I just found out Nuance the makers of Dragon Professional Individual for Mac has discontinued their product

I'd also copy (or address to) at least one of the Senior leadership executives. Angela Ahrendts is the Senior VP of retail sales - not sure if she is the right person, but take a look and pick the person you think might fit the bill (so to speak) best (Software Engineering is another possibility).

https://www.apple.com/leadership/

You have beautifully clarified many of the more subtle (or rather, less obvious to well-intentioned people who may not have physical challenges) but absolutely crucial distinctions between being able to use a full-fledged voice dictation sprogram, versus dictation (at least presently) on the Mac.

Being able to edit text is vital, along with training vocabulary and corrections. There are so many aspects of being able to use voice dictation upon which I've become totally dependent, that they are not all immediately coming to mind. I suppose I have come to take them for granted, as I rely on them on a daily basis. It seems quite mad that so many people in the disability community could have their lives upended by a third-party software company!

I also agree heartily that Dragon for Windows was always far more productive and comprehensive than their version for Mac, and they have now let us down completely. So, what next?

Making a video to convey what you're trying to get across to Apple was a great idea! Your creating a YouTube channel is brilliant- go for it!

You're right- getting visibility about the issue is key. I was thinking of contacting some disability support organizations for ideas and possibly getting them them on board, having their organizations make a noise about the situation. As individuals, we need to do that as well, but it always helps to have more people on board.

I was also thinking about contacting the disability resource centers at several universities, seeing who's given Ted talks on disability issues and contacting them etc. etc. You never know where you'll end up when you talk to people, connecting the dots, and just giving it a try.

I've worked with several journalists in the past on some stories to do with health issues, and I'm wondering whether any of them might be interested the subject, and take it on. Getting info about the issue in front of people's faces makes a huge difference.

If I can get anyone to pay attention, would you be willing to communicate with them? My experience has been that it can take a while for these things to bear fruit, so I won't know when or whether they would get back to me soon, but it's worth a try. ( re that particular health care issue- It took two years to get the powers- that-be to finally pass a Senate bill, correcting the unholy meeting of an old state law and a new federal law which inadvertently created a situation where seniors of a certain age were, without their knowledge, accruing considerable debt through a health plan glitch, creating a lien on their estates. The governor finally passed the new bill and fixed it, so people really can make a difference when they raise their voices.)

I've noticed that there are several more online articles each day about the demise of Dragon for Mac. Contacting those reporters directly is also an idea. If you know anyone personally who also has the same issues, perhaps they would be willing to make an effort to make a noise as well. The more the merrier, and the more the chance of being heard. I'll put on my thinking cap, put out some feelers next week. (Most people's interests this next week will probably be all about the elections, so we'll see.) I'll keep you posted. Good luck with everything!

It is a huge deal, and it’s now clear that all of us with disabilities who relied on third-party voice dictation software, in order to use a Mac, have now been left out in the cold without any other option in sight.

Dragon for Mac never received the full attention to quality that the Windows Dragon NaturallySpeaking version did, but it was the only game in town. Anyone who loved their Mac was stuck using it, and put up with the glitches, and kept hoping it would get better with time. I kept wondering why Nuance had no competition in the voice dictation field, and now, I feel completely blindsided in having absolutely no options at all.

Being a devoted Mac user, I kept hoping that Apple would rise to the challenge and eventually provide high quality comprehensive voice dictation software for their Mac users, but no such luck as of yet. Nor any luck with any other software company, apparently!

I posted about this myself today (What to do about Dragon for Mac being discontinued, and not being supported on Mohave?), So I’m in full sympathy with you, but have no answers, only the same frustrating questions.

I spent a number of hours today on an Apple support chat, and then speaking on the phone to support in Apple accessibility, and they did not seem to know that there is no other voice dictation software for Mac available. They even suggested trying to use the voice dictation provided on the Mac itself, not grasping that it is extremely limited for the needs of a person who absolutely must use dictation for most tasks on the computer.

I agree that Apple needs to be aware of this, as it’s a ticking time bomb in the making. There are lots of people who do not upgrade their operating systems right away, and one day soon, they are going to be very surprised and shocked to find out that they can no longer use voice dictation on their Mac.

