Researchers Create Mobile App That Gives Voice to People with Communications Challenges From: University of Toronto - 04/06/2011 By: Laurie Stephens Researchers at the University of Toronto's Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab (TAGlab) have developed MyVoice, a mobile application and server system that gives users with speech impairments the ability to speak by tapping words and pictures on a screen. "MyVoice will help to increase communication confidence, participation and independence," says Toronto researcher Alexandra Carling-Rowland. MyVoice is the first system to incorporate location-aware vocabulary that suggests useful words and phrases based on the user's location. "This is an excellent example of how university research makes a direct and positive impact on the challenges that face people around the world," says Toronto professor Paul Young. MyVoice got funding from Google, Android, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, as well as requests to test the technology from institutions, collaborators, and school boards. "More than 90 percent of people with communication challenges use primitive communication aids, or no aids at all," says TAGlab's Alexander Levy. "MyVoice will always be accessible to anyone with a communication challenge." Read the entire article at: http://www.research.utoronto.ca/stories/u-of-t-researchers-create-mobile-app-that-gives-voice-to-people-with-communications-challenges/ Links: TAGlab http://taglab.utoronto.ca/ Alexandra Carling-Rowland http://www.hctp.utoronto.ca/PeopleFellowDetails.asp?pRid=74 MyVoice http://www.myvoiceaac.com