PC Equivalent of English Speech Recognition?

[Chuck Segrest]

Don't get hostile, I'm a Macintosh (iListen) fan myself.  I have a
co-worker who has two Macs at home, but he is "forced" to use a PC at
work.  We're being rebuffed in our attempts to get ViaVoice for PC (or
any other PC programs) to help him do his work.  I thought there might
be a PC equivalent to the [free!] English Speech Recognition and Text to
Speech facilities in Mac OS 9.  If we could demonstrate [for free!] the
viability of such capabilities, it might bolster our case for getting
the money to buy ViaVoice (or whatever).

Somewhat off the topic, but he is deaf, so we are also looking for ways
to have phone calls somehow converted to on-screen text.  Just started
on that aspect of it.  All advice appreciated, thanks everyone!

Chuck Segrest
chuck.segrest at lmco.com