MOORPARK : Spoken Word Opens Computer World

Just say the word.

For 160 Moorpark Community College students with physical and learning disabilities, a new voice-activated computer will make word and data processing just that easy.

“This computer, in effect, gives me my hands back,” said Charles H. Monbleau, 33, who lost mobility in most of his body after a diving accident four years ago.

“With the Dragon Dictate program, my voice will be my fingers. . . . I’m thrilled,” he said.

Dragon Dictate, a software package, allows users to “type” 30 to 40 words a minute by speaking into a microphone plugged into a special circuit board. The new computer is three times faster than its predecessor in the college’s High Tech Center.

It was set to go on-line two months ago, but electronic difficulties delayed its debut.

Before his accident, Monbleau worked as a mechanic building F-117 Stealth fighters for Lockheed Aircraft Corp.

Today, the Thousand Oaks resident is wheelchair-bound.

He can turn the pages of a book with his right arm but cannot move the rest of his body.

He is working toward an associate’s degree in computer science at Moorpark and hopes to be a programmer, and to compete against people free of handicaps for jobs.

“After sitting around for three years contemplating what to do with my life, having no focus, basically being in limbo . . . this has given me quite a focus,” he said, referring to school and modern computer technology.

“This will open the doors to my future.”

Monbleau, who is from New York, often says “dis and dat” instead of “this and that.”

But the new computer program eventually will ignore his accent as it grows more familiar with his voice.

Dragon Dictate, made by Dragon Systems Inc. of Newton, Mass., has a primary vocabulary of 25,000 common words, which is expandable to 30,000 words, and a secondary vocabulary of 80,000 less-common words, including 10,000 proper names.

By early next year, Monbleau will probably be more familiar with the new computer package than any other Moorpark student--because he will have one at home.

Monbleau is one of 10 recipients of the High Tech Center Student Achievement Award, chosen from among physically handicapped students at California’s 150 community colleges.

Next month, IBM will award each student a computer and software package worth about $14,000 as a reward for scholastic accomplishments.

“The whole setup (is) exactly what I need to achieve my goals,” he said.

Sherry Attile, a High Tech Center specialist, said, “Chuck is a great source of inspiration for all of our students. . . . He never gives up.”