Adults with cerebral palsy are often left out of the discussion of this condition that affects people from childhood through their entire lives. Now, researchers need adults living with cerebral palsy to contribute to an important project. The project is part of an effort to use voice recordings to train voice recognition technology. This technology will help improve communication for individuals of all ages and with various speech disorders.
Cerebral Palsy and Speech Disorders
Cerebral palsy is the most common movement and motor disorder of childhood. It is not progressive, but it is also incurable, which means that children with cerebral palsy become adults with cerebral palsy. Many continue to struggle with symptoms and associated disorders, including issues with speech.
Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition that affects muscles throughout the body. When muscles associated with speech are affected, speech may be difficult. Speech therapy for children helps, but some adults still struggle with being understood.
The Speech Accessibility Project
Tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, along with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), are funding the Speech Accessibility Project. The project aims to collect voice recordings from adults with speech difficulties.
These recordings then go to the tech companies, which, along with non-profits and other companies, will use them to develop better speech recognition software. These companies and groups will protect the privacy of the participants involved.
The project has already shared over 100,000 recordings with the tech companies but needs more. UIUC is facilitating the project and recruiting adults with cerebral palsy to participate. It has previously recruited and recorded the speech of participants with Parkinson’s disease, Down syndrome, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A diversity of voices and speech patterns are essential for making a better tech product.
Improving Quality of Life
Ultimately, the goal of the project is to improve communication and, therefore, quality of life for people living with speech challenges. This includes adults with cerebral palsy but also people of all ages and with all types of conditions.
The project began with just 18 people with cerebral palsy in 2008 who made recordings in Urbana-Champaign. Until the current project, it was the largest database of recordings of people with dysarthria and difficulty speaking due to muscle issues. That project has already helped improve speech recognition in technology four-fold.
The additional recordings being made now will only improve the tech even more. The hope is that any apps developed through the use of the recordings will have been trained on hundreds of cerebral palsy voices and will be more accurate than ever. This will help people who struggle to be heard make themselves understood in a variety of settings.
If you are an adult living with cerebral palsy, you could be a part of this exciting and important project. The Speech Accessibility Project is actively recruiting. You can get more information here.
