Due to a hand disability, I need voice dictation to use a computer, but now my old iMac is on its last legs, and Dragon for Mac is dead. What on my options now?

Hi! Unfortunately, all of the research I've done has landed me in the same place you are; the latest Mac updates have brought Mac dictation to a somewhat better place than it used to be, but it's still terrible, and frankly not good enough to actually allow for day to day computer use. Meanwhile, the third party options besides Nuance that I have tried are also not good very good at dictation, while also not being very good at working with Mac controls. I agree with you that this state of affairs is quite shocking; disabled computer users deserve better!

What I have done about this issue is a mistake that I hope that you can learn from - I got a charitable grant that covered a very poor quality windows computer and a Dragon purchase, and have split between using that for serious dictation because the dictation is so much better, and using Voice control on the Mac because the computer is so much better; I recommend learning from my mistakes, and, if you have to get a new and improved computer anyway, just getting a good windows computer that you can actually use Dragon on.

In an ideal world, Dragon would work on Mac (or Voice Control would work better, or there would be another program that worked well and worked on Mac), but until we live in that world, I think that we're probably stuck having to slowly migrate to windows. :( I hope that you find a solution that works for you, and wish you luck!

alvca

I am a quadriplegic and rely on voice control also. I've run into the same issue with my Mac. I am running High Sierra because it is the last Mac OS able to support Dragon for Mac 4.0.

I just got my hands on a Monterey Mac Mini. My plan is to use the Mac built in voice control/dictation and see exactly what my limitations are. Hopefully, it will suffice. I chose a Mac Mini expecting a better soundcard so I can use a USB headset microphone for better recognition. I think their voice control is pretty robust but I will definitely be making some custom commands. Also, there is an app called Keymou that allows you to create custom mouse movements with keyboard commands. It has a lot of features such as positioning, drag and drop, and clicking.

Dictation is another story in itself. It's not very accurate. I don't think it learns. Correction is a disaster, and spelling is just plain stupid. Believe it or not, in High Sierra, the best program to dictate into is stickies!

If all else fails, I can install Windows 10 through Parallels and utilize the best of both worlds.

Hope this helps,

Hi alvca

Things have improved a lot since Dragon for Mac. Dictation on Monteray seems to work much better, although I have not had enough experience yet to say whether it is as good as Dragon on Windows. I have noticed a lot of improvements with Apples Voice Control recently and many issues in earlier versions have been resolved. It is not perfect - I still find somethings that could be a lot better.

If you want to edit using voice you have to Enable Voice Control in the Accessibility settings. The dictation option under the Keyboard preferences does not give you access to the editing commands. Voice Control gives you much more control over the mac and dictation.

I am running Monterey latest update on an M1 Mac Book Pro. As you have probably found out the spec of the machine seems to help with voice recognition. My 2020 M1 has 16Gb Memory and I think this helps. I am using the built in microphone on the mac and this gives good results, but as always with voice recognition , results seem better if you can get good quality input and minimise background noise.

I am not aware of any other dictation product for the Mac that provides the functionality of Dragon. A lot of programs like MS Office and Google docs have dictation options, but these do not yet provide the range of commands that are required for totally hands-free typing.

I hope this helps.

alvca ~ You're running macOS 10.13, so there have been four major versions of macOS since then. If you purchase a Mac that can run the latest macOS 12 Monterey, presumably you'll see improvements to its dictation capabilities. See the following Apple Support Article beginning at the Dictation section:

Use Voice Control on your Mac

...found by searching Apple's Knowledge Base.

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