This means that any Mac user with disabilities who wants to continue using a Mac will not be able to upgrade their operating systems, or risk losing voice dictation functionality. I can hardly believe this is actually happening in this day and age. How can there be no high quality voice dictation software available for Apple users? Any software developers listening? Apple listening?

As there are many people who do not rush to upgrade their operating systems right away, my guess is that it will take a while for many people to find out that they’ve got a big problem they’ll be facing the future, regarding continuing to use Macs. I get the feeling that Apple is not aware that this major problem for disabled users is likely to expand exponentially over time.

Nuance did not have the courtesy to give its registered Dragon for Mac users the heads up about not upgrading to Mojave, and then just suddenly discontinued the product and support out of the blue.

One of the people who responded to the post I made today said “FWIW, Apple cannot force Nuance to support macOS. Nor is it reasonable for Apple to freeze macOS forever so Dragon for Mac will continue to run. It's unfortunate but these things happen.” I could be wrong, but my guess is that the person who wrote that does not have a disability, and is somewhat lacking in compassion and understanding.

Apple needs to be made aware that it has legions of users who have disabilities who will no longer be able to use their computers in the future, due to this third-party software no longer being available. So if someone else wants to step up to the plate and address this problem with new software, or if Apple would like to get involved, I would be thrilled.

Perhaps we should take up the “Horton Hears a Who “ model, and join our voices together, in the hopes that Apple will actually be able to hear us. I wonder if there are any disability support organizations who would take up the challenge to make some noise about this. It’s to the benefit of Apple to keep their Mac users happy, and to not recognize the disabled community as enthusiastic Mac users is a major blind spot.

All I am suggesting is to use feedback assistant, many aren't aware that it exists. In this case it seems like the right tool for the job. Maybe if more people provide feedback it might get flagged as something to work on. I'm sure that Apple executives don't want their inbox hit with emails on one piece of discontinued software.

Nuance won't be interested in restarting Dragon, as Apple add features like dictation the market for Dragon reduces. This is what has happened to the on screen keyboard software KeyStrokes, they won't continue development because Apple provide OSK for free, even though it is not as good as KeyStrokes. I've provided feedback on Apple OSK and achieved nothing, Apple just do what they want. I'm also a Dragon user and the lack of multiple choice selection and correction in dictation makes it unusable for me. I'm running 10.14.3 public beta and use feedback assistant which I hope someone at Apple reads. I'll now give feedback on Dictation as well.

In which case even more important that anyone using the beta gives feedback through it. I'll continue to do so as it does seem like the best route to actually get someone to listen. Wouldn't suggest anyone moves to the beta just to do so. My copy runs on an external SSD. So far Dragon has worked on the public releases of Mojave with the usual issues of jumping cursor and no correction window at times, eventually it probably will stop working and it is useful to have the beta to load on SSD and check before upgrading.

I was unclear, I meant to say contact Apple directly to tell them your situation and see if they could help with an alternative.

I would start by leaving them feedback.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

have you contacted them? Perhaps they can give you ideas for an alternative to what you were using.

Update FYI. I have spent many hours this week reconnecting with journalists, contacting college disability resource centers, putting out feelers to anyone interested in Mac/disability issues, etc.. It has taken a while to hear back, but things are starting to percolate a little. I’ll let you know if/when anything fruitful comes up.

Have you had any feedback from your Facebook PDF, or from Apple regarding their insufficient voice dictation capabilities? Have you had the time to move forward your YouTube channel game plan? Do you know anyone from the disability community who might be interested in this issue?

I do realize how time-consuming and tiring this is. I think I put in several full days on this issue in the past week, and it’s not entirely clear how best to address bringing attention to the issue. I’m planning on just trying whatever I can, with the goal of bringing visibility to this issue before the public, Apple, potential software developers, and the disability community, in the hope of encouraging addressing the future void for disabled Mac users being able to continue using their Macs.

I’ll keep you posted, and if you have any brain waves on things to try, please let me know, and good luck on your end.

For some disability related issues, like wheelchair access, in many Western societies there are laws governing what must be provided for accessibility. I would be interested to know if any of those laws are applicable to these kinds of software issues and what comment or advice a legal expert in this area might be able to give.