On Mon, 2012-06-25 at 22:59 -0500, meg ford wrote: > Hi, > > I am writing on behalf of my brother, Joseph. Joe was born with severe > spastic-athetoid cerebral palsy. Joe grew up at home with the rest of > my seven siblings and myself in the severe poverty in inner city in > Chicago. Because my family has always believed in the tenet of least > restrictive environment, Joe attended mainstream schools and > eventually graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Harvard University. > He is currently completing his PhD in Political Science at the > University of Chicago. > > It has taken a lot of very hard work on Joe's part to get where he is > today. Because Joe is not physically able to write, it will not be > possible for him to seek employment after he finishes his PhD. Over > the years Joe has participated in various studies in an effort to find > speech recognition software that can adjust to his significant > fluctuations in muscle tone. Here is the reason I am writing, in Joe's > own words: > > "I have dysarthria -- it matters that I have spastic - athetoid > cerebral palsy. The researcher in Boston said that this is ideal > because the researcher needs persons with spasticity for muscle tone > and with athetosis for intelligence level. I tried the different > versions of Dragon. I tried one of them for an extended period of time > -- they didn't work at all. In Boston I participated in a study of > speech but they didn't actually try to design a program. The head of > the study wanted to try to find someone at MIT but that did not work > out. Then I participated in a study at University of Illinois > Champaign in which they were actively trying to design individualized > software for people with dysarthria. The software didn't work and then > I think they moved on to other things. I might be able to get my > speech samples from at least the U of I and / or to figure out how to > give new samples. I know that U of I had some strange video component > to their grant / research -- I think they videotaped me, but I don't > remember for certain. All these people stressed that any software > would have to be designed for me particularly -- for any person with > dysarthria, individually, actually -- at least for now." > > > Joe is wondering if anyone knows of a FLOSS project that is producing > software that could be adapted for his needs, or of research that is > being done in this area. We would appreciate any and all information > in this regard. > > Thanks very much for your time and patience. > Sincerely, > Meg Ford
Not sure if this is useful, but there is an effort to collect voice samples for use in speech-to-text engines. Voxforge.org I have no idea how active or successful the project is. Bryen _______________________________________________ gnome-accessibility-list mailing list gnome-accessibility-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list
