Speech Accessibility Project Now Recruiting in Canada

Author: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Published: 2024/10/19
Publication Type: Announcement
Topic: Canada - Publications List

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main

Synopsis: The Speech Accessibility Project is now recruiting Canadian adults with Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Down syndrome and people who have had a stroke.

Why it matters: The Speech Accessibility Project article highlights a collaborative effort to improve speech recognition technology for individuals with diverse speech patterns and disabilities. This initiative, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and supported by major tech companies, aims to create a dataset of speech samples from people with various conditions affecting speech. By addressing the current limitations of voice recognition systems, this project has the potential to enhance digital accessibility and inclusivity for millions of users worldwide, making it a valuable contribution to both technology development and social equity in the digital age - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

The project is now recruiting Canadian adults with Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Down syndrome and those who have had a stroke. Funded by Big Tech companies Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is using the project to train voice recognition technologies to understand people with diverse speech patterns and disabilities. The project is also recruiting adults in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Main Item

"The accessibility community in Canada has been an inspiration to me because of their consistent, positive, enthusiastic support for one another," said Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois and the project's leader. "People in Canada with Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome have been reaching out to us since the beginning of the Speech Accessibility Project. I'm very happy that we are finally able to invite them to participate in the projects."

The project has collected more than 400,000 recordings. Its collaborators also recently published their first peer-reviewed paper. They used recordings from participants with Parkinson's disease to make an automatic speech recognizer 30% more accurate.

The project is also sharing data with several other organizations that have signed off on the project's data use agreement.

One of the project's many partners, LSVT Global, is recruiting Canadian adults with Parkinson's, (including those with related neurological conditions like MSA, PSP, CBD, and post-DBS).

"With more than 100,000 individuals with Parkinson's disease in Canada, we are eager to invite these individuals to contribute their speech to this significant project," said LSVT Global co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Lorraine Ramig. "They too will share in the satisfaction of improving automatic speech recognition and thus quality of life for Parkinson's disease."

Interested in joining the project? Sign up online.

Related Information

• Speech Accessibility Project Now Recruiting People With ALS: The Speech Accessibility Project has expanded its recruitment and is inviting U.S. and Puerto Rican adults living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to participate.
• Parkinson's Disease Speech Accessibility Project Now Recruiting: The Parkinson's speech accessibility project needs participants, especially those with related neurological conditions like MSA, PSP, CBD, and those who are post-DBS.
• Speech Accessibility Project Now Recruiting Adults With Down Syndrome: The Speech Accessibility Project is now recruiting U.S. adults with Down syndrome with the aim to make voice recognition technology more useful for people with diverse speech patterns and different disabilities.
• Speech Accessibility Project Recruiting People Who Have Had a Stroke: The Speech Accessibility Project has begun recruiting U.S. and Puerto Rican adults who have had a stroke. Those interested can sign up online.

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and published on 2024/10/19, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity. For further details or clarifications, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology can be contacted at beckman.illinois.edu NOTE: Disabled World does not provide any warranties or endorsements related to this article.