Multimodal access to written communication

grantor: University of TorontoMany children and young adults who are severely physically disabled and functionally non-speaking use scanning techniques to control computers. Access to written and face-to-face communication using scanning is frequently far too slow to meet functional requirements. This study investigated whether combining speech recognition with scanning can increase the rate of computer input for these individuals. The study compared two access techniques: traditional scanning and scanning combined with speech recognition. Analysis of the performance of eight children and young adults, who employed scanning as a computer access means, was used to determine the relative input rate and accuracy of the two techniques. A significant increase in items entered per minute was found when comparing access through scanning combined with voice recognition versus access through scanning alone. No significant differences in accuracy were evident.M.A