When Thames Valley Police Partnership Inspector Andy Gray was diagnosed with RSI over ten years ago he couldn’t have predicted how changing his methods of working could help him to remain in his post.  A sufferer of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, one of the many forms of RSI, Andy suffers constant pain in both arms and hands, rendering him practically incapable of driving a pc using the traditional method via a mouse and keyboard.  The answer lay in the introduction to his work environment of speech recognition supplied by software specialists TalkingPoint. 

Andy’s role requires him to undertake the majority of his work using the computer.  It had become so impossible for Andy to use the mouse and keyboard to undertake even simple tasks that he knew unless he could find a solution he may well be unable to continue working.  It was through a colleague that he first heard about Access To Work, an organisation that can help when health or disability affects work performance.  Following a thorough assessment of Andy’s needs they recommended TalkingPoint speech recognition as a way to help Andy undertake his job on a daily basis.                    

“If I’m honest I couldn’t do my job without TalkingPoint now, and would most likely be on certified sick.  I do not want to be unfit for work as I have a contribution to make and I want to do it to the best of my ability. TalkingPoint’s speech recognition technology has allowed me to do this.” says Andy. Andy now uses his voice to do about 90% of his work on the pc.  Andy goes on to say, “If I had slightly more time I’m sure I could get this percentage higher but in reality I have a really busy role as a Partnership Liaison Inspector and its only time constraints that prevent me getting the absolute maximum benefit out of the TalkingPoint product.  This is my next challenge.” 

Andy is a relatively new user of TalkingPoint and within only six months has seen his productivity improve massively with the support of speech technology.  The solution created by the TalkingPoint team works with the well known and established Dragon speech engine and is proving to have dramatic results in a number of market sectors including medical, legal and construction. Creating workflows TalkingPoint delivers a user friendly voice interface and is highly intuitive to users needs.   

In 2006 nearly half a million people in the UK suffered from some form of RSI. The problem is increasing principally through the intensive use of computers and other technology that involves large amounts of keyboarding. Posture related health problems are also growing due to the sedentary nature of many jobs.