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USB Hand Control/SUM program HELP!! - Wheelie

Posted: Jun 05, 2010

I am in college right now for transcription, and am just getting in to using the SUM program... I start summer semester on Monday and am disabled with no use of my legs, I use the Phillips USB hand control in place of a foot pedal. Well SUM doesn't work with it... I tried downloading the audio files to my computer and then importing them in to Express Scribe, which DOES work with my hand control, and I guess the permissions on the files won't allow ES to open the files. Is there ANY way around this?? I can't call HPI until Monday, but even then, not sure they will have any kind of quick solution. I am FREAKING out! I have got to find a way to open these files on another wav player. Thank you in advance.

Sum Audio Files - Kathleen Williams

[ In Reply To ..]
I sincerely doubt that HPI would have any kind of solution to this at all. I had similar issues when I went to Andrews. Sometimes I could use my foot pedal, sometimes not; it all depends on how my stenosis is behaving on that day.

I was sort of peeved that there is no thought whatsoever given to handicapped MTs with the SUM program.

Nevertheless, I was able to work around this by capturing the playback of the SUM file via a sound capturing program and then saving that file as a simple wav which will play back with Express Scribe or many other programs.

I used SoundTap from the folks who provide Express Scribe for free, although there are other programs out there that will do as well--probably even better. SoundTap, when I got it, was really prone towards crashing and was very particular with the order by which you did things, but I did get it to work. I was floored also by the surcharge my credit card company tacked on because the nch.com folks are in Australia--so, I got hammered for an additional $45 surcharge because they are in Australia. You may want to look around. There are other programs out there that handle that.

Additionally, it is also possible to transform the foot pedal into a mouth or hand pedal by opening the foot pedal up and rewiring the unit to a mouth control unit. This requires some experience with working with circuit boards and soldering, but it is very doable. Then, the foot pedal circuit board needs to be put in some sort of an enclosure to hold things together. (I used an old Whitman's candy box.) Again, disabled MTs are left twisting in the breeze when it comes to program controllers.

This capturing of voice files does add a considerable amount of time and a whole lot of extra work to the business of learning to transcribe. However, there is also an advantage because you can now burn those files to CDs and play them in portable CD players to listen to the dictations while you are away from the computer. While I was in the car with hubby driving, I would close my eyes and listen and "see" the words being transcribed in my mind.

By the way, you hang in there. I am also disabled and can barely walk anymore, but I have been working from home as an IC with a really nice MTSO from the land of the potatoes.

Best of luck to you!

Kathleen

That is so charming - the land of the potatoes! - Grady nm

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Sum Audio Files - Wheelie

[ In Reply To ..]
Thank you so much for your detailed response! I was beginning to feel like I was the only one out there that has run into this problem! I have put a call in to Debbie over at HPI technical support. I left a detailed message of my situation. I have also e-mailed my instructor, and the head of the department.

I think it is really sad, and has to breaking some kind of ADA accessibility laws that SUM only supports a FOOT pedal, when I know there must be others out there that cannot use a foot pedal like me and you. All of my MT books have had actual sections devoted to talking about disabled MTs, most of the 3rd party wav players support the hand control, Express Scribe, and Gear Player for sure. Gear actually has a specific selection for the Phillip's hand control.

The Sound Tap... I looked it up, is it hard to use? I guess I will have to get that... is that all I need?

Alternatives to SoundTap - Kathleen Williams

[ In Reply To ..]
Since you are in college, I surmise that they probably have an IT department and staff to deal with campus computer issues. I would approach them first thing Monday morning and let them know that you have an ADA-related access problem and see what they can do for you.

Since all that is really needed to be done is to capture the audio from the sound card, someone just only really needs to babysit the computer while the dictation plays through at regular speed. Then after each dictation is captured, they'd have to save the file and name it appropriately. This is a REAL tedious, time-consuming, often-making-you-curse method that a student should not be forced into doing. But, we do what we have to do to make things work out, don't we? If there are, say, 100 hours of dictation, then there will be at least 125+ hours' worth of work to get usable files. I have long since disposed of those files or I would gladly ship them to you.

I would approach the college with what you need done and why, leaving out the denial of equal access to disabled issue--at least at first. Truly, they will have other disabled students coming on board who will have the same issues, and it would be to their benefit for them to create the alternative access should HPI fail to address the issue, which I think is highly likely given that they've stored their voice files as registry-type files. HPI would also have an issue with the test files, which are also on the disk. Those are password protected and cannot be accessed without the proper key given by the instructor, and HPI has gone to great lengths to protect the sanctity of those tests. So, I really don't think HPI will be of much assistance in that regard.

I'm not sure if SoundTap has improved (or not) since I used it, but that particular program did cause me to curse quite a bit. It is not a free program, and they are mighty proud of it, charging accordingly. Don't forget the credit card surcharge either. They do take PayPal now, but the surcharge is tacked onto the PayPal price in the form of no discounts being given to PayPal customers. Either way, you'd end up paying boku bucks more than you should have to.

Here's some alternatives, which I didn't really look into because I was in the "desperate" mode and didn't know what I was doing at that time.

http://all-streaming-media.com/record-audio-stream/direct-sound-recording.htm

http://stream-recorder.com/forum/direct-sound-recording-software-record-anything-your-t1922.html?s=a1f3a852328963aaa1c86e2d56db3c76&t=1922

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHf4igOgnl0

Check out the youtube videos regarding this and some of the comments/questions below those videos. I think that you can find an alternative that is far cheaper than SoundTap and without all the crashing/rebooting issues.

Kathleen

GOT IT!!! - Wheelie

[ In Reply To ..]
Kathleen,

If I could, I would give you a HUGE HUG right now! You saved my life, well my potential career and sanity at least! I looked up all these sites... tried the highest ranked one, Real Music 3... looked like it MAY have worked well except for everytime I ran it, it made the SUM program crash. So nix that idea. Went on to the one called Freecorder... it worked, but wouldn't let me save in wav format (not a huge deal as it worked in mp3 format), but kept breaking up the dictations. There wasn't a real good setting to fix this. So I went back to square one, and went to the SoundTap website. I went looking at the screenshots and saw a "download now" button. Oh what the hell? I clicked it... suprisingly it downloaded on to my computer for FREE. I tried it out, and it works beautifully!! While it WILL be a pain in the ass to go through the files and do it (luckily we don't have to do every single dictation on the disk) lesson by lesson, that way it doesn't seem so overwhelming. It didn't crash at all when I used it, at least with tapping a 7:12 minute dictation. It was easy then to change the file name to correspond with the correct lessons.

I knew finding an answer to this would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But you are my needle! I am so glad you saw my post and knew EXACTLY what I was going through! The SUM program/HPI people can STICK IT! If I get a return phone call from them, they will get an earfull though because it is true that they have taken no consideration for disabled MTs with their software. That just is not right, especially when the industry balks about how they have so many disabled people doing this job!

Are you on FB? If so, I would love to add you as my "friend." :)

Glad you found your needle! - Kathleen Williams

[ In Reply To ..]
I am glad that you have found a work-around for your problem. BTW, if you had not posted on the main board as well, I would never have seen the question because I don't visit the Tech forum.

Yes, I am on FB. I think you can email me from this posting. I'd love to be FB friends, and if you are in need of a mentor, I'd like that as well.

Kathleen

You are truly an angel, Kathleen! - Millie

[ In Reply To ..]
It is people like you who restore my faith in mankind!

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