Voice Recognition Technology Unlocks Potential for Special Needs Children

Imagine if a pencil was the only way of getting words onto a page. Now imagine that you had difficulty in holding that pencil. Getting the words on paper to keep up with the stream of thoughts in your mind would require you to radically change your mode of writing. For children with motion-restrictive conditions, such as ALS and muscular dystrophy, overcoming this wall between thought and creative expression is a daily effort. But in recent years, the same advances in technology that granted new abilities and capacity to everyone, have proven particularly useful to special needs children.

Technology’s tide lifts all boats

Often, digital tool advances that are intended for and beneficial to the general public, end up having a significant positive impact for those with specific physical requirements. For example, before becoming an indispensable accessibility feature, speech recognition was first developed for automated phone systems. In 1952, Bell Labs invented “Audrey,” – recognition that was only capable of understanding spoken numbers. Over time, what was once an expensive specialty product worked its way into almost every computing device available, including smartwatches. Now, instead of straining to hit individual keys, children with motion-restrictive conditions can simply speak to a device and see editable words appear on a screen

The classroom and beyond

The advent of the Internet, combined with increasingly miniaturized devices, means that special needs can be met for many applications in a wide variety of contexts. The amount of time required to put words to a page, once limited how deeply students with mobility impairment could participate in classroom activities and assignments. But with speech input, the length and detail of expression have moved far beyond previous restrictions. And these advantages are not just applicable in the classroom. Jenny Parkes, a student at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology set up a custom recognition system. It allows her two younger brothers, Joe and Ben, both living with muscular dystrophy, to be avid users of Facebook and Skype, texting and chatting with friends and family all over the world.

Always at your side

As our lives become increasingly filled with opportunities to connect with friends, find jobs, and share creative vision online, open access to these tools becomes more and more important. The same evolutionary steps that have made this technology convenient for all of us to use are particularly empowering for children with special needs. The earliest home computers required a wall outlet and a physical keyboard. Use was thereby limited for individuals with mobility challenges. As the technology miniaturized and ran off of battery power –first in notebook computers and eventually in tablets, phones, and watches– it was able to fit more easily into our lives. Nowadays, checking your email no longer requires a desk, power outlet, and phone line. You simply reach into your pocket or raise your wrist and tap a customizable keyboard.

For people who need to benefit from text input that approaches an “always on” functionality, the advances of speech recognition for smartwatches are especially empowering. Many smartwatches employ active motion gestures –triggered by an accelerometer– to enter input mode. So, not only is the device always within arm’s reach, but all that is needed to activate text dictation or voice commands is to lift the wrist and speak to a keyword. In years’ past, there was a much bigger wall holding back the potential for creativity, learning, and communication for children living with motion-restrictive conditions. Today,  portable touch-screens in phones and even wristwatches change everything, opening up a whole new world of opportunities.

 

Blog: By Leigh Marcos

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