[Accessibility] Could you please fix the punctuation generator in speech-to-text? It used to work, but has been broken for over a month.

[stevec]

Problem statement:

This is a major disability-related issue. The speech-to-text feature within Canvas, located in discussion forums and in assignment comments, used to recognize commands to insert punctuation marks like "comma," "period," and "question mark." It no longer does. This is a major issue for those of us with mobility-based disabilities--in my case, arthritis.

Proposed solution:

Figure out what broke it, and fix it. Why? Because it's broken.

User role(s):

instructor

[greydon]

Hello @stevec 

We're sorry to hear you've been experiencing issues with the speech-to-text feature while grading student submissions in speedgrader. There has been a small influx of users experiencing this same issue and it has been brought to Canvas' attention. After delving into the issue, looking at specifics, troubleshooting, etc. it has been confirmed to be an issue stemming from Google and not Canvas. This tool was created by Google and the API used for the speech-to-text functionality appears to be causing issues specifically when saying the words for punctuation like you had listed. The engineers at Canvas have looked into the issue and determined the "fix" needs to  come from Google as we do not have access to troubleshoot their product on the back end. Please feel free to reach out to your school or institution if it is imperative that you get the feature working for you again. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you and we hope Google can fix the issue on their end, as it isn't subject to just Canvas and is affecting other sites as well.