A step-by-step command is a more in-depth voice command from which you can direct the computer to complete multiple actions with one voice command. Sometimes this can be a series of clicks, others a completion of a form.

To give an example, updating a CRM system is a universal part of most roles – We all have to do it. For someone with RSI pain, adding a case note to someone’s record can entail upwards of 30 clicks and can need to be done many times in one day.

With step-by-step commands, this can be automated with just a phrase. For example, with the help of our specialist Dragon trainers, the user could say “Create New Note” and Dragon would then go to the note section within the contact, select today’s date and time, enter the name of the user entering the note, select the type of note and then go to the free text box ready for the user to dictate the update itself.

What would have been upwards of 30 clicks, is now 0 and the user will be a lot more comfortable.

Another great example of step-by-step commands that we have set up for our clients is to set up their computers. With a simple command such as “Set Up Computer” Dragon is able to open all of the necessary applications that the user needs for the day and position them on their monitor in their preferred layout. Again, simple but effective.

A safety crutch

Lastly, we’d like to share with you an insightful way to approach speech recognition from an RSI point of view.

Anyone with this condition will know there will be good days and bad days and we encourage our assistive users to consider Dragon as a crutch on the bad days.

Some days the pain may be less and you’ll rarely use Dragon, but on the days where the pain is unbearable, you will have the comfort of knowing that you have your helpful software to get you through the day.

You may not need the step-by-step commands one day, but on another day, they might be your saving grace and for many that will be extremely reassuring to know.

Hopefully, that has given you a better insight into how speech recognition can be a valuable assistive tool in the workplace as well as an amazing productivity asset.

If you’d like pricing for speech recognition or our discounted assistive training sessions then you can request a quote here.

Please be aware if you have RSI, you are eligible for funding through the Access To Work scheme that can be put towards technology like Dragon. We also offer discounted rates in these cases.