Ramsey is an adult with Cerebral Palsy who is participating in a pilot with BridgingApps to try out Voiceitt, a new app that helps people with speech disabilities, disorders, or impairments, like Ramsey, communicate successfully with unfamiliar listeners.
Ramsey, with the help of her sister, Kim, has been “teaching” Voiceitt to understand her speech and then speak for her to people who are not familiar with her speech patterns. For example, she has trained the phrase, “I have gotten separated from my companion” in case this happens when she and her sister are out in public. To activate this phrase, Ramsey taps the “Talk” button in the Voiceitt app and says, “Separated”. Voiceitt then speaks the entire phrase, “I have gotten separated from my companion” for Ramsey. This app has the potential to benefit Ramsey and other smartphone users like her. Besides assisting in conversational speech, Voiceitt also works with Alexa enabled smart home devices to help users control their environments more easily. As Ramsey has gotten more comfortable with using Voiceitt, she has started telling her friends about it; recently she even demonstrated how the Voiceitt app works during a Zoom call.
In the video below, Ramsey and Kim demonstrate some of the phrases that they have trained Voiceitt to say so far and even how they got creative with answers to a common basic question. Click the image below to view the video and to find out how Voiceitt might help you or someone you care about, visit www.voiceitt.com. The Voiceitt app is scheduled to be available for purchase in the App Store on February 28, 2021.