Speech Technology

Speech to text (STT) software uses speech recognition technology to convert verbal language into digital text. Until recently, speech technology has only been available to some students with special educational needs and the quality of the technology has been rather poor. Today, with the enhancement of artificial intelligence, speech technology has a significantly higher accuracy rate, and is available to all students across several digital platforms.Speech technology enables students to produce text in an alternative manner. Compared to handwritten texts, or text typed on a keyboard, speech technology provides a compensatory effect by reducing barriers caused by poor orthography (e.g., spelling and punctuation) skills.

STT is available to all students, as an integrated tool on tablets and phones with Apple's iOS. Specific reading and writing applications, such as Into Words, also has a dictation function. Dictation can be used in web browsers, for example in Google Documents where it is enabled in the menu under "Tools" or by using the shortcut "ctrl+shift+s".