Author: Beckman Institute for Advanced Sciences – Contact: saa.beckman.illinois.edu
Published: 2024/02/02
Peer Reviewed: N/A – Post type: Announcement/Notification
Table of Contents: Summary – Main article – About the Author
Synopsis: The Speech Accessibility Project has begun recruiting American and Puerto Rican adults who have had a stroke. Those interested can register online. Our goal is to teach you voice recognition AI to understand the way you speak right now, so you can use AI to help you at work or in activities of daily living.
Main summary
Funded by big tech companies Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to train speech recognition technologies to understand people with diverse speech patterns and disabilities. The project is also recruiting adults with Parkinson’s disease, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
“A stroke can cause big changes, including changes in the ability to speak,” said Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, project leader and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois. “Our goal is to teach AI to understand the way you speak right now, so you can use AI to help you at work or in activities of daily living. The Speech Accessibility Project is about empowerment; “The potential for empowering people post-stroke is enormous and wonderful.”
The project has partnered with the Lingraphica research team to recruit people who have had a stroke. Mentors will connect with those who want to participate, examine their speech, and help them understand and consent to participate.
Shawnise Carter, senior director of research at Lingraphica and a speech-language pathologist, said she is thrilled to join the project, calling it “ambitious and necessary.”
“It is essential that people with communication disabilities have access to technology in a way that can meet their needs,” Carter said. “The hope is that it will allow people who have had a stroke to access smart devices and technologies while decreasing the frustration resulting from voice recognition technology not recognizing altered speech.”
Currently, such technology does not take into account people with speech problems, he said.
“Creating a database that considers this is a great contribution to the field of communication sciences and disorders and more research of this nature should continue,” he said.
Clarion Mendes, clinical assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences at Illinois and speech therapist, added that the Speech Accessibility Project could also improve the quality of life for family members and loved ones of people who have suffered a stroke.
“Communication difficulties associated with stroke, commonly known as stroke, are diverse in both their severity and how they affect individuals and their families. Speech, language and cognitive processes can be affected,” Mendes said. . “Including stroke survivors with aphasia and their caregivers in the Speech Accessibility Project is an exciting new chapter. There is exceptional potential to increase the quality of life of stroke survivors and decrease the burden on caregivers”.
Those interested in participating can Register online.
Attribution/Source(s):
This quality reviewed article relating to our Disability Events – Public Notices section was selected for publication by Disabled World editors due to its likely interest to our readers in the disability community. Although content may have been edited for style, clarity, or length, the article “Speech accessibility project recruiting people who have had a stroke” was originally written by the Beckman Institute for Advanced Sciences and published by Disabled-World.com on 02/02/2024. If you require further information or clarification, you may contact the Beckman Institute for Advanced Sciences at saa.beckman.illinois.edu. Disabled World makes no warranties or representations in connection therewith.
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Permanent link: Speech Accessibility Project Recruiting People Who Have Had a Stroke
Cite this page (APA): Beckman Institute for Advanced Sciences. (2024, February 2). Speech accessibility project recruiting people who have had a stroke. Disabled world. Retrieved February 4, 2024 from www.disabled-world.com/news/events/stroke-speech.php
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