Donate Your Voice Recordings for AAC Users
It is the giving season and I know it has been a financially straining year for many people. If you would like to give back but do not have the funds to do so, donating your voice is a wonderful option to help make a positive difference, especially for someone like me whose trauma prevents her from donating blood. If you don’t have that problem, then donate your blood AND your voice recordings! In the past few days, I have started recording my voice so VocaliD can use it to help create an authentic voice for a person who uses a speech generating AAC device to talk. My practice, Accessible-Speech Language Pathology PLLC, is hosting a virtual voice drive to inspire others to donate their voice recordings too.
This is my voice being recorded saying the sentence in blue
What is a speech generating AAC device?
An Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) device is what people who have difficulty verbally expressing themselves use to communicate. There all a variety of AAC devices ranging from a communication board printed and laminated to a speech generating device, for example, an iPad with AAC software like Proloquo2go installed on it where the person using it may select different buttons or icons on the screen(s) to create phrases or sentences and the iPad would then say the message aloud. Stephen Hawking was a prominent AAC user and he used a speech generating device to communicate his thoughts.
Who uses speech generating AAC devices?
People who have difficulty communicating verbally may use a speech generating AAC device to communicate. People of all ages use speech generating AAC devices. Some speech generating device users have difficulty functionally communicating verbally since birth/early childhood and other speech generating device users may have communicated verbally earlier in life and now use a speech generating device due to an accident, progressive disease or an acquired disorder. Stephen Hawking used a speech generating device because of a progressive neurological disease called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Other people may use speech generating devices because they have Apraxia of Speech, Autism Spectrum Disorder, a developmental disability, Aphasia, Traumatic Brain Injury, and/or Dysarthria, just to name a few reasons.
Why should I donate my voice?
Rapel Patel speech scientist and founder of VocaliD says, “Millions of people rely on synthetic speech to communicate everyday. Yet, they’re given a limited set of generic, robotic sounding voices. Voices that don’t fit their body or personality.” Voices are a part of our identity. If you never met me but spoke to me on the phone, in just a few words you would likely deduce that I am a young woman from New York. Our voice showcases our age group, region we come from, our physical size, our gender identity etc. and our vocal output expresses our emotion, thoughts and ideas. If you donate your voice, vocaliD can mix your vocal recordings with the vocal recordings of an AAC user to create a custom voice for the AAC user.
How can I donate my voice?
Register here and then record your voice reading 500-1,000 sentences aloud in a quiet room using a computer and headset. You do not need to record all of the sentences in one sitting, you can save your progress and return to where you left off whenever you want. For tips on taking care of your voice and keeping it donation ready, read my other blog post on vocal care. Thank you for joining the voice donor drive!