This is my first blog post using speech recognition technology (SRT) as my means of writing. After posting a picture of my notebook and workspace by the pool last week, I received a comment expressing surprise that I still wrote by hand. How fortunate are we today that we have so many tools at our disposal, and can match the technology to the purpose.

As most of my followers know, I deal with invisible disabilities, most debilitating of those are migraines. As a writer I find that I have become very sporadic in my writing due to pain, light sensitivity, nausea, and vertigo. But yet I find writers across the centuries who have written amazing works, painters who have painted masterpieces, and even composers who were able to produce music that transcends time and place all while living with a myriad of disabilities. Now I’m striving to figure out how I can work with and around my illness. I’m also curious to learn how others with disabilities use technology or other techniques to continue doing what they love.

While in grad school, I had a friend with severe rheumatoid arthritis who did her PhD dissertation over talk to text technology. That was over a decade ago, and the technology has improved immensely since then. Knowing that, today I’m creating my first blog post using this technology that comes standard on my android smartphone. I’ve been using this for emails, text messaging, and Facebook posts for a number of years, but I hadn’t practiced using this technology for anything longer, or for any creative type of writing.

As I’m completing the “Influence and Impact Summit” coordinated by Michael Hyatt, (which are videos I’ve been able to listen to in my dark bedroom during this latest round of migraines) and also focusing the rest of October as Intentional Blogging Month per Goinswriter.com, I plan to practice with different styles, purposes, and technologies of writing. I have also been challenged to identify why I write and my audience (learning new technology might be easier). I wrote a post a while back (Creating with Disabilities) sharing how I work on my bad days. I need to put more of those techniques into regular practice.

I look forward to seeing how you respond, and reading your feedback in the comments below.

(* Note: I did use my laptop computer to edit this post and add pictures and hyperlinks.)