Chuck Wins!

Major Chuck Ziegenfuss, inspiration and co-creator of Valour-IT has won an award for describing how the ability to operate his computer by voice changed his life.

After he was wounded (and before Valour-IT was even an idea), Soldiers' Angels helped Chuck get a laptop, and a reader of his blog sent him Dragon Naturally Speaking software. Last Monday, he won three years of Dragon software updates and an electronic personal travel assistant from Nuance, the maker of Dragon, for his entry in a Nuance-sponsored competition to describe how its software impacts users.

Chuck wrote:

I use Dragon Naturally Speaking to regain control of the life that was temporarily robbed from me. The use of Dragon Naturally Speaking to use a computer, to connect, to do something that I was able to do before I was injured made me feel somewhat whole, somewhat normal, for the first time.

The press release put out by Nuance highlighted his involvement with Valour-IT:

A loyal reader of the blog bought Ziegenfuss a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking to allow him to freely dictate his thoughts without relying on others. Once he started using Dragon to blog, Ziegenfuss’ readers agreed that this technology should be available to other soldiers who were in the same situation that he was. Ziegenfuss partnered with SoldiersAngels to form VALOUR-IT (Voice Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops) with a vision to provide laptops equipped with Dragon NaturallySpeaking to wounded soldiers whose injuries prevented them from operating a computer manually.

When we created Project Valour-IT, we relied heavily on Dragon Naturally Speaking to help the recipients use the laptops we supplied. Fortunately, we were able to buy the software at a bulk rate, and hundreds of wounded military men and women were able to easily access a computer with just their voices. Since then, the Department of Defense Computer Assistance Program has taken over the voice software side of things (allowing us to spend all our funds on simply equipping quality laptops with regular software to which various adaptive technologies will be added). But it all began with Dragon. As Patti said in the Soldiers' Angels press release, "It takes both technology and the human touch to help our wounded warriors recover, and Soldiers' Angels is thrilled to see the two work together so well in Project Valour-IT."

Bravo, Chuck! And to Nuance, thank you for being there when we needed you!