Voice banking and model talker

[Samkl]

My brother has started the process of voice banking, but the model talker program doesn’t seem to like the Australian accent. He has to keep repeating over and over again each sentence to get the orange approval light (much less the green approval light!). Has anybody had this issue?

 

[lgelb]

From the ModelTalker docs: Please be advised that the ModelTalker speech synthesis system is optimized for an American dialect of English. This has to do with the mapping of phoneme transcriptions to speech sounds, which differ among dialects. We have had mixed results with other accents in the past, so we cannot guarantee a good outcome.

Your brother may wish to record messages for family members, first off, and check with Aussie AT experts on any options that aren't global. He can also still record key phrases of love, requests, etc. as separate sound files and use them later as clickable files using keyboard/eye gaze/head mouse clicks or dwell clicks.

 

[Samkl]

Thanks for that. What do you mean by AT?

 

[Nikki J]

Assistive technology. Maybe they call it something else but there should be a resource through his clinic that helps people get started with voice banking and eye gaze. It isn’t always at the clinic. Here in Boston they send us to Children’s Hospital oddly enough where there is an excellent program

 

[Samkl]

Thanks Nikki. He is being directed by the speech pathologist who is part of the multi disciplinary ALS team. I suppose if there was an Australian program they would have steered him that way.

 

[Nikki J]

The people at Children’s are speech therapists as we call them. his speech person should be able to direct him to what works with an Aussie voice.

 

[Samkl]

She has suggested once you get an orange light move on, don’t go over and over trying to perfect a sentence. But I will ask him to check with her re other programs that may be better suited to an Aussie accent. Thanks Nikki and Laurie.

 

[affected]

Nikki we call them speech pathologists but they are the same as a speech therapist

Can't help Samkl as my husband was bulbar onset so the first thing was people asking him at his cafe in the mornings if he was drinking behind the shop

 

[Nikki J]

Yes I know they are the same. I didn’t phrase it clearly