Speak for Yourself Selects Acapela's Children's Voices
Assistive technologies specialist Speak for Yourself has added Acapela Group's children's voices to its voice application that turns the iPad into a communication device for people who cannot accomunicate for themselves. Young users will now be able to use the application with voices that sound their age rather than adult voices.
The Speak for Yourself application is used by thousands of people with autism, cerebral palsy, apraxia, and genetic syndromes. It is also being used in preschool classrooms to promote word-finding, visual language support, and verbal speech development.
The Acapela children's voices are available in U.S., U.K., and Australian English, bilingual U.S. English and Spanish, and German, with new languages to come. They have been recorded by and for children and offer both girls' and boys' voices.
"Speak for Yourself has the capability to begin with one word but contains almost 11,000 Smarty Symbols and allows the user the potential to access 14,000 words, with no more than two touches to say a word. Complex page navigation and scanning are eliminated to allow fast, consistent access to language," said Heidi LoStracco, who, along with Renee Collender, owns and created Speak for Yourself, in a statement. "Children's voices from Acapela will bring an additional layer of naturalness and spontaneity to the vocal interface and reinforce the communication process for children and the people around them by giving them a more authentic, age-appropriate voice.'
'We are very happy to become part of Speak For Yourself offer. The children's voices are a milestone in the industry. With over 2,500 hours of research, recording, processing, and development, the genuine children's voices are now helping kids around the world communicate with a voice that sounds their age, and at Acapela we are all very proud of that," said& Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group, in a statement.
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