Text to speak...

[Wendi]

I am interested in gadgets that will help me communicate as my speech is unintelligible now.

There seem to be so many, some via the computer, some pocket size, even some of the latest
phones will speak, I hear.

Or maybe I just use pen and paper.

Any suggestions? THX

 

[joelc]

Have you been in touch with your local ALS Association?
They usually have an equipment loan closet and can provide all you need.

First thing to do is to be in contact with your OT as they are the ones that usually make the recommendation for equipment.

And you are correct, there are lots of devices that will work, your OT can help narrow the list down.

 

[Ellamay]

In BC our speech therapist was able to request a Dynawriter for my husband thru the ALS society. It did take awhile to receive it but now that he has it we are communicating better.

 

[Peg B]

Hi,

For a free text to speech program try readplease.com and click on DOWNLOAD for Readplease 2003 the free version. It will also load a more recent version (30 day demo) but you can keep the free version forever. It will speak in a computer voice anything you write into it. If you are able to use the computer you can use this.

I used it with many students so they could do some proofreading of their own papers even though they had difficulty reading and writing. Best Wishes, Peg

 

[Jennifer51]

Thanks for that link it is one I had not found...do a search on this dorum and you will find more.
The best (for me) I have found is ETRILOQUIST ....... free and very easy to use, add and save your own text or voice messages. another free one to read any text including reading out webpages and emails to others..beats asking someone to come and look over your shoulder to show someone something you may have found is...NATURAL READERS...the personal version is free. Both come with standard voices but you can add your own paid voice if you want to. I also had an IPAQ handheld computer which is small and lights up when in use, I find that usefull when I go to bed and husband speaks to me. No voice but it lights up the notepad so we can see in the dark. If you have a nintendo ds lite, there is also a message send part to that. Of course most of these things require some usefull use of hands and fingers, but at least with the ones downloaded onto a small computer (I have a 10 inch netbook) you can add other programmes like eyegaze. Please try whatever they have on loan, I tried the litewriter and wonder how on earth they charge so much for it, if you were to buy one. They have a place but I personally did not like it, some people love them.

 

[dsiple]

Plan for the future

I would take into consideration the methods of inputting data into what ever type of device you decide to get. For me, it was very simple since I had no use of my hands when I got my DynaVox. Also, Medicare will not pay for a laptop, since it is technically a computer, personally I think they should because the cost of a good laptop is a fraction of what a DynaVox Vmax costs, and you can purchase the software for about $45.00 to unlock your device giving you access to MS Windows anyway, so why go to the added expense?

My DynaVox has even given me the ability and freedom to work from home testing software for a company in Philly. It is nice feeling that you have some worth and are a contributing member of the work force again.

 

[JamesMcC]

ETRILOQUIST I found is good too and is FREE!
Thanks
James

 

[Jennifer51]

Hey James glad you also like it. I had a small quetion for them and they were fast and helpfull in their reply. I sent them an email saying how pleased I was with their product and the service...NIce to give some praise sometimes, and they thanked me for the feedback....and all for nothing...deserves some praise and thanks.

 

[JamesMcC]

I dont use it yet and hopefully never lol.But its great that they give it free.Saves a lot of money for some people.
James

 

[Wendi]

Thank you!

Thank you everyone for your replies.
My head was spinning from all the info I had about these things, so good to hear what you think is best. I have contacted my OT and will see what she recommends first and go from there. :-D

 

[asantiago]

Here is a good site to help you evaluate a couple different options. http://living-with-als.org/equipment/speech/speech.html My best advice would be to try to think long term. If your insurance would approve something like the Erica device I would try for that because ultimately it will be the device you could use the longest. The MDA may have a device for you that you can have for free to use. I would start there for your immediate need but look into getting yourself something new that fits your needs the best. The devices from the MDA can be outdated there is so much new technology out there and if you have insurance it would be good to get one of your own, the more devices available for ALS patients the better.

 

[JamesMcC]

Can anyone give mean idea on what devices are covered by Medicare and their opinions on the best device .Thankyou
James

 

[trfogey]

I am interested in gadgets that will help me communicate as my speech is unintelligible now.

There seem to be so many, some via the computer, some pocket size, even some of the latest
phones will speak, I hear.

Or maybe I just use pen and paper.

Any suggestions? THX

Hi, Wendi.

If you still have good use of your hands, there are a lot of text-to-speech options available to you using laptop computers or tablet computers. If you can give us some more details about what kind of computers you have available to you, I'll be glad to give you some alternatives to help you get by until you get a more specialized device.

 

[Wendi]

thanks everyone

Thanks!
I have a laptop, a mac MacBook. My son is pretty handy figuring out stuff but I do need to know what is available.

 

[trfogey]

Thanks!
I have a laptop, a mac MacBook. My son is pretty handy figuring out stuff but I do need to know what is available.

Ouch, I'm not a Mac expert. From what I've seen on other forums, the text-to-speech software of choice for Mac seems to be Proloquo by a company called AssistiveWare. The price is a little steeper than I had hoped (about US$300).

However, I did find the following on the Apple accessibility website:

Text to Speech

If you don’t use a screen reader but have trouble reading text on your computer screen, you can have your Mac “speak” the text you select. To turn Text to Speech on, open System Preferences, click Speech, then open the Text to Speech pane. You can even set up a keyboard shortcut to initiate Speech.

As an alternative, you can select text you want your Mac to speak, then choose Speech from the application’s Services menu.

I don't know how the default Mac voice sounds, but it looks like the alternative method above might get you started with text-to-speech until we can dig up a Mac expert around here. Maybe you could type what you want to say in a text editor or word processor and use Services --> Speech option to read it out.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you. I'm a PC/Windows/Linux guy and have done a lot of research on text-to-speech systems for those platforms. Never had a Mac, so I'm a clueless newbie on them.